Battery Life 8D AGM's no maintenance house
Hello Friends

I found out my house batteries were spent - they are only 6 years old, and lightly used - the man I bought the bought from hardly used her. I believe he had the boat plugged into the dock and the Heart Inverter/Rectifier on 24/7. Anyway, these batteries are not inexpensive, and big, etc. so I would like to get as much life as possible out of them. The yard says my charging equipment (alternator on engine and the Heart system) have charging profiles that are not optimized for the batteries. I am not sure he even looked into the alternator, he was giving me the stock answer on the stock Yanmar alternator, but I do know the alternator on the boat was an oversized special, not the Yanmar standard. I can get into the details - I would expect I could add a circuit on the output of the alternator to modify the charging profile, but the Heart might not be so easy. In the end, if I am not drawing the batteries way down, I wonder how much the charging profile is going to hurt my life (and for the two years I have owned the boat, I have not drawn the batteries way down at all). I do not run the autopilot for long periods, nor any other heavy drawing gear as a rule while underway.

I am planning on adding a portable small output solar charging system to handle longer cruises, along with standard means of watching power use, running the diesel if needed, etc.

I am wondering what advice anyone out there might have to increase the life of my batteries, given either my current usage, or my future plans? Any input would be great -

Thanks, and fair winds -

Geoff
Corazon 411 #41