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360SS Electrical Upgrade

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Topic author United States of America
Alanna Mo Cree
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Posts: 79
Joined: February 5th, 2022, 10:45 pm
Vessel Info: 2003 360 Sport Sedan
Twin 8.1Gi Volvo Penta FWC
Location: Sanford, Florida
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Re: 360SS Electrical Upgrade

Postby Alanna Mo Cree » March 1st, 2025, 3:09 pm

KyleR wrote:Source of the post I don't have a lot of experience with gas engines, but from all my research about my Cummins diesels, the alternator drive system on a 370HP 6BTA will not support driving an alternator output above about 60-70 AMP’s at 700 Idle RPM, or much above 180- 200 AMP at 1500 RPM.

Again, I realize this is for my diesels, and gassers are a whole different animal, but it seems wild that they could drive a 7KW alternator.

We settled on 9KW alternators. These are still about 180 amps, but they are 48 volts. While it sounds cool to say 9KW, the reality is I expect they will more often be outputting about 4KW given our typical cruise at about 1750 RPM. This would give the alternators about 3500RPM which is around 100 amps according to their power curve.

We're in the yard starting March 17. The estimated time for all of the work we are having done is about 3 weeks.
Charlie & Jennifer
Alanna Mo Cree | Apopka Florida
2003 Carver 360 Sport Sedan
Twin Volvo 8.1Gi
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United States of America
KyleR
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Joined: July 8th, 2022, 10:50 am
Vessel Info: MV Verity
2002 Carver 396
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Re: 360SS Electrical Upgrade

Postby KyleR » March 1st, 2025, 4:11 pm

Gotcha! I missed/forgot the 48V configuration! :-D
MV Verity
2002 Carver 396
Twin Cummins 6BTA 370HP
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Topic author United States of America
Alanna Mo Cree
CYO Supporter
CYO Supporter
Posts: 79
Joined: February 5th, 2022, 10:45 pm
Vessel Info: 2003 360 Sport Sedan
Twin 8.1Gi Volvo Penta FWC
Location: Sanford, Florida
Has thanked: 33 times
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Re: 360SS Electrical Upgrade

Postby Alanna Mo Cree » March 21st, 2025, 11:26 pm

Refit has begun!
PXL_20250320_114827977.MP.jpg


After quite an adventure getting the boat from Sanford to St. Augustine, she is now out of the water and getting an extensive list of projects done. Most are regular maintenance items, a couple of corrective actions, and of course the exciting bit being the electrical upgrades. Until this trip we had mostly only gone a few hours at most. We discovered that neither alternator has been charging along with other electrical issues. I am glad we are doing an extensive upgrade rather than trying to change things out one at a time.

We came up about 20NM short of St. Augustine when the engines started alarming for low power. The Yacht Rigger East sent someone out to meet us where we docked so they could switch out the start batteries for the rest of the trip. When looking at the wiring on the batteries, the electrician's quote was "there is a whole lotta what the hell going on in here."

After walking through the "final" plan (are any plans ever really final) this is the work list for the system.
48v generator replacement system
PXL_20250126_182601611.MP.jpg

  • 2x Arco 48v 9kw alternators with Zeus external regulation replacing...
    PXL_20250126_183742056.MP.jpg
  • Custom built enclosure with blower system for cooling and slight positive pressure to allow install in gasoline engine room
  • Blower suction will come from a vent that looks like the existing galley/head exhaust and located just forward or aft of that vent (the white vent by the steps to go forward)
    PXL_20220823_220603092.jpg
  • Blower exhaust will go to a vent that looks like above on the starboard side
  • 4x 24v 200Ah LiFePO4 batteries (~16kWh usable capacity)
  • Victron Multiplus II for 110v loads and 48v charging from shore power
  • 48v system charges existing 12v AGM house bank (until that bank needs to be replaced and then I can go LiFePO4 by changing the charge profile)
  • 2x Cerbo GX (one for 48v system and one for 12v house bank)
  • 2x Touch GX 70 (one for 48v system and one for 12v house bank)
  • 9k BTU Mabru variable speed air/heat for staterooms
  • 17k BTU Mabru variable speed air/heat for the salon
  • 2x hardwired shore power changed to 2x SmartPlug receptacles with one 25' 30A cord and one 50' 30A cord
  • Gobius tank monitors for the two fuel tanks, fresh water tank, and holding tank

The 12v GX70 will be located forward salon on the starboard side below the air conditioning control panel. The 48v GX70 will be just inside the aft slider above the light switches and will be the main monitoring station. This GX70 will also include the tank monitors.

Everything will be tied in to both my NMEA2000 network and my wifi network. This will allow monitoring from the helm underway (NMEA2000) as well as from home (wifi).

The installation will be featured in promotional material for Victron and The Yacht Rigger, so some promotional considerations have been provided. Everyone here on Carver Yacht Owners will be getting some behind the scenes info as well as the thought process that has gone into this project. Please let me know what details are most interesting and I will be happy to provide whatever information I can.

Why both a 25' and a 50' 30A cord instead of two cords of the same length?
It turns out that we will normally only need to use a single 30A shore power with the new system. My home dock only needs the 25' cord. My plan is to use the 25' cord most of the time, but have the 50' available when needed. The shore power was going to need to be rerouted to the new system, so I'm taking the opportunity to change from the shore power cords being hardwired all the way to the panel to using a SmartPlug system.

Why Gobius tank monitoring?
I was originally intending to go with Maretron, but there were a few reasons we decided to switch to Gobius:
  • Maretron monitors require a Maretron display for configuration which adds to the cost.
  • Gobius monitors integrate with the Cerbo GX so the tanks can be monitored without having the NMEA2000 network powered up.
  • Gobius uses micro radar technology instead of sonar, which is supposed to be faster reading with less lag.
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Charlie & Jennifer
Alanna Mo Cree | Apopka Florida
2003 Carver 360 Sport Sedan
Twin Volvo 8.1Gi
Photo Album
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Topic author United States of America
Alanna Mo Cree
CYO Supporter
CYO Supporter
Posts: 79
Joined: February 5th, 2022, 10:45 pm
Vessel Info: 2003 360 Sport Sedan
Twin 8.1Gi Volvo Penta FWC
Location: Sanford, Florida
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Re: 360SS Electrical Upgrade

Postby Alanna Mo Cree » March 24th, 2025, 4:43 pm

Carverlvr2 wrote:Source of the post I think it’s totally feasible but I’m still struggling to understand just how much battery capacity it really takes to run 1 or all three of the ac units all night. Can you tell me what usage you calculated for just the aircon units? Do the new dc or variable units really reduce that number enough to make switching worth the $$?

I just realized I never addressed this question on air conditioning usage.

The Mabru 9k BTU for the staterooms is rated at 5.2A @ 115V = ~600W. The current 12k BTU stateroom air conditioner draws 8A @ 120V = 960W.

The Mabru 17k BTU for the salon is rated at 9A @ 115V = ~1,000W. The current 16k BTU salon air conditioner draws 12A @ 120V = 1,440W.

Total for both new air conditioners is 1,600W, down from about 2,400W, and we have specified about 16KWh of storage to 80% depth of discharge. If my math is correct, we should have a worst case of 10 hours running both air conditioners at 100%. Practical usage has the goal at about 3 days. I think the real result is going to be somewhere in the middle, which is fine.
Charlie & Jennifer
Alanna Mo Cree | Apopka Florida
2003 Carver 360 Sport Sedan
Twin Volvo 8.1Gi
Photo Album
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Carverlvr2
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Posts: 86
Joined: September 15th, 2024, 10:13 pm
Vessel Info: 2004 Carver 366, VP 8.1’s
1992 Carver 33, Crusader 7.4’s
1979 Searay Sundancer 260
Location: Shelbyville, IL
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Re: 360SS Electrical Upgrade

Postby Carverlvr2 » March 24th, 2025, 9:31 pm

Wow, roughly 30% reduction if the actual cooling capability is equal. There’s a YouTube series called In Too Deep. He just converted his 70’ to a similar hybrid 48v system with 8-100ah, 48v epoch batteries and a charger inverter tied to his existing gen. Says he can run everything except the air for something like 72 hours or everything with the air for 14hrs. So I figure a similar system in a much smaller and more efficient boat could yield 2-3 full days on battery only.

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