Carver Owners Forum

Hi Hans - these batteries are carbon foam and can be operated in partial state of charge and discharged to much lower than one dare operate a flooded lead acid (if the marketing is to be believed). That is how I rationalized the additional cost over standard flooded - I can use less batteries for equivalent usable AH.
I am going to try running them to 20% state of charge and so should be able to get at least 300ah out of them.

We won't be on the hook but for maybe a week or two max per season so I hope this will work. I guess if needs be I could drop three more in the starboard side

Another consideration is that I will likely need to run the genny for cooking/Air conditioning for an hour or so and with the fast charge characteristics and 120a charger, I'm hopeful that will give them a good partial charge once a day.

At least that's the plan

Hans - I see 50a coming off of your DC panel for your inverter. That isn't its only source of DC surely?

What loads are you using on the inverter?

vineyardgray wrote:Qr Bbpost Battery monitor now lives where the old useless Volt meter used to be (Batt 1/Batt2 switch now defunct - just a hole filler at the mo)

IMG_20190927_1737376.jpg

I do like those panels with the indicator lights..

vineyardgray wrote:Qr Bbpost Hans - I see 50a coming off of your DC panel for your inverter. That isn't its only source of DC surely?

What loads are you using on the inverter?

I do not run an inverter, well I do but only a small one the handles entertainment, a single 120v outlet and a few 120v accessories. Had a large inverter a couple of boats ago but prefer without. Too much in trying to get back all the juice one uses unless the marina plug is seen almost every day. Solar all day, generator for breakfast, lunch and supper for me.

I do like those panels with the indicator lights..

They do look cool; the vast majority of mine are burned out long ago on both the AC and DC sides unfortunately.

I have looked at replacing them but they are lower on the priority list. I certainly won't be replacing them with the non-led types that are there - they are 1 watt apeice! That makes maybe a 60 watt load just burning away for "looking cool" lol

When I say burned out - I literally mean burned out. Check out the back side of the panel:

Yea.....I want to do our boat with those but led, types.....we looked at a few Santegos and they all had those indicators, I like that you can glance at the panel to know what is on, maybe the winter project.
The load is a bit high. Can't put a price on cool though,....come on......

Vineyardgray, you can get the same ones in led (and different colors) from the same manufacturer- Solico (Sorenson lighting co). Their around $3 usd a price. Let me know when you ready and I can give you some info on where you can find them in bulk.

Ron - assume you replaced them? The vast majority of mine are burned out - all of the dc are gone - but I really like the subtle neon glow of the 120v units, and I'm afraid that a whole panel of LED's will really blow out my retinas.

Do you have pics?

Not too much more progress to report.

Landed the cables on their places on the charger inverter;