Alpenglow Lights

by Phyllis January 1, 2005

Before spending the winter in Arctic Norway, knowing we would be spending a lot of time below on the boat during the winter darktime, we replaced our old dim, inefficient overhead lights with Alpenglow fluorescents. What a difference! They give off a warm natural light and are beautifully designed and built. Not cheap but worth [...]

Lifeline Batteries

by Phyllis January 1, 2005

We purchased two Lifeline batteries in 2001. After only two years, one of the batteries failed. We contacted Lifeline, told them our charging and use patterns, and they sent us two new batteries at no cost to us—they even paid the shipping—and with no arguments. That’s standing behind your product!

Self-Sufficiency In Power

by Colin September 1, 2008
A Superwind wind generator and solar panels on an OVNI 435 aluminum sailboat.

When we were planning our new boat, one of the first aspects we discussed was our preferences for power generation, and our desire to have as much “free” energy input as possible. There were three reasons for this: our desire to avoid the complexity of a diesel generator; our own commitment to renewable power after [...]

Electrical Systems And Aluminum Boats

by Colin November 1, 2008
Electronic panels on an OVNI 435 aluminum sailboat.

All of the yachts I have sailed over the last 20 years have been simple boats with fairly minimal electrical equipment. Not one of them (even up to 80ft) had an autopilot—sail training vessels often don’t, as they are set up to be sailed “handraulically” as we say over here.

Peace At Last?

by Colin May 3, 2010

Readers of my previous post on the subject will be aware that we try to generate as much power as possible via renewable resources – wind and solar. This is driven by a desire to keep the boat as simple as possible, and to avoid the need to run our engine at rest for charging [...]

AGM Battery Test–Part 1

by John August 2, 2010
Lifeline AGM Battery

About eight years ago, we switched to Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries on Morgan’s Cloud, to get the following benefits over traditional liquid filled lead acid batteries:

AGM Battery Test–Part 2

by John August 10, 2010
Lifeline AGM Battery

In the last post we wrote about the very poor service life that we have been getting from AGM batteries on Morgan’s Cloud—typically just a year or so. Justin Gobar at Lifeline, who provided us with new batteries, is advising us on how to care for them. Put broadly, there are four ways that will [...]

Our Inverter/Charger Saga

by John August 28, 2010
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In part one and two of this series on the care and feeding of batteries on a live-aboard voyaging boat, we talked about what batteries need for a long life. In the next few posts we will move on to how to actually get those battery needs met. We now have a fair, but certainly [...]

We’re Just Trying To Charge Our Batteries Here

by John September 4, 2010
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As I wrote in the first post in this series on the care and feeding of batteries, and particularly AGM batteries, on voyaging live-aboard sailboats, charging them properly is complicated by the fact that some, perhaps most, battery chargers are, despite the claims made for them, not capable of charging any battery properly. Or at [...]

Charging AGM Batteries With An Alternator

by John September 18, 2010
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So far in this series we have been writing about charging AGM batteries using AC chargers powered from shore-power or a generator. But on a cruising sailboat the batteries will likely be charged far more often by an alternator on the main engine, particularly if the boat does not have a generator.

Equalizing Batteries, The Reality

by John October 5, 2010
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As we have discussed in previous posts in this series, fully charging your batteries after each discharge on a live-aboard cruising sailboat is simply not practical. Instead, most of us will cycle our batteries between 50 and 80% of their capacity. The bad news is that this will, as we on Morgan’s Cloud have found [...]

AGM Battery Test, Six Month Report Card

by John January 13, 2011

Six months ago, we started a test of AGM batteries from LifeLine to see if, by implementing recommendations from that manufacturer, we could solve the problem of short life that we, and many other live aboard voyagers, have experienced with AGM, and in fact all, lead acid batteries. It’s still early days. But on the [...]

Eleven Steps to Better Battery Life

by John February 10, 2011
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Eight months ago we replaced our house battery bank for the third time in four years. Concurrently we started a project to improve the life of those batteries—like anyone would after going through the kind of coin we have replacing batteries! A month ago we reported that our new batteries—generously provided for free by voyage [...]

Mixing Battery Sizes In One Bank

by John October 3, 2011
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Question: Due to space considerations I want to use  two 105 amp hour and two 150 amp hour batteries as a house battery bank. Would this arrangement be detrimental to the smaller batteries?

AGM Battery Test, 18 Month Report Card

by John January 29, 2012
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A year and a half ago we installed a new house-bank on Morgan’s Cloud, and embarked on a field test of AGM batteries and the care regime that Justin Godber at LifeLine Batteries helped us develop. We now have some solid results.