1320Ah

Another marathon day. I started work on the batteries at 6:30 in the morning and finally finished connecting everything up at 6 in the evening. I also included using the old solar panel cables to double up the connection from the batteries up to the control panel to improve efficiency there. I also changed three lugs down in the drive battery areas which needed tools on the boat to do. There are a few things still left to do. I need to put in some cable ties to stop some of the cables flapping around. We also need to build a box for the last two batteries. The ties I’ll probably do today but the box can wait. We need a rest.

During the day I had to go to Island Water World – the nearby marine store – for some additional parts. Even though the previous day they didn’t have the lugs I needed I asked again as I needed another seven. Turned out they had a box load all the time. All that walking around, drilling and filing the previous day was unnecessary. Oh well.

I had a horrible sinking feeling towards the end of the project. Everything powered up ok, it seemed, but when I changed to “Mode 3” which is supposed to fire up the generator, nothing happened. I checked everything I could. No lights were on the motherboard that controls the system. I had a horrible feeling I had screwed something up. Then I remember I had turned off the breakers to the drive batteries when working on them and hadn’t turned them back on. I turned them on and all was ok. Phew.

In the evening we had Jim round for curry. While he was here, Ricardo and his wife Jay turned up to collect the tools he’d lent me and collect the batteries I was giving up in the deal. They stayed awhile and, as he was an avid fisherman, we learned a few local tips. It seems mechanics is in their family. Ricardo is giving his two year old son a 2kW generator on the basis his father gave him one at the same age. That’s the first time I’ve heard of two year olds with their own generator AND it being a family tradition.

Dinner and company was great. Must rest today because we’ll be up late tonight watching the steel band competition.

Oh. And 1320Ah is now the total capacity of our house bank. It’s an insane amount. It just means we have the ability to absorb several battery failures without being adversely impacted. The down side is that it takes forever to fully charge them. I need to fully charge the system to reset the battery monitor. We didn’t succeed last night so we’ll try again this morning while doing another wash.