Batteries in living quarters

[PascalG]

this was discussed last month incl. this quote :

"ABYC 10.7.5 Batteries shall not be installed, without a intervening barrier, directly below electrical equipment susceptible to attack from corrosive gasses.

ABYC 10.7.9 A vent system or other means shall be provided to permit the discharge from the boat of hydrogen gas released by the battery.

Gary
Sound Marine Survey"

well, I have a question...

I'm assisting a buyer and one of the post purchase projects will be installing a 3KW inverter with a dedicated bank. Only practical spot to install the inverter and bank is under a berth. I'm not too crazy about batteries in living quarters but we have no choice and the boat already has gels under the berth of another stateroom.

We're probably going to use Gels (6 8Ds). I discussed that with the surveyor on friday and he said Gels are fine in that location.

he also said that we didn't have to use battery boxes if space was an issue, terminal cover woudl be just fine.

havent' talked to the yard or installer yet but i'd like to hear from our resident surveyors

-do we need to vent that space if using gels?
-do we have to use battery boxes or will terminal covers indeed be enough to meet ABYC standards?
-how much gassing will gels generate while charging? I'm concerned about gases with the non ignition protected inverter. In that case battery boxes with a vented cover might be needed.
-woudl AGMs be better in this application, do they produce less gas than gels?

for safety's sake, we will install the battery switch so that it is accessible from the outside of the compartment and will also install a small bottle of FC227 (the non toxic kind) in there. I'm also going to look into ventilation for the inverter...

 

[Al_Prisco]

Pascal, I would box and vent them. You can never be to safe.

 

[rommer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Al_Prisco

You can never be to safe.

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Some people on this forum will debate that with you Al. I'm not one of them thou!

 

[David M]

What Al said. Also, I would use AGM's v. Gels. Just a better battery all around IMO.

 

[Sea Gull]

6 8D batteries! Holly cow! That must be some boat...and some huge electrical need. Almost 1000 lbs of battery. I'd love to hear what the guy plans to power and for how long.

 

[PascalG]

well, i have 8 golf cart batteries on my own boat as an inverter bank... plus 4 used for house (pumps, etc...). 8 Golf Cart batteries give me 880AH at 12v or about 24 hours autonomy before a 4 hours charge on genny.

with AC refrigeration (house hold fridge/freezer) that's what it takes.

The buyer i'm helping out has similar plans: being able to stay on the hook without running the genny 24/7. once you get over 50' or so, weight isn't a huge issue... I hope we can go with 4 8Ds in this case, after all to put things into perspective that's only the weight of a 3 adults.

 

[DLL]

Like Al says:

8 Lifeline golf cart AGMs for the inverter. We asked Freedom (whoever) how many batteries it would take so we can run the Air Conditioner all night. They said 8. Also I run my Ventilator and Oxygen Concentrator. I did not want the genset running all night.

4 wet golf cart batteries for the house batteries.

An 8D for each CAT engine

2 Lifeline series 31 AGMs for the bow thruster.

An AGM (Lifeline)for the genset.

If I had the extra bucks I would have AGMs everywhere.

My surveryor wrote me up for having 4 wet golf cart batteries under the inverter. We replaced those 4 with AGMs and the write up went away.