Boat Power. I think any boat owner can agree this may take up most of our thoughts regarding our boat, from waking to sleeping. I remember when I got my boat, I only had 2 solar panels (that weren’t working) and 800ah of 12v golf cart batteries. I was terrified to touch a tiny 12V 18 AWG wire, so forget thinking that I could understand watts coming in, how watts relate to amp hours (what are those exactly? haha), and how that relates to voltage. I was LOST when it came to power on the boat. I did know what voltage the batteries should be at before I could make water and I knew I needed to turn off the inverter before bed, and couldn’t leave lights on at night if I wanted the fans to run.
These memories seem like another world now; between the new technology and my increased knowledge/experience on this subject. I still watch my batteries like a hawk and know what percent they need to be at while calculating what I can and can’t run on my boat on certain days, but my stress level has gone down significantly. I went into year 2 of boat ownership with new lithium batteries, but unfortunately, this company didn’t work out and I lost all 3 batteries within months.
I had heard nothing but amazing things about Battle Born batteries and took the leap of faith and partnered with them for a new inverter and 1080 aH of lithium batteries. I had just added more solar, 1600 W total now and I was going to have 1080 Ah of batteries and my inverter would be able to handle things like my water heater, air conditioning, and air fryer oven!! My excitement level was through the roof. I had to rewire a lot of the boat to fit all these batteries, but it has been so worth it and changed my life. At the moment, my biggest problem is making sure I use my power every day!
The ordering and conversion process was a little overwhelming at the beginning, especially having to ship to a country outside of the United States, but Battle Born and their customer service were a dream throughout the entire process. I could call them with any concerns or questions and they always led me to the right solution. Learning lithium batteries is a bit of a curve, you have more usable power, but you also have to make sure they equalize and are being taken care of properly. After you learn your power input and consumption, monitoring the batteries becomes one of the easiest things. I’ve never come close to a blackout and know that I could go through days of clouds and still have plenty of power to run my boat.
If you are looking to refit your boat or change out your batteries, I highly recommend checking out Battleborn with the link below.