One things that increases comfort onboard is power – the ability to run that washing machine we bought, to have hot water from our water heater, to cook on an induction cookplate instead of using the propane. There are also essential uses for power – to run our autopilot, to run our electric furling mast and foresail, and also the windlass. So we have been considering upgrading our lithium battery power from the current 4 x 40Ah (160 Ah).
Since Lithium works differently than traditional lead batteries, there are lots of things to consider. Do we need to change out the alternator on the engine? Do we have space for larger / more batteries? We already know that we may need to replace cables, and our Battery Management System will have to be updated for any new batteries. After watching one of our favorite YouTubers (Aladino & Maya from Sailing Magic Carpet) build little cardboard mock batteries to test battery installation space, we built a cardboard test battery this weekend and tried fitting it into various spaces on the boat.
The Lithium battery market is developing and batteries are getting more efficient / you can pack more capacity into smaller spaces; so we may also wait a while before purchasing new batteries and see what is available in the spring. We also need more solar power to charge those batteries, and we need to install the inverter we bought to be able to run things that draw more power. So stay tuned, lots more to come!