Electrical upgrades 2024

 Did some 12 volt electrical system upgrades this year. 

The addition of the tiller-pilot's extra power draw also meant the battery storage and solar charging system needed increased efficiency to keep up with increased power demands. 

Installed two LED dome lights in the cabin. One for the forepeak stowage area and another above the galley area. Both lights also have integral "red LED" night-vision switches too. They run cool, very bright and consume about 10% of the power that than the two original incandescent dome lights use.

Forepeak LED dome light

Galley area LED dome light

Galley LED dome, stainless body, ply backing.

Forepeak LED dome, plastic body, ply backing.

The LED dome lights have 10mm plywood backing pads as i didn't want to screw into the cored fiberglass deck (could leak/rot etc). The pads have silastic sealant holding them onto the fibreglass and the dome lights screwed into the plywood.

LED dome lights in red "night vision" mode (old domes still on bulkhead)

Next was the main deep cycle battery replacement. It was 4 years old, but got discharged/damaged while away overseas in 2022. Bought another Century N70T 102 AH flooded lead acid, made in Qld ("Anaconda" on special/ club price) It has 6 separate screw on cell filler caps which are larger and easier to see inside to check plates condition. It's dimensions are a couple cm thinner and a bit longer than the old battery (same height) and it fits into the old spot ok. 

New battery in sailing postion, clamped down.

New battery (top) old one (below)

New battery in shore maintenance position (electrolyte top up)

The solar recharging needed an upgrade, to pump more juice into the battery faster than before. So bought a 40W mono-crystaline solar PV panel from Bunnings. Found a 3m solar power lead with matching fittings at Supercheap auto. Added a watt meter with anderson plugs from Tentworld. 

Re-arranged electrical cabinet

40W solar panel stowage, with power lead

 The core of the system is a kings MPPT 20A solar charge controller from 4WD supercenter. This reletively new (to me) type of controller can output about 50% more juice than the ageing PWM type controller aboard. Once hooked up about 2-3amps at 14 volts were going into the battery at about 2pm (similar performance to my 240v shore power smart-charger on "medium" setting) Not being too electrically minded, hope it does the job.

MPPT solar controller

Solar charging battery

The problem was the MPPT controllers dimensions were reletively huge. Which required an enlargement of ply backing board area inside the electrical cabinet. This inturn required moving the master switch and lenghening/re-doing/ using some heavier sized wires etc.

Learnt how to use my very old multimeter in the process. (Installed a new 9v battery to it got it going again.) Then u-tube tutes to learn it's correct usage. It was needed to re-use/identify/check continuity of some old wires going to the forecabin (they were not color coded correctly. red=positive, black=negative) saved ripping everything out and starting from scratch. Used the old "steaming light" wires, that once went through the deck and lit up on the mast (removed it long ago, as bad for the boat cover tarp chafe), now these wires light up the forepeak LED dome light.

The 3 gang switch/fuse board remained inplace. Just added the LED dome lights circuit to it (separate from the old incandescent dome light circuit). 

Fuse board and watt meter

Electrical system

Preseason maintenance/upgrade on the 12volt electrical system was needed.

The switch panelwas homemade by a previous owner but lacked access behind it to actually work on it (no idea how he did it..)  However i like the general electrical box setup enough to just slightly modify it. 

After removing the louvred door, used a handsaw to cut the switches and  fuses free. 

3 gang homemade switch panel (Left to Right:  cabin, compass and nav lights)

Able to work on it at long last! 

Once accessible i wired the compass red night light to the vacant center switch and fuse. Red (small wire) connectors used, and a low amp glass fuse. 

Rehung the louvred door by moving the lower hinge up 5cm, so the 3 switch panel is clear and can be removed. 

Did look at proper 4 and 6 gange glass fuse/switch panels ($20-$35) and modern  4-6 gang breaker panels ($45-$60) they'd be an ideal situation, but would have to rebuild the entire front of the electrical box with new plywood to house them etc. Still use the "if it ain't broke don't change it" principle.

Battery isolation switch

This was vast overkill at 300A continuous draw but its nice and very solid. Siliconed a 12mm plywood back board to the bulkhead to attach it inside the electrical box, (and also relocated the solar panels charging regulator)

Narva Battery isolation main switch (and solar regulator)

Main switch wiring

The isolator switch is a "single battery" type with simple wiring.  Connected it to the brass bus bar with heavy wire and yellow connectors (large). It's very convenient and when "off" prevents any inadvertent battery draw down when away from boat, which should help extend battery lifespan. It cost $35 at Bunnings warehouse (they have a neat well priced 12V spare parts section) 

The battery charging cables are not affected as they are seperate circuits. So the house battery can still recharge when the battery isolator is "off". 

There are 3 ways to recharge the 102AH deep cycle battery. 1)  Smart charger  - 240v mains in regulated DC out (on a 24 hr timer at house, off for sleeping and sunny hours.)   2) onboard 37w Solar panel via regulator 3) 6hp outboard DC charger. The 3 cables simply run from each power source to positive and negative battery terminals.

Devices recharging station. 

Cleaned this up by simply using a double adapter 12v cig lighter plug with 2 USB charging ports, plugged into the old 12V cig lighter fitting.

Powertech 12v charging adaptor and LED lamp on recharge

In the picture is an Ironhorse rechargeable 200 /100 lumen LED lamp ($21 at Bunnings).  It's handy to light up the forepeak, quarter berths or cockpit areas. Get extra light where needed and backup if wired 12v fails. Very compact and stows easily. It also forestalls having to wire in extra cabin lights (eg forepeak could do with one). (The yellow 6v 3w LED hand torch was also at Bunnings for $10, it's far  brighter than my 1980's incandescent globe one which finally corroded inside and died) 

Here's some details of the cig lighter 12v DC charging adapter. It has 3amp (fast) and 2.4a (medium) USB A outlets, one 2.4amp USB C outlet, a digital voltmeter,  an on/off switch for each blue led lit cig socket and a 10Amp modern fuse underneath it. The output voltage from the usb's is stepped down to low levels for modern devices (eg 5v) It cost $36 at Jaycar electronics.

Powertech charging adapter specifications

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Electrical wiring maintenance -Teria

The electrical wiring system was still a bit too messy, so with the new 25w flouro work light in hand i set to cleaning it up.

Starboard saloon shelf box - The conduit was hanging down badly..so fastened it to the side deck-head using a galvanised nail into the chainplate block with cable tie. and a stainless screw with wire tie at the aft end. 

There was some disused wires outside the conduit,, on close inspection they were attached to nothing at both ends..they must've been an old stereo sound system wires, so they were removed.

The aft end of the saloon box was further cleaned up by removing the 12v cigarette lighter socket and wires. It disconnected itself so had to solder the end back onto the fitting. then refitted it under the cockpit deck-head close to the cockpit side, with wires going inside the fuse box area. (so the new accessories re-charging area is on the bunk foot)

Saloon shelf box aft end clear for stowage. Grey conduit fixed to deck-head

The 12v outlet socket relocated. 

The wiring area is neater

Wiring bundle, bit more shelf space

The cabin lights - These are old 12v bulb ones,,the switches weren't working. After dismantling the lights , i rewired them correctly - the electric soldering-iron needed  So now both lights can be operated from the light rather than at the switchboard.

The old dome light switch working again

In the forepeak - with the stereo wires gone this left 2 sets of 2 wires..one had gone up through he deck and was probably the old mast light (now removed). (Thinking it would be easy to add an LED cabin light to the end of that pair.) Another red pair were live, and no idea what they were for or where their switch is. Flagged them with tape and tucked them up.

Solar panel power

Finally set up a solar panel to re-charge the 12v battery. Also get Teria "off-grid" and gain a new level of freedom.

The 35 watt solar panel once powered-up my Endeavor 24 sloop for about 6 months in the late 1980s. Since then it has lived in various sheds etc for 27 years, so fingers crossed that it still can pump-out enough power. It was made by BP solar  in 1987. I can't remember the exact power specs but a modern 35W panel has a maximum output of just under 18 volts @ 2 amps

35W solar panel on deck during set-up testing

Connected some heavy duty 12v wires to the battery terminals and the other ends went to the regulator box.

Solar power wires (in white casing) connected (yellow) to battery terminals

Installed a 20 amp 12v solar regulator in the fuse/storage box. They need to be in a fairly dry spot less than 1m from the battery. It also needs to be easily visible.

End connectors were crimped onto the ends of the panel wires and ends of the battery wires, keeping with black negative and red positive.

It should control power input into the battery, shut down the power if the battery charge is full so it won't overcharge. This should stop battery damage and let the battery live a long healthy life.

The red LED fired up immediately - like a small sun in the middle of the word "solar",,it indicates that the battery is charging from the panel but is not at full charge yet.

LED red - battery charging up

Found that these 20A regulators are still available at Jaycar electronics . 20A may be allot but it allows for system expansion and will be not working too hard.

Tidied up the system. Siliconed the regulator onto the bulkhead inside the locker. Cable-tied the battery wire out of the way. 

On the panel cable tied the power cable to the panel frame to stop it pulling on the black box underneath (could be a diode to stop back flow current).

Added 4 lengths of 4mm braided cord line to the corners of the panel - for attaching it it various things around the boat. Idea is to keep the panel mobile. So it can be best positioned to catch the maximum amount of sunlight, or be stowed below when rough sailing. For now i put it on top of the lowered mast tied to the spreaders.

Solar panel position with mast lowered.

The red LED light turned off at dusk. indicates the regulator has switched off the solar input wires.

12V electrical tools, materials on the "workbench"

Next morning around 10am found the LED was green indicating a full battery charge (14.4v) . I put the panel inside then the LED went red again (charges up from about 13v). So put the panel out -tied onto the aft rail quarter. The LED went orange then yellow to indicate charge was nearly at peak.

LED going orange..

LED going yellow..nearly full charge

LED Green  - full charge

The regulator has an intermittent charging cycle - every 20 minutes it disconnects from the solar array for a few minutes. This is good for deep cycle battery lifespan (hopefully this 60 Amp Hour heavy duty battery too).

The solar regulator is doing this

Dry location in the fuse/stowage locker

Louvred door

So far it looks like the system can  keep the battery topped up when no electrics are turned on in the boat. Hope it can stay on top of it when sailing.

With luck the system is good enough and it's the end of the "grid-connected" era.  Teria's potential range has been further extended.

12 volt lighting restored

When the ship's 60 AH battery was installed, i connected the main black and red cables up but no  lights were working.

Well you can still day sail without electrics, so did this for a month or so until there was time to get around to it. We had clamp-on D sized battery powered navigation lights just in-case of a late return to port.

 I'm no electrical guru, but have a book about it called "The 12 V Bible" by Miner Brotherton for a bit of theory and background reading. (Also long ago.. , i'd wired up my Endeavor 24, it was fortunate that a fellow yachty at Coff's harbor marina designed and advised on this)

I had visions of having to rip out all the wiring, get a proper switch board and start again but this would probably need some paid outside help, more money and take time. Only one Marine electrician was listed at Nelly Bay on Magnetic Island to service the marina yachts there. Maybe the yacht club's slipway staff or a contractor could do it?

First decided to have a go myself first and see if it could be done at home. Took inventory of what was in the boat already.  There was a simple homemade switch board with fuses, a hard to access space of spagetti wires behind it with 2 bus bars?? then wires going off to navigation lights, cabin lights and a dangling cigarette lighter socket.

Behind the switchboard..fuses, wires and brass bus-bars

Plugged a 12v car emergency flouro into the 12 volt socket, it worked!! Artificial light shone aboard for the first time!, so power was getting through the switch board..

Switch board corner - first light! Note fire extinguisher..

For safety sake, while working on the wiring i disconnected the battery. Reconnected for each lights test.

Navigation lights were down. So unscrewed the port navigation lights covers and twiddled the bulb around backed up with CRC spray. It soon shone bright red again! Repeated same for the stern light with success but the starboard light refused to go. For me it's somehow easier to see into the spagetti mass at night with torchlight, maybe it's more focused? The sunto orienteering compasses mirror helped too. Noticed a loose black wire hidden among it. There were also 2 bus bars one with mostly red wires and another with mostly black wires. Assumed red was positive and black negative. I stuck the loose wire into the negative bus bar, nothing. so tried the other bus-bar and the starboard nav produced green rays again!

Port and starboard Navigation lights come alive. With fore-hatch open it looks a bit otherworldly.

Two navigation lights as seen from the bow with hatch closed. Probably less confusing to others at night.

The stern light shines bright. 

The switch board. All three navigation lights come on/off with the "Nav" switch. "Cabin" lights up the boats interior.

The cabin lights covers came off and got the bulb and CRC treatment, but no luck. So back to the switchboard traced the cabin light wire and found its end was dangling free.. So screwed it into one of the bus bars and cabin lights were restored! There's no describing the psychological advantage of a warmly glowing cabin interior.

Twin cabin lights on the bulkhead shed light on the interior. Each has a small switch on it so either one or two can be on.

There's a bit more to go but that should be enough to brave a dark night out there on the sea.  Rigged a a temporary anchor light, a $2 solar garden LED light on the pulshpit.   A bit of cloth tape holds it together and in place. It makes it through to dawn..just, but is better than nothing until a better system can be installed.

I attached the 12 volt cigarette lighter socket  to the quarter berth's plywood ceiling. This socket is good for anything with a 12 volt plug.  Such as car mobile phone chargers and our small inverter.

The inverter is  150 Watt,  "Powertech" brand  from Jaycar electronics, about $50.
It converts  12v DC power from the ships battery into 240 volt AC power through a household socket on the  inverter's control panel. This means that any small rechargable electronic device can be kept going at sea. Mobile phones, tablets, smartphones etc can be re-charged and kept running. This is important with smartphones as they seem to have gone backwards on battery life, only lasting about a day. Old style mobiles battery life was about 3 days.

Inverter - lighter socket plug or use Alligator clips direct onto any 12v car or boat battery

Inverter - Front has 3-pin 240v ac household socket, green on light and switch. Side has USB charging socket.

The inverter also has a USB device charger on the side. With the 3 forms of recharging now on the Teria - (12v plug, 240v and USB socket),  all forms of re-chargers for small electronic gadgets bought aboard by the crew can be used. Other gadgets we bring aboard are LED camp lantern,  LED rechargeable torch, FM SW radio, a battery charger (AAA and AA sized rechargeable batteries- for head torch and hand torch) and last but not least - digital cameras.

The inverter is designed for car use, so it can fit in a cars can-holder and used when on the road. On board it's kept dry in a sealed ziplock bag until it's needed.

Ship's battery

The heart of a small yacht's electrical system is it's battery. It's need for navigation, cabin, anchor and compass lights as well as VHF radio and other electronics if fitted. I wasn't sure how many AMP hours would be needed, probably 30 or more i heard so went on the higher side to make sure it wouldn't get too discharged on a 2-3 day trip.

Charging system

The other factor influencing battery size is the type of the recharging system. Is it a shore-based  12 v battery charger or an independent at sea type such as a solar panel (or use both systems)?

For now i have a 4 amp Arlec 12 Volt battery charger bought at a car accessories shop long ago. It's fed by 240 volt AC power via a long extension lead from the house to the boat in the backyard. It tops it up in a few hours or overnight and regulates the charge level, it starts off with 2-4 amp on the dial and ends up with less than 1 amp when near full charge.

Battery charger 240 volt household AC input plug and DC output alligator clips for negative (black) and positive (red) battery terminals.

The AMP meter shows the amount of power going into battery. 

Many trailer sailers who sail allot use solar panels to keep the battery topped up. I have on hand a very old 35 W panel and recently bought the solar charging regulator and some wires etc and plan to fit this eventually.  (Jan 2016 - Finally rigged up the solar charging system!)

Battery types

It's a confusing subject for the uninitiated. There is a pleothora of batteries out there and many battery shops catering for all types of uses. To simplify the search I chose a boating shop - marine chandlers  to buy one - they have done allot of the homework and probably found the most popular batteries. In my case Bias boating was also the best location, near home.

I bought a 60 Amp hour general purpose sealed lead acid battery for around $150, (The following specs are from Bias's catalog) It's a "Sea master"  ECG expanded calcium grid battery. It's an extra  heavy duty, maintenance free, wet cell with a built in hydrometer eye. Dimensions in mm are 235 long x 172 wide and 220 high. Found out later it has a high cold cranking Amps CCA of 575 so is probably more suited to powerboats.

So in retrospect I should have got an deep cycle battery , such as an 80 amp hour "AMP Tech" for around $180 at Bias, it has similar dimensions at L269, W173 and H200mm).

A 35 amp hour AGM absorbed glass mat may have been enough, certainly allot smaller  but the cost was up per amp hour. 35AH cost around $150  at Bias, it has "significantly longer life" than lead acid batteries and it's fully sealed can be turned on any angle. A 55 AH AGM for comparison cost around $270.

Gel cells are also sealed lightweight, more costly. But you probably get longer life, smaller size etc
The lighter - smaller - longer lasting  AGM or gel cell types could also possibly be fitted in more locations like in the starboard cockpit locker or up forward in the V-berth locker.

Fitting the battery

My lead battery weighed allot and was a hefty size so wanted to keep the weight low and central with the added benefit adding a bit of extra ballast to make the boat more stable.

There is a little used space under the forward end of the cockpit behind the center board lift pipe and companionway step. A previous owner had small blocks of wood here which i removed - these were probably old battery mounts.

The Investigators production companionway step, although a nice piece of workmanship, was permanently riveted onto the bunks each side and made it impossible to access the relatively voluminous space behind the step. Besides wasting valuable space on a very small boat was a sad state of affairs for maintenance too, so drilled out the rivets, cut a bit away at the pipe and removed the production step from the boat.

I cut a battery base from 12 mm plywood. Wood gives a bit of spring and shock absorption. Made up a battery bracket with 30 mm angle steel and 10 mm threaded rods. Two holes were marked then drilled through the ply battery base. The angle iron was fabricated to form the top plate with two holes for the threaded rod drilled.

 The base was positioned in the boat and the holes continued through the fiberglass floor. I took care to make sure i didn't drill through the hull, it gets pretty close but there was about 10 mm spare each side out to the keel sides. It was a bit of a Chinese puzzle and contortionist game to get the bolts in and standing up but it all bolted together nicely and should keep the battery firmly in-place during road trips, rough weather, knock-downs or worse. It should actually help right the boat when it heels over.

The battery has some room each side of it still. One side  is room for the 8 foot long rolled up boom shade awning. It can be slid past the battery. The other side has room for two 8 foot long oars and the boat-hook to be stowed.

Battery under cockpit. Long items stowage is on either side of battery. Awning is to left and oars, and mainsail-boom etc can go to right. Negative power cable is off terminal to isolate battery. Battery hold-down is very robust. 

As long as a battery is about 173 mm wide it could be much larger in the other two dimensions (depth and height). The extra weight in this location would be OK. This may be of use if an electric auxiliary outboard is ever experimented with.

A quickly removable step was needed but I ran out of time to modify the production step for this function. Quickest solution was to make up a temporary wooden step from 25 mm hardwood which sat on the bunk tops. A notch for the centerboard pipe was cut in the wood step and the bunk fiddles wedge the front end in place. It's a  heavy and very strong step.

Removable wooden step

With the step out, it is now possible to access and do maintenance work below the cockpit. Checking the battery, Cleaning the bilge - I think it was the first time  that anyone had ever cleaned the bilge under the cockpit. Quite allot of rubbish from corroded coins,to bits of wire, rusty screws and other accumulated crud were removed.

Battery, bilge sump, lift pipe and stowage access by removing step.

Battery lead removal  to isolate it is easy. 

The location is hopefully a fairly dry one, it is tucked under the cockpits edge and behind the companionway hatch opening.