Powerbank - does this make sense?

[DDean]

2024 R27OB NWE

Im getting very close to buying a Bluetti Elite 200V2 powerbank as they have what looks like a great Fathers Day sale happening (C$1500 including their alternator charger). By my math, this will add 150 usable WH to my stock boat's usable 100WH (NWE), more than doubling our power. Also, because its 2600W output, I can use it per shorepower to run the hot water heater or the grill, if I choose to spend the power for that, and if we add Starlink later...have that covered too. I generally get 2 days off power without recharging outside of the stock solar, so this would be a terrific bridge simply to charge via shorepower while on the hook and without using the engine - potentially getting us 5 days without charging anything. Or in those fall/winter/early spring days when solar is challenged, this bridges that too. Plus there are use cases off the boat. I think it makes sense.

What Im not sure about is if the alternator charger is an ok or bad idea. I dont believe that one can simply create power magically, and Im concerned that this will burn out the engine's alternator if we used the Bluetti alternator charger connected to the house bank to charge the Bluetti at 560W. I can see using that now and then, but who knows, maybe we get addicted to hot water and grilling😉 , and maybe we will need to charge the Bluetti more than I currently believe. Bluetti alternator charger connected to the boat bad idea?

I suspect that what I would do later and once I understand how we use the Bluetti is that I would put a dedicated solar panel on the roof for it. I considered upping our solar for the boat but ill have to mess around with a new solar controller and its probably more efficient to have two parallel solar systems if theres a Bluetti to store the excess - stock panel to stock banks and new panel to Bluetti, and then use the Bluetti to charge the boat's banks as needed (same outcome in the end but with more flexibility).

Im interested to hear if anyone has a dedicated panel on the roof for a powerbank, and how you went about routing that. Does a separate solar to Bluetti make more sense than upping the boats solar? Ignore the "hassel" of having to plug the Bluetti into the solar or boat, I see that the Bluetti has an ability to accept 1000W solar, way more than any solar controller Id put on the boat.

 

[Mike and Sarah]

We have the ac200l Bluetti I use it in my pickup camper and have a 500 watt alternator charger . This works great in the truck because you are also not trying to charge another house battery at the same time.
We also now use it in out Solara 310 that has 600 amps of lithium. We found it best to use a portable solar panel or shore power to recharge it. We just completed a 5 week trip that we were only plugged into shore power 6 days. As result the house 600 amp bank never gets fully charged so there wouldn’t be any left over power to charge the Bluetti.
Also we found at best we net 35 amps from each Yamaha while cruising and cruising time is short between each location we anchored at.

So at least for us we just plan the Bluetti pack is our backup battery pack. We also heat hot water from the pack.

Id suggest Either get a portable panel that you can lay on the bow to recharge the battery pack or plan to use it and recharge when back to shore power.
Our portable 200 watt panel can get close to full recharge on a sunny day if not to low on charge.

Hope this helps.

 

[DDean]

Many thanks Mike and Sarah - I was thinking that the alternator charger was not something that Id buy and that solar was better in almost every respect, but they're throwing the alternator charger in for "free" alongside the best deal on this Bluetti Ive seen, so seems like something Id rather have than not have. But yes, I feel that solar is the way to go as you are confirming. Ive looked at the flexible panels - will revisit! Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Submariner]

2024 R27OB NWE

Im getting very close to buying a Bluetti Elite 200V2 powerbank as they have what looks like a great Fathers Day sale happening (C$1500 including their alternator charger). By my math, this will add 150 usable WH to my stock boat's usable 100WH (NWE), more than doubling our power. Also, because its 2600W output, I can use it per shorepower to run the hot water heater or the grill, if I choose to spend the power for that, and if we add Starlink later...have that covered too. I generally get 2 days off power without recharging outside of the stock solar, so this would be a terrific bridge simply to charge via shorepower while on the hook and without using the engine - potentially getting us 5 days without charging anything. Or in those fall/winter/early spring days when solar is challenged, this bridges that too. Plus there are use cases off the boat. I think it makes sense.

What Im not sure about is if the alternator charger is an ok or bad idea. I dont believe that one can simply create power magically, and Im concerned that this will burn out the engine's alternator if we used the Bluetti alternator charger connected to the house bank to charge the Bluetti at 560W. I can see using that now and then, but who knows, maybe we get addicted to hot water and grilling😉 , and maybe we will need to charge the Bluetti more than I currently believe. Bluetti alternator charger connected to the boat bad idea?

I suspect that what I would do later and once I understand how we use the Bluetti is that I would put a dedicated solar panel on the roof for it. I considered upping our solar for the boat but ill have to mess around with a new solar controller and its probably more efficient to have two parallel solar systems if theres a Bluetti to store the excess - stock panel to stock banks and new panel to Bluetti, and then use the Bluetti to charge the boat's banks as needed (same outcome in the end but with more flexibility).

Im interested to hear if anyone has a dedicated panel on the roof for a powerbank, and how you went about routing that. Does a separate solar to Bluetti make more sense than upping the boats solar? Ignore the "hassel" of having to plug the Bluetti into the solar or boat, I see that the Bluetti has an ability to accept 1000W solar, way more than any solar controller Id put on the boat.

If you use the alternator charger, needs to be 30amps (at 12 volts) or less, to prevent potentially overheating/overworking the Yamaha alternator. A better method of charging would be a car charger/cigarette outlet. Those are like, 10 or 20 amps off the house bank, which is charged off the engine via the DC to DC charger already installed. And when at anchor, solar is charging the house bank, which would then charge the Bluetti via the car charger.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with a solar charger specific for the Bluetti. I'd double up on the solar on the boat so the house bank can take advantage of the solar, and charge the Bluetti off the house bank, via that car charger, via the boat's solar panels.

 

[DDean]

Gotcha. I don’t know what voltage the alternator charger puts out but it’s 560W, hence my concern.

I’ll skip this sale. The only additional benefit is the the alternator charger, but if it’s a risky add I’ll just stick with solar of some sort.

 

[scross]

Martin makes great points as usual. I have 340 watts of solar on our C-28 with a VE 100/30 controller and AGM batteries. We have a portable 12V Iceco freezer that we use in the cockpit for frozen foods.
I bought an Anker Solix C-1000 last year on sale. I use it to keep the freezer running in the bed of our truck for our 10 hour drive from home to our boat’s storage lot in Burlington,WA. The Anker is great for that purpose. I also use it to power the Iceco at night when we are on the hook. The Iceco uses about 55 AmpHrs a day. Using the C-1000 at night ensures I don’t wake up to any unpleasant house battery voltage surprises.
This setup works for us. The C-1000 gets recharged through its 12V cigarette plug when we are cruising for more than 30 minutes or when on shore power.
All this works well for our needs.

 

[Red Raven]

We use a Jackery 1500 which I think is comparable to the Bluetti you describe. We also have up to 400W of Jackery folding solar panels we can throw on the Bimini if needed to charge it up in addition to charging from the boat or shore. This is in addition to our 430W of fixed boat solar. The addition of the Jackery and panels give us the option to heat hot water at anchor or top off the boats batteries if we get low or maybe even both!

 

[cliffm]

Prime day sale started yesterday, calling Bluetti today to order an Elite 200V2 and get a car charger cord. Our sing!e 280W CPM panel with Victron 100/30 MPPT controller easily keeps our NWE one AGM house bank topped off, but looking forward to running water heater and extending our on the hook time.

 

[DDean]

I bought a Bluetti Elite 200 V2 also - this sale is the best deal I’ve seen by far. Finally!

Will be awesome to run hot water, the grill occasionally and the coffee maker. Life changing stuff!

 

[Jesperjo]

Being able to run the coffee maker was the reason we bought the LE instead of the NWE when there was a choice! Turns out the dogs love the AC too, but that’s beside the point.

I have a Jackery that I use as a house backup (just to run the fridge - I plug my freezer into my car) when the power is out. However, if I were to bring it on the boat, how would you actually run the water heater from it? I guess I have never looked, but I thought it was hard wired into the inverter panel?

 

[Submariner]

Being able to run the coffee maker was the reason we bought the LE instead of the NWE when there was a choice! Turns out the dogs love the AC too, but that’s beside the point.

I have a Jackery that I use as a house backup (just to run the fridge - I plug my freezer into my car) when the power is out. However, if I were to bring it on the boat, how would you actually run the water heater from it? I guess I have never looked, but I thought it was hard wired into the inverter panel?

Use a 4 or 5foot Nema 5-15 plug (typical 3 prong plug) to a L5-30 twist lock (or Smartplug, if equipped). Plug the LFP battery (Anker, Bluettii, etc...) into the shorepower connection of the boat. Then operate the boat as if on shorepower. (No inverter used).

 

[Jesperjo]

I guess that makes sense. Just give it 15 amps instead of 30 from shore power.

 

[DDean]

These powerbanks output 15A via the regular 120V plugs or 20A via 5-20Ps, so its a little closer to shore power. I am unsure if they will output 20A via 5-15Ps.

Initially I thought that the Bluetti would be a house bank extender to allow us to stay put off shore power for longer without running an engine but the appeal of hot water and using the grill and coffee maker is corrupting us! So Im looking into solar now. I will have to put a Thule box up there this fall so thinking that moving to the biggest single panel my existing controller can accept is the way to go, and just cutting the wires and reusing those for a 350W or maybe 375W panel (versus my stock 175W panel). I think the most wattage my '24 R27OB solar controller can take is 390W.

 

[Submariner]

These powerbanks output 15A via the regular 120V plugs or 20A via 5-20Ps, so its a little closer to shore power. I am unsure if they will output 20A via 5-15Ps.

Initially I thought that the Bluetti would be a house bank extender to allow us to stay put off shore power for longer without running an engine but the appeal of hot water and using the grill and coffee maker is corrupting us! So Im looking into solar now. I will have to put a Thule box up there this fall so thinking that moving to the biggest single panel my existing controller can accept is the way to go, and just cutting the wires and reusing those for a 350W or maybe 375W panel (versus my stock 175W panel). I think the most wattage my '24 R27OB solar controller can take is 390W.

If your boat is an LE, the DMT1250 (solar controller and engine dc to dc charger), it supports up to 500 watts, but only supports a max of 50 volts from the solar panels. So if doing two panels, most likely would have to wire them in parallel to stay below the 50 volts.

If your boat is a NW edition, with the ePever MPPT solar controller, it's a 20amp (at 12 volt) controller, which will be too small for any solar upgrade and would need to be replaced with a larger unit.

 

[DDean]

Thanks Martin - its a NW. I had heard that it could accept up to 390W of solar....guess I heard wrong!
Whats the easiest way to replace the controller? Put a blanket over the panel and then unscrew the controller, detach everything and reassemble with new controller? Will the wiring need to be changed if I beef up the solar to ~400W?

 

[Submariner]

Thanks Martin - its a NW. I had heard that it could accept up to 390W of solar....guess I heard wrong!
Whats the easiest way to replace the controller? Put a blanket over the panel and then unscrew the controller, detach everything and reassemble with new controller? Will the wiring need to be changed if I beef up the solar to ~400W?

On a NW edition, you'll want to upgrade your solar controller first. On a 2024 model, swap it out in the spot it's in (the cave). 10awg wire can handle up to 30 amps, which means you can go up to 400 watts of solar without having to upgrade the wire from the controller to the house battery. I'd recommend like a Victron MPPT 100/30 Smart solar controller. It's an in-place upgrade (same location as your ePever). In the Victron solar controller there's a setting for how many amps for it to charge to the house battery. On the 100/30 Solar controller it'll default to 30 amps, which is the same size as the fuses. Set it to 27 amps so as to not blow the fuses, and stay between 280 and 400 watts of solar. That'll be a game-changer on your boat.

The ePever has 3 sets of wires going to it. Red/Yellow to the solar panel, red/yellow to the house battery, red/yellow to the engine battery.

Find the fuse for solar to the engine battery and remove that fuse (you won't need it). Label all the wires going to the solar controller before you remove anything.

You'll only need the red/yellow to solar panel, and red/yellow to the house battery wires. The engine red/yellow pair can be labeled NIS (not in service).

 

[GunkHoling]

Has anyone found a sufficiently robust power bank to trust near salt water? The Bluetti AC240 (Pioneer 150) is IP65 rated, but is 72lbs and rather large! I'd like something I could store outside the cabin, either in the cabinet below the icebox on my Cutwater 28 or below that cabinet's floor where the generator usually goes. The AC60 is also IP65, but with only a 600W inverter it has limited options to operate as an anchored shore power solution and operate a DC fridge/freezer.

In salt environments have people gotten away with a power station with simple covers on the AC and other output ports?

 

[Submariner]

Has anyone found a sufficiently robust power bank to trust near salt water? The Bluetti AC240 (Pioneer 150) is IP65 rated, but is 72lbs and rather large! I'd like something I could store outside the cabin, either in the cabinet below the icebox on my Cutwater 28 or below that cabinet's floor where the generator usually goes. The AC60 is also IP65, but with only a 600W inverter it has limited options to operate as an anchored shore power solution and operate a DC fridge/freezer.

In salt environments have people gotten away with a power station with simple covers on the AC and other output ports?

On the R27-OB, many install an inspection port in the cockpit to pull the shorepower cord through. They leave the power bank in the cave and run the cable from the cabin/cave into the cockpit. Open up the inspection port to pull through the cord, plug into the shorepower connection. When no longer needed, disconnect, and put the inspection port back closed.

 

[DDean]

That’s neat! I’ll look into the inspection port as I was wondering how best to do that - I was settling on the power bank in the cockpit under the window seat but this is probably better as I won’t need to move it around so much if it’s in the cave

Martin - why not reinstall the wires for the engine battery? Is it because they’ll be charged via ACRs?

 

[Submariner]

That’s neat! I’ll look into the inspection port as I was wondering how best to do that - I was settling on the power bank in the cockpit under the window seat but this is probably better as I won’t need to move it around so much if it’s in the cave

Martin - why not reinstall the wires for the engine battery? Is it because they’ll be charged via ACRs?

On the R27, it's a relatively easy passageway from the cave, down under, and aft... comes out by the hot water heater. The picture above is from an install I did a year ago. It's a 5 1/2 inch hole I drill. 😀

The ePever solar controller sends most of the sunshine to the house battery, and a little to the engine battery. The Victron MPPT solar controllers only output to the house bank. This makes the extra set of wires to the engine no longer usable.

So, how does solar recharge the engine and the thruster battery?
On a Northwest edition boat... it has all AGM batteries. When the sun comes out, the voltage on the solar panels increase. A charging voltage is reached for the house bank. That charge voltage will cause the ACR's (automatic parallel switches) to close, paralleling the engine, house and thruster together, allowing solar to charge all three banks.

On an LE edition with LFP, the engine and thruster batteries are not charged at all via solar. They get recharged via engine charging or shorepower only.

Channel surfing is a NW edition converted to LFP which makes her more of an LE without an air conditioner. I get no solar charging for my engine or thruster bank. It's not a big deal for us. When we left for our SE Alaska trip, my car was at home and wasn't driven for 55 days, and wasn't on a charger. It started right up upon our return. There shouldn't be any loads on the engine and thruster battery other than the engine and the thruster. Batteries can sit idle for a couple of months and be fine, as long as there's not a large load drawing from them.