House electrical on R23

C

cwalden

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Joined
Sep 14, 2019
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94
Fluid Motion Model
C-242 C
Hi all. Happy Fall boating

Please help me solve a mystery. My two house batteries are fully charged and reading 12v. Added solar panel with regular and bridge between two house bats. Was able to keep fridge running at mooring for a week or so at a time thanks to solar. Last time out to boat no electricity when move house switch over to on. No lights, no electronics, fridge, water pump, etc. Engine and thruster batteries and switches good. When put in parallel mode all work, but not from house bank. Out in lazarette, house GFCI red button looks like out and does not click back in, if that is any clue. Tested house batteries and checked all connections and terminals and jumper fuse between house bats.
So what did I miss given the batteries and connections appear to be fine?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris and Kathleen Walden
Toot Suite
Bristol, Rhode Island


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A couple of questions. Are you on a mooring or at a slip with power? A description of power would be 12V or battery and shore power or 120V. Electricity is not descriptive of what circuit you are talking about.

If you are on a mooring the ELCI will make no difference to maintaining your batteries. You would be relying on solar all the time. If nothing else is using battery voltage/amperage on board your solar may keep up if you have full sun every day. I figure a minimum of 4 amp hours of draw with the refrigerator on + all the 24-7 circuits on. Your solar may give you 8 hrs a day of average 6 amp hour charge. So 24 hrs your 100 ah batteries (2) = 200 - have depleted approx 48 ah of the 200 ah. With this you would get an average of 3 days at a mooring and be just below 50% discharge. You really don't want to discharge much more than that.

Shore power at a slip now you are using two separate circuits. 120V shore power plunged into a shore power pedestal and the 12V system that powers you refrigerator. The ELCI being tripped will not allow current to the 120 V power panel that powers the onboard battery charger. If you are at the dock plugged in the battery charger will keep the batteries fully charged and maintain the power needed to operate the refrigerator. If there is a loss of shore power or for some reason the ELCI trips the house 12V system is reliant on the batteries for powering any thing that is powered on in the house circuit. Once the battery voltage drops to a level of total discharge there will be no battery voltage available in that circuit. Using the cross over or parallel switch will use the fully charged engine battery to energize the depleted house circuit. You now have to confirm that the ELCI is reset there is 120V at the dock shore power pedestal and that there is 120Volt reading at the analog volt meter at the 120V power panel. Turn the Charger on and confirm that you have charger output. If you have confirmed this your batteries should be able to recover. If this happens often it will deplete the longevity of the batteries.

There could be a better explanation of what happened with more information. I am just giving a basic explanation of what might be happening.
 
Thanks very much. Very helpful. On a mooring. What is ELCI? Forgive me for not knowing. So my next step is to run the boat on the parallel and house switch and engine will bring power back to house? What is the red button in the lazarette in cockpit labeled house? Is that the ELCI? At what point can I tell if my house bank is operating again. Thanks for help and I'm sorry for my inexperience here.


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Red is 12V house breaker.

ELCI is the main breaker (double pole) for 120V

If your house bank is low charge or full discharge start your engine. Then turn the parallel switch to on position. Bring the rpm up just a bit on the main engine 1200 rpm let it charge for a few minutes. Turn the parallel switch off and confirm that the house bank is reading a higher voltage. The ACR should have closed and now the engine is charging the house batteries. If the batteries where fully discharged it is going to take a long cruise to get the batteries fully charged again. The alternator output is in the range of 30 to 40 amps while cruising maybe slightly higher than that 50 amps is max I believe . So if you depleted Both batteries down to 100 % discharge it is going to take a few hours to get them charged. If you are on a mooring operating the refrigerator may not be a good idea. Two days would be max. I would not want to take the chance of depleting the batteries to many times. It will damage them. The other issue is the 24/7 circuits in the R23 are operated by the house batteries. If you are on a mooring having Battery power for auto bilge pumps is more important than a refrigerator. If you loose house batteries you do not have bilge pumps.
 
Thank you thank you!!! I will try this. Best Regards. I see. Readout on the panel when I have the inverter on, but not on 12v house. Should I be seeing a read out? Thanks!!!


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The "House" breaker is located in the cockpit, port side storage, just beyond the house batteries. It should have a label that reads "House." The reset lever is located on the aft side.
 
Thank you. There is a red button on that on the front. Is there also a reset lever on the aft side, so there are two things to reset. When I push the red button it stays popped out. Is that it's default when the house system is operating properly. Thanks for your help!


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I am thinking that you need a friend to go over the systems and how they work.
 
Good idea!


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Can anyone tell me how to view the condition (Voltage) of my house battery bank on a Garmin 7610? I can see the cranking voltage, but cannot figure out how to see the house battery status. I have experienced several times that the microwave would not function due to low voltage while at anchor and would like to be able to monitor the status of my house batteries.
 
ColbyF, There was a post on here that explained the garmin menu steps to display the voltage. I just looked for it, but couldn't find it. I do remember in the menu it doesn't say volts. Look for something like system electric. You'd think it just say volts, but nnnnnoooooo. It's in there, I have the house volts displayed on mine.
 
CobyF":1lf9f8sf said:
Can anyone tell me how to view the condition (Voltage) of my house battery bank on a Garmin 7610? I can see the cranking voltage, but cannot figure out how to see the house battery status. I have experienced several times that the microwave would not function due to low voltage while at anchor and would like to be able to monitor the status of my house batteries.
Click to expand...
I believe that system units shows the house voltage. Hold down on a sidebar item that you would like to replace. An option to choose system units should show.

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To everyone who was so helpful to me in my quest to find out what was going on with my house bank and how to troubleshoot. I had mentioned the red button on the house breaker located in the port lazarette. I thought it was like a GFCI and when pushed would reset. I did not know there was a breaker switch as well that needed to pull down to flip breaker on. Could never see it down in lazarette due to the switch being black. I was told it was same as thruster breaker located in head behind the helm. It is the same, but the breaker arm is yellow and highly visible, unlike the house breaker (black). When flipped, all house power came back up with full battery charge from solar panel. Has a great weeken cruise. Thanks to you all and Wagner Gandra from Winter Island Yacht Yard, in Salem, Ma, a wonderful Ranger dealer and service center. Highly recommend them for all things Ranger Sales and Repair (and great advice)
Best to all and thank you again
Chris and Kathleen
Toot Suite
Bristol, Rhode Island


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Didn't I say that? " The reset lever is located on the aft side." Sorry if you misunderstood me.
 
Sorry that I must of misunderstood. Thanks for trying to help me. I appreciate it!


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