Electricity on the vessel is one of the most important things on it. Especially important is storage of the electricity. The most common way of storing the electricity is the electric batteries. Without electricity on the board, it is not possible to start the engine, to use the anchor winch, the navigation tools, autopilot, to turn on the lights, to listen to the radio, to cool the beer and to use the electric toilet.
Electricity on the vessel
Electricity on the vessel is one of the most important things on it. Especially important is storage of the electricity. The most common way of storing the electricity is the electric batteries. Without electricity on the board, it is not possible to start the engine, to use the anchor winch, the navigation tools, autopilot, to turn on the lights, to listen to the radio, to cool the beer and to use the electric toilet.
Electric devices
Electric devices have influence on the safety of the vessel and on the pleasure of sailing. Due to the increasing number of electric devices on the board, it is coming to more frequent breakdowns of the electric system on boards – mostly because of the unbalanced system of charging the batteries and because of poor measuring instruments, which monitor electric batteries. A very important role in the well-balanced system of electric supply has a smart battery monitor, which takes care for precise measurements of the voltage on the batteries, all the current inflows and outflows and state of charge of the batteries. A very important function of a smart battery monitor is measurements of the capacity of the batteries in real time, which means in time of their functioning.
The capacity of the batteries
The capacity of the batteries means how much electric energy is a battery capable to accumulate. The capacity of the battery starts immediately to decrease after the start up of the battery. How strong and how fast it decreases dependents on many factors: deep discharging, aging, multiplex charging and discharging of the battery, cold weather and a self-discharging of the battery. The loose of the capacity of the battery means, that the battery will charge up to a maximum value, but in reality it will be much less electricity in it, then at the beginning of its life circle. That means that the battery will faster discharge at using it and that it will need more frequent charging. And the need to recharge the batteries usually occurs, when it is less appropriate.
For example, when we have finally anchored in a bay, after three attempts of lifting and dropping the anchor. Then we find out, that our little longer anchoring manoeuvre set a final stroke to our battery, which we should have replaced two years ago, but somehow we did not find time for it. We find out that voltage on our outdated voltage meter dropped below the critical value. Because of that, the fridge stops to cool the drinks and thus the drinks become warm and the food begins to deteriorate. Because there is no other possibility, we turn on the engine to try to recharge the battery at least for a little.
After an hour of running the engine everybody complaints: wife is in a bad mood, because of the noise, children want to sleep, but because of the same noise they can’t and also the users of the vessels nearby are disturbed. Because of that, we turn off the engine and the batteries stop recharging. In this one hour, we managed to recharge them for approximately 20%, which will be enough only to enable your refrigerator work until the morning.
