Our friends are avid “green” focused liveaboards on their Bali 4.1 catamaran. After taking possession of her in June 2018, they have sailed thousands of miles mostly up and down the Eastern US and into the Bahamas.
They, like most of us liveaboards, want more comfort, but they were keen to do it in a ecological way as much as possible. They are constantly figuring out how to improve their Bali’s electrical system and invest in appliances that use less energy so they can have more with less consumption.
We have done a few things ourselves to create a better liveaboard experience such as an upgrade to marine lithium batteries on our Bali 5.4 catamaran. But our friends have eked out every bit of performance and comfort and discovered a few things along the way like their new efficient oven makes better bread!
Must-Have LIveaboard Electrical Upgrades
They say, “An [electrical system and appliance] upgrade like this is an absolute must for living aboard. We cut our generator usage by more than 50% simply by being able to run our air conditioners without having to turn on the generator. As we figured out more about how much power we use and how we use it, we began using an induction hot plate to cook with, instant pots for everything from oatmeal to boiling water for pasta, and most recently the Anova Precision Oven for doing most of our cooking.”
Electrical Upgrade OVERVIEW
Jay says “We are not generally plugged into docks at night, so we rely on sun and what engine usage we have to charge the batteries. If we use more power than that, we will run the generator as a last resort. About 9 months after we got Bali, we decided to do a major refit of the electrical system to make this all much easier.
- We increased the inverter capability,
- added more air conditioning,
- added a solar rack with 1050W additional solar panels,
- replaced the house and start batteries (Victron Gel) with 1200 Amp hours of Lithium batteries (adding not just power, but significant current draw capacity in the 12V side).
Our boat, a 2018 Bali 4.1, is similar to many of the popular “condomarans” used in charter fleets in that the design expectation is that if you need significant 110V (230V) power, you will have the generator on. We did not want to be limited by this. I think it is important to note that what you want to do with your boat will determine what kind of electrical system is right for you.
We wanted to be able to run our air conditioners, microwave, water heater and other electrical appliances without having to turn the generator on. We wanted to simplify how we connected to docks by using only one shore power cable (originally our air conditioning circuit was totally separate and required a separate 50A cord). We wanted enough solar that when we are not on the boat for an extended period of time we would not have to shut the fridge down. Most importantly we wanted to be able to monitor the system from both on and off of the boat.
So how did we do? This was a complete game changer for our cruising lifestyle. We rarely stay overnight on docks plugged in anymore. Even on hot days where we want the boat closed up and air conditioning running, we find 5-6 hours of generator usage covers us for the whole day as opposed to 24 hours! Our batteries talk to us! The Victron CCGX even lets us do some remote configuration and command if we are not on the boat”.
See more details about their electrical upgrades below.
Their passion for a “green” sailing lifestyle is getting more serious all the time. We now have their Bali 4.1 up for sale and they are buying a Windelo catamaran. We look forward to hearing about future adventures from these two!
Electrical Upgrade Details
Below is the entirety of the information they so graciously provided. Hope you find something to iprove your life aboard!
We are not generally plugged into docks at night, so rely on sun and some engine usage to charge the batteries. If we use more power than that, we run the generator as a last resort. About 9 months after we got our Bali, we decided to do a major refit of the electrical system to make this all much easier.
We increased the inverter capability, added more air conditioning, added a solar rack with 1050W additional solar panels, replaced the house and start batteries (Victron Gel) with 1200 Amp hours of Lithium batteries (adding not just power, but significant current draw capacity in the 12V side). Our boat, a 2018 Bali 4.1, is similar to many of the popular “condomarans” used in charter fleets in that the design expectation is that if you need significant 110V (230V) power, you will have the generator on. We did not want to be limited by this. I think it is important to note that what you want to do with your boat will determine what kind of electrical system is right for you. We wanted to be able to run our air conditioners, microwave, water heater and other electrical appliances without having to turn the generator on. We wanted to simplify how we connected to docks by using only one shore power cable (originally our air conditioning circuit was totally separate and required a separate 50A cord). We wanted enough solar that when we are not on the boat for an extended period of time we would not have to shut the fridge down. Most importantly we wanted to be able to monitor the system from both on and off of the boat. So how did we do? This was a complete game changer for our cruising lifestyle. We rarely stay overnight on docks plugged in anymore. Even on hot days where we want the boat closed up and air conditioning running, we find 5-6 hours of generator usage covers us for the whole day as opposed to 24 hours! Our batteries talk to us! The Victron CCGX even lets us do some remote configuration and command if we are not on the boat.
So the high level of what we changed is extensive. We chose a high end Lithium battery system from Lithionics. They have external BMS units with bluetooth. We opted for two separate BMS units rather than the two battery combiner so that we could easily draw up to 600A without complaint or high losses. We merged the two 110V legs (house and air conditioning) into a single common system running from the inverters. We upgraded the single 2000W inverter (Victron Multi-plus) to twin 3000W inverters (also Victron Multi-plus) running in parallel. We ran a selector switch from the two shore power inputs to allow us to use either 30A or 50A input to the inverters. We added 1050W of solar on the back of the coach roof. The rack basically covers the dinghy and also helps to provide a bit more shade. We did upgrade one of the two stock alternators on the engines to have full charge control including float when the batteries are full. The one we have not upgraded has a field control switch that allows us to effectively shut the alternator off manually if we need to.
The Bali has a weird design constraint on the space the batteries fit in. None of the US standard batteries are a good fit for maximizing power density. Lithionics has a 600 Amp hour battery with a pigtail rather than top or side terminals that fit the space well. We decided to eliminate the separate starter batteries for each engine and run them from the main house bank. This allowed us to put two 600Ah batteries in the tunnel. It is a little tight getting to the power distribution bus bars, but workable. If we are running low on battery capacity, we have the ability to shut one battery down to conserve enough start power to get an engine running, so we still have redundancy. The net effect is going from 520Ah of gel battery capacity (50% discharge limit) to 1200Ah of lithium capacity (80% discharge limit). With this we can run the one air conditioner in the owner’s side all night without turning the generator on.
In order to run air conditioning we had to merge the two 110V circuits and significantly increase the inverter capacity. I know folks who run air conditioning off of a 2000W inverter, but I think it is really sketchy to push that hard. That said, we wanted to be able to not have to watch each amp that closely. We chose to go with two 3000W inverters running in parallel. Victron Multi-Plus units are designed to do this fairly easily. We had to locate one of them in the cabinet where the refrigerator inverter used to live. This cabinet is easily vented (a project I still have to do) so that we don’t burn the inverter up. We relocated the fridge inverter to the locker under the starboard settee. With two multi-plus inverter chargers, our shore/generator battery charging capability went from 80A input at 12V to 240A at 12V! That means our batteries charge up much quicker and again shorten the time we run the generator. We almost always run the generator above 45 amps output now (better for the generator too!).
Keeping with the Victron theme, we are using one Victron MPPT Smart Controller for the 3 solar panels we added on the back. They are wired in parallel to minimize the effect of shading on the system. We are finding that we can minimize shading fairly well and are getting about 4 solar hours of power out of them regularly. We have maxed out at 6 solar hours this summer (6 kW in), but generally we hit float in the afternoon before the sun is done. While I don’t feel that we NEED more solar (total rated power is 1250W including the two flex panels that came with the boat), I would consider adding more if the price was right. These panels more than keep up with the always on loads with average daily sunlight (some cloudy days, some sunny days and they all average out). We have left the boat for a week and after the first day, which was cloudy, watched the level rise slowly day by day until the 4th day it was full by sundown. We located the larger solar controller under the starboard settee next to where we relocated the refrigerator inverter. We have not seen any temperature issues in this locker as these are generally low heat producers and the compartment vents behind the fridge.
I mentioned that we kept the Victron theme that came with the boat. We have used Victron components largely because they all talk well together. We have added a Color Control GX gateway to the boat so that we can see the state of charge, power flow, component state and history easily. Victron has a portal that the gateway can talk with to make all this information available off of the boat as well. For the most part, we are pleased with what we currently have. There are some limitations that I will talk about with the work left to do though. Because we had this level of information available we chose to not use the Lithionics battery monitor panel. Their BMSs are bluetooth equipped so we can see that information any time.
We did a lot of rewiring to make this happen and in the process found some things that were in need of correcting. We had some hints that there were issues shortly after we got the boat and we had some electronics behaving strangely. We had some flicker in the LED lights and some occasional erratic readings on the nav system. We found a combination of loose connections (see Bali’s notice to customers about wire lug inspection), some misassembly and some under rated parts. Remember that these boats are largely expected to use their generators for higher power stuff. The 12V system we got was under speced. We had bus bars that were rated for 150A connected to a 400A fuse (and the block was only rated for 150A too). We found in one instance an overheated 12V wire because the 2-0 wire lug had a washer between it and the terminal it was connected to. The biggest issue came from a loose battery wire though. PLEASE check your terminations and make sure they are properly tightened! In doing the upgrades, we replaced the main bus bars with 1000A rated bars (the 600s would have been fine, but didn’t have enough lugs). We upsized the main distribution wiring to 4-0 from the batteries to the bus bars. We upgraded the fuses to 600A slow blow fuses per Lithionics’ recommendations. We also changed the fusing on the inverters from ANL type to slow blow N type of proper size with proper size blocks(ABYC standard). Originally we had a selector switch on a 30A house circuit and a selector switch on the 50A air conditioner circuit for generator or shore power input. We repurposed those switches for one selecting generator or shore and the other off of the shore leg selecting either the 30A inlet or the 50A inlet. With this kind of battery behind the system we rarely need more than a 30A input. Small spikes and transients are assisted by the batteries and the total input current can be held with the balance of the power going to the battery chargers. If we are at a dock and it is hot enough to run more than the main salon air conditioner, I might upgrade to the 50A input. Usually we just select what is convenient for the dock power available. We found that the generator does not have the ground bonded to the neutral. We are still investigating why and whether to change this. We had to rewire some of the 110V breakers to run from the inverted power side rather than only the shore/generator side. We still need to wire an indicator light to the nav station for when we have the hot water heater turned on (since it now can drain the battery as fast as an air conditioner). We also had to rewire the washing machine circuit.
An upgrade like this is an absolute must for living aboard. We cut our generator usage by more than 50% simply by being able to run our air conditioners without having to turn on the generator. As we figured out more about how much power we use and how we use it, we began using an induction hot plate to cook with, instant pots for everything from oatmeal to boiling water for pasta, and most recently the Anova Precision Oven for doing most of our cooking. We have been using only propane for the plancha in the back for the last 9 months. Oh, and the Anova Precision Oven is the BEST thing to use for making sourdough bread.
