Power Packs to Suit Catamarans
Catamaran Privilege 515 Power Upgrade of 20kWh 48V overlay on top of 12V factory system Walk Through with Owner Will Peters.
These Privilege 515 owners had a simple requirement: NO GENSET running. It is an emergency backup only. We tackled this with maximum solar and what isn’t shown in the video is the 700W of portable solar that simply plugs in for additional winter capacity when mooring for days. For solar backup we have Scotty AI. In this boat they are fitted in an electrical asymmetric design. One is on the port engine and starter batteries and the other on the 12V house lithium after the starboard engine alternator. In normal running this gives 12-48V charging to around 5,000W but preserves the factory installed 12V system with an always charged 12V lithium house battery and sister 12V lithium communications battery preserved. It is simple and works very well with the ultimate in redundancy. In the video we show schematics and a comparison why Scotty AI DC DC outperforms externally regulated alternators like Wakespeed, Balmar and Integrel with flexibility and redundancy. Fitted to this boat: 2 x 5000VA Quattro II, 20,000Wh 48V Lithium with CAN BMS in each battery, Lynx Shunt, Twin Scotty AI 3000W models, Victron Cerbo and Screen. The Scotty Ai is on the VE.bus 250baud connections to the CAN batteries and Cerbo. The Safiery Touch Display is on same CAN network.
Catamaran Brand new Lagoon 460 gets Power Upgrade with NO disturbance to the factory integrated power electronics. Scotty AI delivers 3000W from alternators.
To most people this will seem like a simple power upgrade with an overlay 48V system. However, it is one of the most complex scenarios of ensuring the 12V house lithium has priority charging and driving the factory alternators at a very precise voltage to extract a total of 3000W DC DC charging. We could not have done this before with Scotty V1 and the Wakespeed units without disturbing the alternators or the factory system. But now we can deliver a perfect result. The secret is the Scotty 1500 AI units. They can wait for the 12V Lithium to get to 95% SOC and then pull full power out of the alternators without taking anything from the 12V lithium, to charge the 48V Lithium Then when the engines are off, the Scottys are pouring up to 3000W from the 48V side to the 12V loads and/or 12V Lithium. A great way to add significant replenishment power without disturbing the factory system.
Grainger 48 Cat "Mint" 48V Power Upgrade NO GENSET with Scotty and dual 250A alternators 900W solar
Clean install of 48V System on Grainger 48ft Cat by Owner and Son. This is a compact refit of a 48-12V system for Troy Forrest’s SV Mint. The goal of zero genset has been achieved. The water maker, hot water booster and kitchen appliances plus Freezer all run on the 240V circuit. The sail winches, anchor winches and the auto-steer are all on the 12V house circuit. BUT there is No 12V house battery. Thats right. This is a 48V system with Scotty taking power from the 2 engine alternators when they are running. When they aren’t running, Scotty is a bi-directional DC to DC and supplies up to 250A at 12V for the 12V circuits from the 48V bank. There is 900W of solar on top. Big 48V power and energy storage with big 12V power on tap. Total system retrofit weight is around 100kgs. less than the weight of 2 x N200 AGM batteries that are removed.
New Lagoon 450S Power Upgrade with Scotty on Alternators and 2000W Solar replenishing 12,000Wh 48V Lithium.
This is another new Lagoon 460, brand new from factory. Brett Phoebe and his wife will run an all electric kitchen and hot water all from 1,000Ah Lithium (12V equiv). This 48V system has 2000W solar and Scotty that can extract up to 3,000W from the two alternators. When sailing, Scotty will deliver up to 3,000W on the 12V side for the electric winches from the 48V house battery. There is NO GENSET on this boat. The heavy 12V AGM house batteries have all been removed. #victronenergy system using touch 50 display. Design and supply by Safiery. Excellent installation and commissioning by Graham Hayes @allcraftmaineelectrical in Sydney.
Getting 1,500W of Solar from 1,200W Copperflex Panels with some shading on this 60Ft Catamaran
You have to see it to believe it. And that’s why we have our second video now in 2 days. This install of 2 banks of 6 copper flex solar panels is producing 1500W peak. It is steadily doing 1200W+ even with slight shading on the panels from stays and the boom ropes. The reason is three things: 1) The Solid Copper sheet on the back of the panels takes the heat out which boosts performance and prevents the panel cells from being pulled apart 2) The DC to DC keeps the voltage up and passes the cumulative current through without a shaded panels becoming a choke. 3) the CANbus Lithium sends the battery voltage digitally to the controller and the controller adjusts the output voltage to make up for any cable loss. The result is 98% efficiency in charging. Watch the full video on Youtube of the energy analysis.
Copperflex Solar Panel Performance Review nearly a year after installation with up to 118% of the nameplate Watts on this 60Ft Cat
Most people have had negative experiences with flexible solar panels. The general difficulty is the interconnecting wires between the wafers break with expansion/ contraction or overheat and fail. However, look at these Copperflex Solar panels about a year old in the sun all day on a 60ft Cat. The Port side is yielding 115% and the Starboard 118% of the name plate value. These have a 5 year warranty. They outperform the incredible Sunpower 400W glass panels for one main reason. We use our DC DC for solar and run the units in series for a higher PV. The two sides even have slight shading from the stays in these results. Incredible performance.
Rebuilt 50Ft Catamaran gets power retrofit. Owner calls for highest level of redundancy, safety and backup goals with twin Scotty AI's
Tony Browne is refitting his 50Ft Cat and was very clear about his requirements for redundancy, safety and backup. And that’s what we have designed and built in spades. The Port and Starboard engine and charging systems are redundant. The 24V house battery running the engine controls and electronics is backed up by a 12-24V converter from the port or starboard starter battery to give enough emergency power should the 24V Victron battery circuit fail. The digital switching is all Czone. Two Scotty’s charge the 24V Victron 15KWh house battery bank independently from each motor. On the deck is 2,680W of solar for replenishment. There are 8 isolators including 2 remote operated isolators. The devil is in the detail.
Leopard 44 Cat NO GENSET All Electric Kitchen Twin Scotty Alternator replenishment 1320W Solar
This is a compact refit of a 48V system for 44ft catamaran. The goal of zero genset has been achieved. The water maker, hot water booster and all kitchen appliances plus Freezer run on the 240V circuit. The sail winches, anchor winches and the auto-steer are all on the 12V house circuit. BUT there is No need for a 12V house battery. The secret to all electric installs is not the lithium battery capacity but the replenishment power. This is a 48V system with Scotty taking up to 3000W of power from the 2 engine alternators when they are running. When they aren’t running, Scotty is a bi-directional DC to DC and supplies up to 500A for the 12V circuits from the 48V bank. There is 1320W of solar on top. You will notice in the video a glass solar panel in the front. This is used to locate the “DC -DC for Solar” units under it on the deck. What the “DC-DC for solar” does is isolate each individual solar panel - all 12 of them. So any shading of one panel doesn’t affect the string. This allows us to pull 250V+ from the roof at only 5amps for little power loss. More importantly it allows for an early start and late finishing harvesting solar. Early morning is cooler and the solar yield is good. We generally see 120-130% improvement in overall yield using “DC to DC for solar“ and a high PV. Big 48V power and energy storage with big 12V power on tap. Total system retrofit weight is around 140kgs. About the same weight of 2 x N200 AGM batteries that are removed.
Super Redundant Master Slave Scotty 6,000W with Master/Slave fail-over perfect for Catamaran
This video shows very complex software with the concept of a “Floating Master’. The application here is Dual Alternators on one or two engines. So 2 x 120A to 200A 24V Alternators or 2 x 250A 12V alternators. There is a lot of demand for this in marine applications. Why? The Master/Slave Scotty works as one system…. but... the Master will pick up for the Slave and vice versa. The Catamaran application is: 1) Both engines running 2) Either Port or Starboard for motor sailing. Plus super redundancy for global sailors! In this video we show the full test in this single alternator truck with 24V alternator at 200A. We are calling this “Super Redundant”. The first Master/Slave Scotty is going to Hong Kong to the Dylan and the OBMG team for a dual engine Catamaran.