Hello,
I am new to this site. I recently moved aboard a sailing cat fitted with a Victron MultiPlus 12/3000/120 that handles my AC charging (from my generator and occasionally shore power) and inverting needs. I also have a small solar array with two old PWM solar chargers. I am in the process of upgrading my solar array with 4 new Renogy 175w panels and a Victron MPPT charger and have decided to look into my batteries at the same time, since they are old AGM's that are long past their best. I was looking at drop in battery solutions until a fellow cruiser told me about the Winston Thundersky batteries. I'm a fairly competent marine engineer but the electronics of LiFePO4 battery management systems are beyond me. I have been doing a lot of research online but have yet to find a good reliable source of what additional equipment I will need to make these batteries work safely, and how to go about this installation. Victron just want to sell me their own batteries, BMS etc, and while it would be nice to have everything in matching Victron blue, they are prohibitively expensive!!! I'm not looking for anything fancy. I just want to charge my new LiFePO4's from my PV array and via the MultiPlus. My cat is light and performance oriented and we try not to motor much so I'm not even bothered about charging from my alternators at the moment. They are currently wired to simply charge my separate engine start batteries only, keeping things separate and simple. Perhaps this is something I will look at in the future. Could anyone here perhaps point me in the right direction?
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike
