Hello, I’m new to this forum. The time has come for me to replace the batteries on my 36’ coastal cruising sailboat (Long Island, NY). The existing setup is shown below. I do not have a dedicated starting battery, but always start the motor on “both”. The main things i want to consider are: Fitting in existing space, weight, cost, complexity, capacity and robustness for occasional discharge >50%. I’m right on the edge of the 100ah overnight limit this setup gives me. I switch batteries each morning when at anchor and as long as we have moderately sunny days, the solar is all i need to recharge the battery from the night before and keep up with demand during the day so that the in use battery is still fully charged in late afternoon, ready for the overnight demand.
The diagrams do not show the smart shunts i have on each battery, but they are there and monitor my usage.
Option 1 is direct replacement with FLA
Option 2 is change to 2 AGMs: 2 x200ah Renogy, 2x220ah or 2x240 ah Victron Standard or 2x170 ah Victron Super Cycle
Option 3 is change to a single ~300ah LiFePo for the house and add a dedicated starting battery
Option 4 is a single ~300ah LiFePo House battery and a dedicated LiFePo starting battery
Comparison Spreadsheet below diagrams.
Questions:
- Do the schematics look correct?
- Did i miss anything on the schematics or spreadsheet?
- In setups 3 & 4, will the “extra” solar wattage from the starter battery MPPT help charge the house battery thru the Orion?
Thanks! Paul, S/V BlueMoon





