With help from Safe Harbor Great Island, the owner of a Back Cove 37 recently increased his vessel’s battery capacity without increasing the actual number of batteries on board. “Working within the limited space available, we replaced two 8Ds with two Lithionics LiFePO4 lithium batteries,” says Jeff, the systems technician assigned to the job. “The new batteries have integral BMS with remote switching and Bluetooth connectivity, are 315 Ah each, and provide a total of 630 amp hours.”

To manage the new system, Jeff installed several key pieces of equipment: an AP 500 regulator, an additional positive main bus, a momentary battery parallel switch, one 3 kW Victron Multiplus inverter charger, dual Victron Orion battery to battery chargers to the start batteries, and a Victron GX 50 touch screen display to control the Victron charging system.

“In essence, the new system increases capacity for the house loads while charging much faster than the previous AGM batteries,” says Jeff.

“The objective of the battery upgrade was to make the m/v TEN expedition capable,” says Andy, the boat owner. “The Lithionic batteries are 50% less weight and have increased usable house battery power by 300%. When coupled with the new 3 KW Victron Multiplus charger/inverter, it has exceeded all expectations. The installation is excellent and we have already enjoyed a full season of use…the next step is to add solar.”

In anticipation, two breakers were installed during the initial project for a future solar installation.