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House battery location ....?


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My start battery is high and dry near motor no worries but....I wish to increase house battery capacity with a couple of sealed AGM batteries.

A good location on my deep bilge timber vessel is just below the cabin sole, still high up out of the deep clean well ventilated bilge.

Question is, I thought for Cat 1 batteries bust be above floor level, but reading the latest inspectors manual, cannot find any such reference.... does anyone have any up to date knowledge on the subject?

 

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 All batteries must be installed securely in adequate battery boxes. The bottom of the box must be above the level of the cabin sole. Battery boxes must be acid proof unless all the batteries are fully sealed units.
 

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My batteries are all below from factory 

Talk to your inspector and develop a working understanding and most things are doable 

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1 hour ago, Jon said:

 All batteries must be installed securely in adequate battery boxes. The bottom of the box must be above the level of the cabin sole. Battery boxes must be acid proof unless all the batteries are fully sealed units.
 

Thanks Jon, that is the Phrase I recall from the past. Where do I find it?

What confuses me now is in....Yachting New Zealand Yacht Inspectors Manual (Incorporating the Director’s Guidelines for the application of section 21 of the Maritime Transport Act 1994) January 2021 (Version 07) where it only states...

c. Batteries must be secured in acid resistant boxes and ventilated, unless totally sealed gel, AGM or LiOn batteries are carried. Wiring should be neat and tidy and secured

Hence my confusion....

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9 hours ago, LBD said:

Thanks Jon, that is the Phrase I recall from the past. Where do I find it?

What confuses me now is in....Yachting New Zealand Yacht Inspectors Manual (Incorporating the Director’s Guidelines for the application of section 21 of the Maritime Transport Act 1994) January 2021 (Version 07) where it only states...

c. Batteries must be secured in acid resistant boxes and ventilated, unless totally sealed gel, AGM or LiOn batteries are carried. Wiring should be neat and tidy and secured

Hence my confusion....

It's in S 20.04 of the current regs.   It is a cat1-5 requirement not just Cat 1.

Ours are below the cabin sole, but the 'box', which is really a dedicated compartment is part of the furniture and is completely sealed with no egress or ingress possible from below the sole.

Only a hole in the hull at the location of the battery compartment would cause the compartment to flood. 

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Found the guide ..... YACHTING NEW ZEALAND Safety Regulations 2021 - 2024

Guess that makes... 

Yachting New Zealand Yacht Inspectors Manual November 2022 (Version 08)

..... somewhat worthless.

 

Thanks for the help guys

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One other thing, make sure you can get to your batteries fast

One of the yachts in the current RNI had a small electrical fire in the back of the panel and the main battery isolator didn’t kill the supply 

Power was from something that required permanent connection and lid was securely screwed down and tools were well stowed

Luckily it was controlled but could have been disastrous 

 

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46 minutes ago, Jon said:

One other thing, make sure you can get to your batteries fast

One of the yachts in the current RNI had a small electrical fire in the back of the panel and the main battery isolator didn’t kill the supply 

Power was from something that required permanent connection and lid was securely screwed down and tools were well stowed

Luckily it was controlled but could have been disastrous 

 

I can't recommend enough having a "battery off" and a "battery isolator" switch on each bank.

Voltmeters, gas detectors and automatic bilge pumps, etc, are often wired in directly with their own fuse which may not in all cases prevent the device from catching on fire.

I did buy a battery isolator switch with an alternator field disconnect, incase I need to isolate the batteries and keep the engine going.  But I have not gotten around to hacking the new Volvo alternator just yet... :-) :-) 

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