Battery Monitoring

By Mike Roy, Cat's Paw #1373

When I installed a separate starting battery behind the engine, I put its circuit through a separate on-off battery switch. The switch is proximate to the circuit breaker panel for convenience and because the house bank can be used to start the engine in an emergency. Also, one of the panel's voltmeters now monitors the starting battery. The two 4D batteries were combined to serve as the house bank. Those are monitored by a Link 10. The photo shows where I put the starting battery switch and the Link 10. The photo also shows the location of a 12 V plug receptacle which is used primarily to power a 300W inverter and the ship's computer. The placement of these components is quite convenient.

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