01
Buying capacity instead of charging
A liveaboard with 1000 Ah and a 60 A alternator still runs the engine for hours. Solar and a proper alternator regulator return more days of quiet than another 200 Ah.
Permanent home afloat · two aboard · 12 V or 24 V
Liveaboard Lithium Battery System
Living aboard changes the arithmetic: the bank cycles every day of the year, the fridge and freezer never get switched off, and time on the engine is time you resent. Cycle life, monitoring and the quiet hours are what you are buying. This is where lithium is cheapest per year of ownership.
Typical load profile
Fridge and freezer, year-round95 Ah
Inverter — laptops, appliances, tools40 Ah
Lighting and fans30 Ah
Instruments, AIS, comms, Starlink35 Ah
Pumps and devices20 Ah
Communications are the new load on a liveaboard: a satellite terminal alone is 3 to 4 A around the clock. Budget for it explicitly rather than in the reserve.
What we would fit · 600–800 Ah
Budget build
$11,500
800 Ah LiFePO4, 12 V, two parallel packs
50 A DC-DC charger
Lithium-profile 60 A mains charger
800 W solar with MPPT
Shunt monitor with history
Premium build
$21,000
1000 Ah at 24 V equivalent, three packs
Externally regulated 120 A alternator with temperature sensing
3 kW inverter-charger, galvanic isolation
1.2 kW solar plus wind if the boat cruises south
Certified install, documented for insurer and survey
Indicative installed prices, September 2026. On a liveaboard, spend the premium on monitoring and redundancy before more amp-hours.
On this hull specifically
Battery installation mistakes for this boat type
02
No cold-weather plan
Liveaboards move. A bank specified in Cairns will meet a Hobart winter eventually. Low-temperature charge protection is not optional on a boat that travels.
03
Skipping the paperwork
Insurers ask liveaboards harder questions than weekenders. Certification, a BMS datasheet and a wiring diagram in a folder is the difference between a claim paid and a claim argued.
04
Letting the bank do the starting
Even with a big bank and a big BMS, keep the engine on its own lead-acid battery. It is the one system you do not want sharing a disconnect.
Other hulls