Markets
Marine
Silent power at anchor. Uptime on the working boat.
One market, two very different arguments. On a private yacht, a good electrical system is one you never think about. On a working vessel, a good electrical system is one that has never cost you a day. Both start with the same question: what has to keep running, and for how long?
Is this you?
- You cruise or live aboard, and you want the fridge, lights, water and electronics to run overnight without the generator.
- You are refitting a boat where the batteries, the charging and the wiring have all reached the end together.
- You are a boatbuilder or installer specifying the electrical system for a new build or a repower.
- You run charter, workboat, patrol or passenger vessels, where a boat that cannot sail is a boat that cannot earn.
Leisure: a night at anchor with the engine off
Drop the hook in a quiet bay, and run the fridge, the lights, the water pump, the electronics and the entertainment through the night. In the morning there is still charge in the bank, and the generator has not run once.
Three things decide whether you get that. A house bank big enough for a real night of use rather than a brochure number. Charging that refills the bank on its own, from the sun, the wind or the engine you were running anyway. And a monitor that tells you the truth about what is left, so you stop guessing.
In practice that means a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) house bank, because it gives you far more usable energy per kilogram than lead-acid and takes charge fast enough to refill in the hours you actually have. Around it: solar through an MPPT controller, alternator charging held to a profile the battery wants instead of the one the vehicle manufacturer chose, an inverter/charger for shore power, and a battery management system with properly rated protection so the bank is safe and reaches its service life. Get those four right and the rest of the boat gets quiet.
What PowerSol supplies for it
- House banks and energy management: Victron Energy and MG Energy Systems — LFP storage with integrated battery management.
- Charging: Victron Energy and Sterling Power for DC-DC and inverter/chargers, Balmar for high-output alternators and multi-stage regulators, Silentwind where the boat sits in wind.
- Distribution and protection: Blue Sea Systems circuit protection, busbars and battery switches.
- Water: Spectra energy-recovery watermakers, so the tank stops deciding how long you stay out.
- Lighting: Hella Marine and OceanLED for low-draw interior, navigation, deck and underwater light.
- Handling: Sleipner thrusters and stabilisers, and Scanstrut mounting and charging hardware built for the deck.
Commercial: the boat has to be available on Monday
A charter boat that loses power loses bookings. A passenger or patrol vessel that loses power breaches its operating conditions. So a working system is specified for availability first and capacity second.
Availability comes from redundancy. Nothing critical should depend on one battery, one charger or one switch, and the crew should be able to reconfigure power from the helm rather than from the engine room with a torch. That means parallel charge paths, isolated banks and clear cross-connect switching designed in at the start, not added after the first failure.
Visibility is the other half. On a working vessel, the fault you cannot see becomes the failure that strands you, so commercial operators instrument the boat properly: state of charge, tank levels, temperatures and engine data reported to one display over NMEA 2000, and, where it earns its keep, to shore for fleet oversight. That same data is what supports a maintenance record a surveyor will accept.
Standards sit underneath all of it. Survey, classification and recognised marine electrical practice such as ABYC govern conductor sizing, over-current protection, ignition protection and galvanic isolation. PowerSol specifies components that fit those frameworks rather than fight them, so the installation stays clean, documented and straightforward to certify.
What PowerSol supplies for it
- Storage and conversion: Victron Energy inverter/chargers and MPPT controllers, MG Energy Systems lithium systems with integrated management.
- Switching and protection: Carling Technologies breakers and switchgear, MPower digital switching for circuits that can be grouped, monitored and load-shed.
- Monitoring: Maretron instrumentation and Wema level sensing on NMEA 2000, with Victron energy data for battery and fleet visibility.
- Shore and deck: Marinco shore-power inlets and cordsets, Scanstrut display and antenna mounts.
- Manoeuvring: Sleipner thrusters and stabilisers for confident handling in a working marina.
What to get right
- Size the bank from what you actually use overnight. Add up the fridge, lights, electronics and pumps for a real night on board, then specify capacity against that plus a reserve. Nameplate amp-hours sell batteries; measured consumption sizes them.
- Match the charging to how the boat is used. A yacht that sits at anchor for days lives off solar and wind. A motor yacht or workboat under power lives off a well-regulated alternator. Most boats need both, so plan MPPT, alternator regulation and the inverter/charger together rather than one at a time.
- Treat the BMS and the fuses as part of the battery. A lithium bank is a bank plus its management, its protection and a charge strategy that respects its voltage and temperature limits. Leave any of those out and you have bought cells, not a system.
- On a commercial vessel, specify for redundancy before capacity. Every critical load should survive the loss of any single source. Plan parallel charge paths, isolated banks and cross-connect switching from the first drawing.
- Fit monitoring at the same time as everything else. An NMEA 2000 network with battery, tank and engine sensors turns hidden faults into early warnings, and retrofitting it later costs several times what it costs to run the cable now.
- Build to recognised marine practice. Aligning with ABYC and with NMEA 2000 for integration protects safety and resale value, and keeps the warranty behind the components intact.
Next step
Get this specified properly
Tell us the boat, what has to keep running and for how long. We will help you and your installer specify a system that holds together, and point you to the dealer who can supply and fit it. PowerSol sells through boatbuilders, installers and dealers, so you get a system that is commissioned properly rather than a box on a pallet.
Tell us what has to run
The vessel or vehicle, the loads, and how long they must run without a charge.
We spec it with your installer
Bank, charging, protection and monitoring sized to what you actually use, from components that work together.
Your dealer supplies and fits it
PowerSol distributes through the OEMs of our marine and automotive markets, installers and dealers across Southern Africa. They quote, fit and commission.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really run the boat at anchor without the generator?
For most leisure vessels, yes. With a lithium bank sized to your overnight loads, solar (and wind where the anchorage suits it), and efficient fridges, lighting and electronics, you can run through the night and into the next day in silence. How long you can keep doing it depends on your loads, your charging capacity and where you cruise, and that is exactly what a properly specified system is designed around.
Why a lithium (LFP) house bank rather than lead-acid?
You get far more usable energy for the same weight and space, and the bank takes charge fast enough to refill in the hours of sun or engine running you actually have. It also tolerates the deep, repeated cycling that life at anchor puts a bank through. The trade-off is a higher upfront cost and the need to do it properly: LFP must be installed with a battery management system, correct protection and charging that respects its voltage and temperature limits.
What makes a commercial system different from a recreational one?
The cost of failure. A private boat that runs out of power ends the weekend early. A charter, passenger or patrol vessel that runs out of power loses revenue, breaches its operating conditions or puts people at risk. That justifies redundancy, certified components and thorough monitoring that a recreational budget would not carry.
Can PowerSol support a system that has to pass survey?
Yes. We work with installers and boatbuilders to specify components suited to ABYC and equivalent marine electrical practice, covering conductor protection, over-current protection, ignition protection and galvanic isolation. The compliance path itself belongs to the surveyor and the operator; our job is to make sure the components you fit are the ones that make it straightforward.
Do all these brands actually work together?
That is why they are the ones we carry. Storage, charging, distribution, monitoring and comfort systems are selected to integrate over shared standards and protocols, so the boat behaves as one system rather than a shelf of parts. It matters most on a refit, where new equipment has to live alongside whatever is already aboard.
I am refitting an older boat. Where do I start?
With an honest audit of your loads and how you actually use the boat, because that drives everything downstream. From there the order is usually: house bank, then charging, then protection and monitoring, then the comfort systems such as watermaking, lighting or stabilisation. Bring us the audit and we will help you and your installer specify the rest in the right sequence.
Can I buy direct from PowerSol?
PowerSol is a distributor. We supply boatbuilders, installers and dealers across Southern Africa, and that is who you buy and install through. Talk to us first anyway: we will help specify the system and put you in front of a dealer who can quote and fit it.