BEP's Smart Battery Hub wins Boating Industry Top Product and New Zealand Local Innovation Awards

BEP Smart Battery Hub © BEP Marine

BEP's innovative Smart Battery Hub, a world-first in intelligent battery management system for vessels running two or more outboards, sterndrives, or inboard engines, which was designed and manufactured in New Zealand, has picked up two leading industry awards shortly after being released early in 2021. The Boating Industry Top Product Award, and HutchWilco Boat Show Local Innovation Awards.

"BEP has been developing products for over 20 years in New Zealand that are widely used by boat builders around the world" Says Geoff Morrish, Product Manager, ASG. We have a highly talented engineering team of 25 engineers in Auckland and this award is testament to their dedication and hard work delivering this product."

"Our goal is to deliver products to the global market that simplify the user experience on the water and help boat builders and manufacturers to simplify their production processes. This shows that the talent and innovation we have right here in New Zealand truly is world class."

Smart Battery Hub simplifies battery management with remotely activated switches, automatic battery charge distribution with Voltage Sensitive Switching (VSS) and has battery parallel functionality for emergency situations, neatly housed in a waterproof, easy-to-install, ignition protected enclosure.

SBH monitors and transmits individual battery voltages and full house bank state of charge over NMEA2000 for integration with multi-function displays and chart plotters. Remote battery switching can be operated over NMEA2000, as part of networked CZone modes or traditional physically wired switches on the dashboard. All automatic switches have physical manual override for safety and servicing.

Voltage Sensitive Switch thresholds can be configured and enabled or disabled with each installation. Analog switch inputs can be assigned to operate any function on the SBH or can even control CZone modes and circuits. Two additional sensor inputs can be used for monitoring and transmitting volts, fluid levels, pressures, and temperature onto the NMEA2000 network.

BEP's all-in-one battery monitoring and management system contains an internal shunt and with an ultra-low power consumption that is less than 3.5mA in sleep mode, the system has been optimized to continuously monitor the state of charge of the house battery bank without adding additional load on the batteries.

BEP's Smart Battery Hub works with 12- or 24-volt systems and carries a 5-year warranty.