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Old 03-08-2007
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camaraderie is a jewel in the rough camaraderie is a jewel in the rough camaraderie is a jewel in the rough
My own experience parallels Anlyns. On the last boat we had 160 watts of solar panels (Kyocera...Good product!) and a FourWinds wind generator used over several winters in the Bahamas.
On good days we would get aybe 40 amps out of the panels. The wind generator is capable of producing 4-6amps/hour in 10-15 knot winds which is around 100 amps in 24 hours BUT...you have to have at least that much wind to generate anything usable...and most people anchor in protected spots where wind and waves are reduced. I am not a fan of the little blade units for this reason as their output is even worse in modest winds.
Furthermore...I think most people underestimate their electrical usage when planning. As it gets hotter...your refrigeration runs a lot more, you use cabin fans more and there is just more stuff every year to spend amps on.
So...the net result was that we got an average of 100 amps or so a day out of our passive stuff and "spent" an average of 150amps a day in use which we made up when cruising to other anchorages or running the engine every few days since we had a big battery bank...4x4d's.
Obviously...you can get closer to "carbon neutral" by being more conservative in your use of stuff, doing without refrigeration etc. but I also found that the passive stuff did not do a good job of cycling the batteries and you DO need to get a good 3 stage charge on them at least once every couple of weeks to keep the sulfation down. We would run the batteries down to 50% and then go for a drive or pull into a dock for a night to accomplish this after we went through our first set of batteries in a year through a lack of understanding of both proper care and the need for good passive regulation.
Hope the above is helpful.
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