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Old 12-27-2008
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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
Pointy...welcome!
As far as solar panel advice for fully charging batteries...
There are two scenarios...live aboard daily use vs. charging during the week to allow weekend cruising.
For the first you need to know how many amp hours you will need for your average daily needs and select batteries that are rated at LEAST twice the amp hours of your usage and preferably 3-4x your use. Then you will be running them down to 1/2 capacity. Your solar panels will need to replenish that 1/2 capacity.
Example if you have a 400ah battery bank which you use 200ah's of that you need to replenish. In a day of good sunshine with a good mppt regulator solar panels will deliver 1/3 of their rated wattage in amp hours. So 600 watts of panels can deliver 200amp hours of power stored on a good day. 300watts can deliver 100 amp hours etc.
That is a lot of square feet of panels and totally dependent on good weather...which is why many go for solar and wind power since the wind is 24x7 and not sunshine dependent.

If you are just looking to top up the batteries and keep them charged between occasional uses...generally a 40watt panel can do the job nicely.
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