Creating an electrical system from scratch

[mitiempo]

Yes you will get output throughout the day but you will not get full output for 5 hours. The output will be at its greatest around midday tapering to less earlier and later. Most stats I have read state that this equates to full output for 5 or possibly 6 hours a day but takes place over a longer period of time. Tilting the panel helps as well but is not always possible.

[Lflowers230]

The LED are on the list. Thanks cb32863. blJones, can you suggest a good place to look for that Solar Panel?

[btrayfors]

OK. Enough mental masturbation.

You have a 24' sailboat on a lake. You wish to do weekend sailing. You have a minimal need for 12VDC power aboard. You have a small outboard with essentially no generating capability. You have no other means of power generation on the boat.

Bottom line: it all boils down to how much space you have for batteries. When you leave the dock, you want to have enough battery power to get you thru the weekend, including a long weekend.

I'd suggest you see where you could put up to four golf-cart size batteries. If you can stow these somewhere convenient, there's little doubt they will do the trick. You'll need a good battery charger so that when you're at the dock..or home or wherever the boat is...you can plug in and fully charge them.

Here's my prescription:

1. You'll want flooded batteries. Forget AGMs and Gels...they're too expensive and not very forgiving. Flooded 6V golf-cart batteries are the best bang for the buck. They're also pretty rugged and will take some abuse.

2. Buy and install four golf-cart batteries in series/parallel. That will give you 450 amp hours total capacity, of which about 225 or slightly more will be available to you over the weekend.

3. If you don't have room for or can't carry the weight of four golf-carts, then go with two of them...225AH total, and about 115AH available. About 120lbs for two of them. Cut your electric consumption. See how they work out.

4. Buy and install a decent smart battery charger. The Iota DLS-45/IQ4 would be perfect for your installation. If you don't want a permanently installed charger, go with the West Marine red 30A smart charger. They sometimes have it on sale for about $75 and at that price...or even the regular price...it's a very good bargain.

5. If you don't have them already, equip yourself with two critical pieces of test gear: a good multimeter and a good clamp AC/DC ammeter. That's about a $100-125 investment total, and will repay you many times over the years.

6. Forget about solar panels and wind generators and portable generators.

7. Go sailing and enjoy yourselves. Don't sweat the electrical system anymore.

FWIW,

Bill

[Lflowers230]

LMAO but I think you're right.

[eherlihy]

We sorted the whole thing out on this thread 5 years ago; effectiveness of solar & wind


... Sorry, but this had to be done.

[mitiempo]

That is one real long thread!

[Lflowers230]

I appreciate all of the input. Dan, I'll getback to ya as soon as I hit 16 posts. I discovered to day that the marina does have shore power so charging is going to be easier than I expected. Anyways, I'll get back to, a post updates later.