effectiveness of solar & wind

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

To get 100amphours a day on average out of fixed solar alone, I figure I would need around 400 watts of panels which would make my boat look like a certain Catalina....and who would want that??

HAHAHA!

- CD

[sailingdog]

BUMP! This is for Sailaway...

[SuzieWong]

So many replies. Couldn't read them all, but as I try to find answers through the forum I want to reply with my experience from solar and wind:
My hunter 466 is lying in hong kong. good winds in winter (but often in cloudy and misty from january onwards), long sunny periods in summer and autumn (plus some showers and the occasional typhoon).
Anyway, the windgenerator was installed first, but the performance didn't appear that good than i expected. Well, to get the rated 350W output you need about 30kts wind.
In summer I installed three solar panels (Kyocera, 130W), the maximum I could fit onto the bimini area. And I am very happy, thanks to the plasmatronic charge controller I have the charge history for the last 30 days. (only from solar, the windgenerator has it's own charge controller without display and dump resistors). On a good sunny day the three panels achieve well above 100Ah on my 12V system, I saw a peak charge of 22A during noon. It is enough to have the inverter and timer running 24h plus a 350W (220V AC) dehumidifyer for 30min per day.
On cloudy days the performance is different, I once glimpsed onto the display to see only 5A charge during lunch. But I am very happy with the all over all performance and can recommmend solar panels highly.

On cloudy days (again, I need lots of wind) the windgenerator supports charge of the batteries. Unfortunately I can't tell exactly how many Ah, but with the wind blowing 20Kts surely enough to keep fridge and lights running.

[camaraderie]

SW...thanks for the report...yes 390watts of panels with a good controller are capable of making 100ah for you on a sunny day so I'd say your measurements are good there. What kind of wind generator do you have? Sounds like a not so good one!

[Valiente]

Suzie...it sounds like you have the system I want to install. Thanks for the tip on the Plasmatronic CC...being able to track production is the other side of being able to track (and conserve) usage.

[sailingdog]

Is the Plasmatronic CC a MPPT-type or an older three-stage CC???

[Valiente]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

Is the Plasmatronic CC a MPPT-type or an older three-stage CC???

Can't tell! It's written in Strine...Mr. Wombat? Hello?

http://www.12volt.com.au/redirect.ht...egulators.html

http://www.solarsales.com.au/charge_...smatronic.html

[camaraderie]

Pwm but I don't think mppt from the description in the literature...nice other features though...like sending an echo charge to the starter battery after the house is full.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by Valiente

Can't tell! It's written in Strine...Mr. Wombat? Hello?

http://www.12volt.com.au/redirect.ht...egulators.html

http://www.solarsales.com.au/charge_...smatronic.html

Confusion reigns.

I keep seeing the letters MPP.

On the other hand, have we seen the latest Practical Sailor ?

Article on a very interesting product that I've never seen discussed here but feel is worth investigation. Certainly would make the perfect accessory for a multi bbg Catalina. PP 22 - 25.

[SuzieWong]

The plasmatronic charge controller in NOT mppt. I was advised that mppt on 12V panels in hot climate doesn't bring the advantage that they cost more.
In addition I had to consider a serial charger for the solar panels as I didn't want to change the wiring for the windgenerator. You can run them all of the plasmatronic, but then it gets really too difficult for my electric knowledge as you have to run shunt controllers, relais and so on.
This way the windgenerator has it's own parallel charge controller with dump resistors, the solar panels have the serial charge controller wich allows load diversion (eg: divert additional energy to fridge as soon as battery voltage reaches 13.3V, stop energy supply to fridge as soon as battery voltage drops below 12.5V).

As windgenerator I am using a Superwind 350, the only model I could find with feathering props. I wanted feathering props as the boat lies in the typhoon belt and I can't take are of the boat permanently due to work.
No major typhoon has struck since I installed it, and I hope I won't be able to report about typhoon resistance of the system in the next few years.

enjoy sailing