I don't mind a bit of controversy, it usually creates interesting conversation, that said.
I don't get the trend towards huge solar arrays combined with huge lithium banks. I'm at anchor atm on a miserable day, instead of worrying about power I run the genset and bring the fridge back to -20, the webasto is heating water for a shower and heating the salon, the dehumidifier is drying it out and the water maker is topping off the tanks and when I shut it all down in an hour everything sorted and the batteries are back over 90% with all the chores done. On a sunny day the small solar 180w array I have keeps topping them off because the power needs are basically zero for the rest of the day until night time.
I can live with the noise for an hour or so a day and I dont have to weigh the arse end of the boat down with huge UGLY arch and panel structure.
If my genset died I would buy another, a northern lights. Yet I see people on YT throw away gesets that still work. I don't get it.
10 boats in a beautiful isolated and quiet anchorage. 7 have generators that each run an hour a day then a few do at night as well…. Don’t know about you but that’s not what I’m sailing for.
Select to expand quotesaltiest1 said..
10 boats in a beautiful isolated and quiet anchorage. 7 have generators that each run an hour a day then a few do at night as well…. Don’t know about you but that’s not what I’m sailing for.
10 boats in an anchorage doesn't sound that isolated. It doesn't bother me at all, everyone has needs that must be met in order to keep their floating world operating.
People talk about how many days of silence they can go as if its some sort of achievement. I think that is ridiculous, your not living off the land in some sort of natural nirvana where your one with nature. Your in a boat, its like the starship enterprise, you need to power it and keep all life systems running so you can go where no man has been before. 10 boats in an anchorage is still the marina 😱
OMG someone just pulled into the anchorage I have all to myself, and they used a bow thruster wtf, I hate the sound of those things😂
So removed the generator and had no solar, increased the house bank and the efficiency of fridge compressors and lights.
Generator working when removed.
HOW MUCH POWER YOU NEED EVERYONE?
No water maker, one fridge freezer and 2 freezers all 12 volt. No lithium (but high end Bosch AGM and alternators for fast charging)
You are not at home.
Never ran house bank to less than 50%.
Carried a petrol 2000w generator if we got stuck in an anchorage more than 4 days and that we used about once a year.
One tank would get us back to 100%
Sure you are sailing boat but still how much power do you actually use.
Better to focus on the other end of the equation.
New compressors are far more efficient than even ones from 5 years ago.
LED all interior lights etc etc.
This will surprise people, galley fridge freezer , in qld in summer about 100amphrs a day, Tasmania in summer about 24amphr
Good insulation is expensive but cheap.
So you charge with the engine, how is that more efficient than a generator?
It doesn't matter how efficient your electrical system is or how big your batteries are, whatever you take out has to be replaced.
I like solar and lithium batteries because barring rare breakdowns it makes the boat totally independent of the mainland. We can head off any time for an "unlimited" time. Very very rarely ever need to find somewhere to fill up with diesel run the engine for electric power.
Same reason for preferring a metho stove. Don't need to lug an LPG tank around or find a place to refill it. We can pull in anywhere that has a hardware shop and get more metho. After teaching everyone how to light it, which is a scary process, we can have a meat/fish and three veg meal anytime. One 75W solar panel (and a spare) with MPPT regulator 300AH of batteries has never in 5 years got desperately low in power. And that includes warming pies and sausage rolls in our 12V oven.
The old Volvo 2003 did have an alternator on it which was a very noisely and dodgy. Full of corrosion and rust. I thought about replacing it but after finding out the cost of a new one - no way. So because the solar power system was running fine I took it off 3 years ago and never looked back. Got rid of the fan belt that ran it, got rid of a lot of noise and the boat motors noticably faster. So for better or worse Ive dumped generators.
I upgraded the original 200AH house bank to 400AH when I added a windlass and hot water boiler on top of the keel ram. No solar, engine charge only.
The Indel fridge would last days if the only thing running. I found racing heavier for loads, you'd get a day and a half before needing a charge as normally theres half a dozen smart phones and all sorts of widgets plugged in being recharged as well as everything else electrical on.
Select to expand quoteTrek said..
I like solar and lithium batteries because barring rare breakdowns it makes the boat totally independent of the mainland. We can head off any time for an "unlimited" time. Very very rarely ever need to find somewhere to fill up with diesel run the engine for electric power.
Same reason for preferring a metho stove. Don't need to lug an LPG tank around or find a place to refill it. We can pull in anywhere that has a hardware shop and get more metho. After teaching everyone how to light it, which is a scary process, we can have a meat/fish and three veg meal anytime. One 75W solar panel (and a spare) with MPPT regulator 300AH of batteries has never in 5 years got desperately low in power. And that includes warming pies and sausage rolls in our 12V oven.
The old Volvo 2003 did have an alternator on it which was a very noisely and dodgy. Full of corrosion and rust. I thought about replacing it but after finding out the cost of a new one - no way. So because the solar power system was running fine I took it off 3 years ago and never looked back. Got rid of the fan belt that ran it, got rid of a lot of noise and the boat motors noticably faster. So for better or worse Ive dumped generators.
What do you do if you get a week or two of overcast weather.
Select to expand quotelydia said..
You are not at home.
Yeah I am at home and I need to try and be as comfortable at anchor as I am sitting in a house and it needs to be sustainable for weeks or months at a time away from marinas.
Plus I want to come to Tassie and I am not sure solar would be reliable enough away from the tropics.
Select to expand quotecammd said..Trek said..
I like solar and lithium batteries because barring rare breakdowns it makes the boat totally independent of the mainland. We can head off any time for an "unlimited" time. Very very rarely ever need to find somewhere to fill up with diesel run the engine for electric power.
Same reason for preferring a metho stove. Don't need to lug an LPG tank around or find a place to refill it. We can pull in anywhere that has a hardware shop and get more metho. After teaching everyone how to light it, which is a scary process, we can have a meat/fish and three veg meal anytime. One 75W solar panel (and a spare) with MPPT regulator 300AH of batteries has never in 5 years got desperately low in power. And that includes warming pies and sausage rolls in our 12V oven.
The old Volvo 2003 did have an alternator on it which was a very noisely and dodgy. Full of corrosion and rust. I thought about replacing it but after finding out the cost of a new one - no way. So because the solar power system was running fine I took it off 3 years ago and never looked back. Got rid of the fan belt that ran it, got rid of a lot of noise and the boat motors noticably faster. So for better or worse Ive dumped generators.
What do you do if you get a week or two of overcast weather.
As mentioned in my post in 5 years never a problem. Even if its overcast the batteries charge. Thats why a good MPPT regulator is worthwhile. If the batteries are looking low just dont use the oven that day.
Select to expand quotecammd said..
So you charge with the engine, how is that more efficient than a generator?
It doesn't matter how efficient your electrical system is or how big your batteries are, whatever you take out has to be replaced.
Even with a sail boat you do a lot of motor sailing on the east coast so house bank is usually close to full.
So unless you are sitting in anchorages for more than 4 days at the time you will have some engine time even if it is steaming before getting sails up.
So last weekend on a sailboat, sat around for 2 days, i think I got to 67% on the house bank (i left power to instruments on to check stuff and had heavy computer usage as was updating stuff, fridge opened regularly, anchor light was out so left deck light on all night) and from memory that was about 2.5hrs steaming to get back to over 90%. Charging set up was putting in about 35 amp into 3 battery AGM set up. (Have gas stove/oven and hot water system runs off engine)
How much do you use each day?
On a completely different issue, was having a big issue with the autopilot circuit randomly losing all power and spent hours and dollars looking at the power circuits, but seems the issue was missed software updates by the previous operator.
Problem seems no more.
I have a 4 KvA Fisher Panda in a sound proof case. If you can hear it you are too close to begin with.
I have toyed with the idea of getting rid of it next time it causes me enough trouble and going bigger on my house batteries.
Select to expand quotecammd said..lydia said..
You are not at home.
Yeah I am at home and I need to try and be as comfortable at anchor as I am sitting in a house and it needs to be sustainable for weeks or months at a time away from marinas.
Plus I want to come to Tassie and I am not sure solar would be reliable enough away from the tropics.
Probably more efficient in Tasmania than the tropics. Efficiency drops off with heat. After 27 degrees the panels lose efficiency.
A decent smart alternator regulator is worth considering if you're very dependent on engine charging. Standard reg's will take forever to top up the last 10% or so.
I have an older balmar reg, the balmar alternator died a few weeks ago. Replaced it with a Redback. Recommended by one of the local sparkies at RQ. They mostly supply commercial vessels like city cats here is Bris and also military and high end 4wd gear and made made locally.
Manufactured from one piece of billet aluminium, mine is only set to charge at about 60 or 70 amps but it rated to 150 so should last a long time. Wasn't cheap but I have decided to subscribe to the buy once cry once theory
Edit I like the redundancy of having two effiecent charging sources should one fail as happened recently with the old alternator.
Edit 2. I have been slowly replacing electrical stuff with lithium compatible components as they fail, all I really need now is a new reg and a dcdc charger and I could go lithium next time the batteries are dead.
Interesting diversity of views - probably based on the boats we sail. My cat has outboards which are useless at charging. It has loads of space and can take about 700 watts of solar on the dinghy arch. I am building a cockpit hard top that will take another 400 watts of shade tolerant panels.
I can understand the worries about what strange Youtubers do - gushingly making videos of the towers of power. I look at most and wonder "How will that stay up in a blow?" and " How does that affect handling offshore?" and "What has that done to the abilitu to sail to windward?"
So for us - 400 watts of solar was plenty and over 1000 in the future means we can switch to mostly induction cooking for next trip. I will still have the gas. We were very happy with gas - and took two bottles with us on our trips north. I can't remember ever having a concern about filling one - once I had to lug a bottle from Cannondale to the Cannondale boat ramp. We used to have metho but it was so bad at heating we loved the gas. A friend had a metho stove and we learnt not to accept an offer for a cup of tea - it took ages for the pot to boil. BUt cats are easy to run gas lines in - monos much less so - so again the choices are dependent on the boat and owner.
Going solar in Tassie is not too bad for a summer fling - as temps cool the fridge needs less power - so it evens out somewhat and in the summer the days are soooo long. BUt you need lots of solar when heading north for a reef trip. In winter the days are short and the sails obscure the panels - so you need to be way over specced in wattage. But then hanging around in QLD in October or November at anchor - the days are long, the panels crank away and you never see below 90 % charge. So you do need to be way over specced for easy living in the winter.
