Your 220AH house bank (2 batteries is the house bank and not the total complement for batteries?) gives you about 110AH of usable power. 50percent discharge is about what you can get from deep cycle batteries before you start doing damage and losing battery life.
My boat uses about 75-85 AH per day when on the hook. My house bank is 460 AH, which will get me 3 days. Refrigeration is about 45 AH Per day, which I understand is typical. Solar panels to generate 45 AH a day will be fairly large. Figuring 5 hours of more or less direct sun, you need panels to produce 9 amps. Times 12 volts equals 108 watts. Allow for inefficiency and part shade and you are talking 130 watts of panel as the likely minimum. That would cover your refrigeration and extend your time on the hook to perhaps three days. Your other electrical consumption will eventually use up your available power. My understanding is that the rigid panels are more efficient. Not as convenient, but easy to mount on top of a fixed Bimini top. Have you thought about replacing the Group 31 batteries? BCI 31 batteries are usually starting batteries and not deep cycle, and 110 AH seems sort of small for a deep cycle battery that large. My smaller group 27 deep cycle batteries are 115 AH each. So make sure you have deep cycle batteries and not starting or marine starting. Another option would be to put 2 group 5 golf cart batteries in place of the 31s. That could get you up to maybe 400 AH. I wish the locker where I have my batteries was tall enough for golf cart batteries. I could have a house bank between 800 and 900 AH. Rick Brass Sent from my iPad > On Mar 26, 2014, at 14:52, "Kim Brown" <kimcbr...@comcast.net> wrote: > > All, > Looking to add some solar. Currently I am only good for about a day at > anchor before I have to address the batteries. Main draw is the reefer. > (wife has short hair and have gone with LEDs) We were anchored out this > past weekend and by the end of day 2 the batteries (2x grp 31h - 110 amp hrs > each) were about out of juice. Warm beer is not an option. Hate running the > engine at anchor; don't have any room for another battery without major > work; not enough wind around here to make wind work. No dinghy davits or > other structure to put rigid panels on..... SO anyone have any experience > with the semi flexible solar panels that you can attach (Velcro) to your > bimini top? Not looking to trickle charge to top off- I am at a dock at the > house and can plug in when home as needed. I need to keep the beer cold at > anchor on day 2-3. > > Kim Brown > Trust Me!!! 35-3 > > > > _______________________________________________ > This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album > http://www.cncphotoalbum.com > CnC-List@cnc-list.com _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com CnC-List@cnc-list.com
