Hi Phil, My experience with solar says you need too big of an array to do much good for a cruising boat, with any high power draw electronics. Not saying it doesn't work, just saying your at the mercy of the amp hour rating, the size of your battery(s) and the available sun.
There is a WWP19, named Chubby who spent a month cruising to Hawaii. The skipper carried a Honda 1000 generator and charged batteries for about thirty minutes every day of so. I have the same generator, works great! I will however replace it with the next size up, the Honda 2000. They claim both are "clean" electricity. Meaning you could run a laptop from the 120v plug. I will go one step up so I can run it to use a microwave. Notice that when you look at generators, most have a direct plug in to charge batteries. I currently use mine to charge a small 12v - 12amp battery, which I believe goes to a snowmobile or maybe a jetski. The battery is a gel cell and sealed, so there is no chance for spillage of electrolyte. Even with a wired battery box, the entire set up is only 9 pounds. There are lots of sizes available, all the way up and over 20amp in this little battery. More amps = more dollars in this case. You may be told by folks like West Marine, you have to buy a high dollar charger for the gel cell. Not necessarily so, especially when you are watching the battery. You shouldn't leave it overnight on a regular charger - as you would a float charger (for gel), but it is acceptable to charge with the Honda generator and disconnect when the charger turns to trickle. For me that's about 30 minutes. I run a (truck cab style) electric fan, two xenon cabin lights and navigation lights, when needed. I charge the battery about one in 3 to 5 days. Even with no useage, it is recommended to charge this type of battery every month or so. They are not necessarily a deep cycle, however they last a couple of years, as I've been using them. And, they are way less than $50.00 at Wallyworld. A little more at Batteries unlimited. If you have a 12v deep cycle already installed, find out the amp rating of the battery, that will help you determine the amp hours you can draw, before you must re-charge. Next, determine the amount of draw in amps for each piece of equipment. If you are all LED, you can probably go for weeks, without a charge! If only we were all so fortunate. Ayway. make a list of the equipment and the rating of each. Compare that to the amp rating of the battery. An example would be my battery is 10 amp. The fan I use is rated at 1.5 amp. I can run that fan at full speed for about 6 1/2 hours (10 divided by 1.5 = 6.6). I am sure there are more difficult ways of explaining this, but it still comes out the same. You use the amps, then you recharge to get them back. Another real time benefit of the Honda generator is they are 4-stroke and use the same gas used in the Honda outboards. The downside, they are expensive! Bill On 9/2/08, Phil & Frances <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > How do some of you power your battery if you stay out there for a week > or two? Right now I have only the runing lights on it, but I would like > to add more items but I do not know whether to go for solar or > generator. Any experience among you folks? > > Phil > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats > _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
