Solar Panels and inverters

[knotflying]

I have posted before on other threads that I tied my thruster with a switch to the house bank. When I am on the hook I just switch it on and that gives me three house batteries for the night. After a night on the hook with refrigerator, lights, anchor light, TV, C-pap and heat I am usually at a 60% to 70% state of charge. As the sun comes up the solar panel takes over and all is good for the next night. Marc of Wefings also suggested changing the solar panel controller over to 100% house and this makes sense to me. Why have the engine battery charged when it isn't really in use and not loosing the charge anyway.

 

[walldog]

I would say that the only reason to leave the 10% solar to the engine battery is if you store it without power. Otherwise I agree to put 100% to house batteries. I am going to look into that and check with Andrew when I am back to my boat. 🙁

 

[VirgilLyons]

I am one of (two) the new owners of the R-25 "Sunshine".
We are considering installing solar panels and a Inverter to extend the gunkholing range and time. Any thoughts on this would be helpful.

Hello friend have you got the panel and inverter system? I am worried about cost.. It it is worth I would love to have it.

 

[ngleadow]

Good for you "Sunshine". I installed a 190 watt solar panel on "Blue Socks" last March. The installation was very straight forward, though I spent a lot of time reading and asking questions about how to in tall it before I began. Solar panels are very cheap now compared to the price just a few years ago. My panel is 190 watt, mono crystalline and cost just over $200.
The whole thing cost me just over $600. This past summer, we never plugged in at any marina which saved us the cost of the solar panel in one summer!! We ran the fridge all the time we were out cruising, but didn't use power drainers such as the microwave, TV sets etc . Since installing the panel we haven't plugged in at our local marina where we moor; all the batteries are topped up and ready to go even in these bleak mid-winter days.

The batteries in the Ranger 25's are connected through a charge relay gizmo (already installed from the factory), so when the house batteries get charged, then the relay moves the charge to the start-up battery, then to the thruster battery. Because of that you only need to have the solar panel connected to the house batteries (through a charge controller). When they get charged it moves to the others.

We are very pleased with our arrangement and highly recommend the installation of solar panels to other boaters. Have a look at our pictures, and contact me if you want further details.

Norm on Blue Socks