Solar Panels and Charge Controllers

[Badsanta]

My dock has no power I will use a charge deverter from the solar pannel. When the batteries get full it switches and dumps the extra power to the water heater. When its sunny and the batteries are full it uses the water heater as a heat sink. I have not hooked it up yet, I hope to have warm water after a week of sitting. We will see.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by Trim50

My bimini is 87" across beam and 56.5" wide. The Kyocera 200W panel is 39" X 56.2"....they should work just fine. I plan to make a rack exactly like yours.

How do you feel about your wind generator? I've talked with people that wished they had spent the money on solar rather than wind.

As a West Coaster having sailed from Seattle to Mexico, "Been there done that.

We ditched the wind generator/solar panel mix after a year and went totally solar. No regrets.

If you're sailing in the Caribbean, it's different.

Steve B.

[Randyonr3]

Viper
We're off the grid, and have been for close to 5 years. At the present we're hanging out in the California Delta and the combination of the 4-winds and the solar powers the whole boat.
We're on a constant goal to work within our battery limits and its kind of an obsesion with me to keep every thing working. The TV, fridge, watermaker, electronics, computer, and all our photography equeptment..
We use the power when its avalible... When the sun climbs high in the sky or the wind starts building, its time to plug things in and take advantage of nature...

[ztviper17]

thats awsome. thats my long term goal, i just want to sail off the grid and just work from my computer. how much did it all cost. also what do you use the radar, antenna on the back of the boat for? (tv, internet)

im new to boats but i really want to learn.

[Randyonr3]

The radar is just that, a 24 mile rader, and all the electronics are raymarine..
The cost, my gosh, the boat was a clear 100k to start, and the electronic package the first time was around 20k.. the first retro-fit I'm thinking was around 30K with the electronics, watermaker, VHF & SSB, new running rigging, solar and the wind charger.
went out for a year and returned to spend another 50K I figure, with Autohelm (raymarine) smart pilot, bottom job and new sails, and a few extras..
out for another year and back to install a new reffer, stove, and turned the quarterberth into a pantry, new tanks, pumps, and plumbing, and have recently replaced all standing rigging........ Maybe over the last five years, maybe 250K.
But its where we want it and the money was there to do the work as we sold our home, our rental, and a piece of property we had..
Understand its taken me better than 30 years investing in property to make this change. we had all property paid for and were at the poing where we were going to build on the property we owned when we decided to give it all up and go cruising,,,
We havent looked back sence.................

[Trim50]

Randy,

Do you happen to have a blog? I would enjoy following your travels.

Cheers,

Ken

[Randyonr3]

Trim
building the site now, Because of the photography, we're building larger..well post it when we're up...........

[ztviper17]

sweet. your really an inspiration randy. What you have done is almost exactly my long run dream. How are you making money though? (if you dont mind me asking)