Wind vs. Solar? Recommendations?

[admiralslater]

We use a lot of power,1 fridge ,1 freezer and most importantly an engle cooler in the cockpit for drinks . We make toast in the morning and my wife likes to dry her hair . Spectra 150 water maker , electric freshwater head , lap tops , cabin fans etc.
We have 5 Firefly batteries for about 550 amphere of storage and 960 watts of solar on a tilting rack . Dusk to dawn is about 120 amphere depletion and batteries are usually on float by about 2 pm . The boat lives in the Caribbean so lots of sun . If you dont have trade winds ,not sure how useful the wind is . How ever cats can jam on the solar much more easily than mono hulls ,so maybe a combo would be best

[gmowbray]

Just going back to the second question of a previous post....

Is there any advantage of “Marine” panels over residential? I’m having a difficult time mentally justifying the Marine,price tag.

[Cheechako]

I had wind and engine charging in the Caribe. I found the wind to seldom reduce my engine running time to keep up with refrigeration. Windy anchorages are what cruisers avoid, wind normally dies at night etc. On a smaller boat like that I would likely go with solar (limited to not having a huge, unsafe, wind drag array) and engine backup.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by gmowbray

Just going back to the second question of a previous post....

Is there any advantage of “Marine” panels over residential? I’m having a difficult time mentally justifying the Marine,price tag.

So here is where ignorance pays dividends I never considered buying “marine” panels largely because I never knew there was a difference. So the panels I have had on my boat for six years now are still in perfect condition and working like they did the day I installed them and they’re not “marine”. Nor is the MPPT controller.

If there is a difference in the price between domestic and “marine”, it can probably be justified by the sellers but not by the durability/performance.

That’s my experience, YMMV. Perhaps my panels will deteriorate over 20 years where marine ones will take 25 years. I can live with that. I am about to install another two panels from the same supplier - I again neglected to discover whether they were domestic or marine. You can see the worry in my eyes.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Good practice would be to do power hungry things like make water or refreezing collector plates in the fridge or freezer in the afternoon when battery charging current is tapering off and the power would go to waste.

Yep by lunch we are making ice with the countertop ice maker and watching the TV.
In the morning I’ll run the Honda for 30 min or so to kick start charging, but by Lunch I have power to waste.

[gmowbray]

CassidyNZ - that’s kind of my thinking. I live next to the ocean in Eastern Canada And if “residential” survives this I don’t see what a 4X$ marine panel would give me.