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From: Baumgart, James (no email)
Date: Fri Jan 16 2004 - 14:30:49 EST
Hi All,
I have read about cruisers having laptops onboard. Is anyone using
solar power to keep the batteries charged? Is setting this up a big
deal? How big of a panel do you need?
Solar panels augment the engine alternator on my very modest vessel. 3, 11
watt, flexible solar panels meet my needs on SUNNY DAYS. This is enough to
charge batteries, which are used for my laptop and charging the digital
camera (via invertor), and for interior lighting. These 3 panels are tied
to the boom when at anchor and put out about 4 amps in direct sunlight (25
volts DC). A small wire leads down to a voltage regulator which limits this
to 14.1 volts. The regulator plugs into my electric charging circuit and
keeps 2, 75 amp hour gell batteries charged. By far, interior lighting uses
the greatest amount of power. All cooking, water heating, etc. is propane.
My anchor light is an ultra low draw Davis mini anchor light. Note that
these panels only provide about 25 amp-hours on a good, sunny, summer day.
Fixed panels are more efficent than the flexible (flexible panels are so
tough they can be walked on). Panels for boats MUST be diode protected so
that shadows (or darkness) does not drain the batteries.
These panels cost about $95 and the regulator cost $30.
You would have to determine the total amp-hours you need and buy enough
panels to exceed that. If all you had was a laptop computer and used it 2
hours per day a single 11 watt panel would probably be enough. Running a
DVD uses a lot more power! On cloudy days your boat batteries will be drawn
down because the panels won't put much out and you may have to run your
engine for an hour or so.
Solar Electric Inc. has great prices, ship world wide, and they will help
you determine what you need. http://www.solarelectricinc.com/
<http://www.solarelectricinc.com/> (no affilation, just a satisfied
customer). Cheaper than West Marine or Sailnet.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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