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From: Rosalie B. (no email)
Date: Wed Jan 28 2004 - 08:57:55 EST
On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 18:27:50 -0000, you wrote:
>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?
>
>TIA
>
>Al
>Nor'Sea 27
>S/V Grace
>
We started out with one panel on the dinghy davits, and then put
another one on the radar arch and now we also have two on the staysail
boom on the foredeck. We also have a wind generator. The solar
panels work when there is light and the wind generator works when
there is wind. (This sounds obvious - right.)
We find that there's always light during the day - of course if the
day is cloudy or if there are shadows on the panels, they don't put
out as much, but ANY light allows the panels to do some work. The
wind generator doesn't do much below about 15 knots of wind.
People down here in the Keys don't seem to feel that a wind generator
is as important as the solar panels. But we find that there is often
significant wind here. In the Chesapeake with hot sunny windless
days, the solar panels do a good job
In any case, if we are at anchor or at a mooring, the solar panels
(even with just two of them) and the wind generator combined keep the
boat batteries charged up. We have two banks of 4 6v batteries. We
do not run a panel just to charge the laptop(s). Bob has the panels
set up so that when the boat batteries are fully charged, there are
small ventilation fans in each cabin that are run off the excess.
When I hear the fans run, I know that everything is charged up.
WHen we live in a marina, we turn off the wind generator, and also
turn off the battery charger during the day and let the solar panels
do the job. Where we are now, there is a minimum charge for
electricity (which is metered), and we are given the minimum charge
because we don't use that much, even running radios, computers, power
tools and a couple of TVs and a sat dish, and a space heater when it
is cold (which it is now by Keys standards).
The solar panels do not take care of the refrigeration because ours is
set up to be either engine driven or 110 and we don't have a 12V
system. In the marina, we run the 110 about a half hour to 45 minutes
twice a day.
grandma Rosalie
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