James, another way of thinking.... Put as much solar on your roof as you can! Also, you can use two centre lines which will negate the problem of getting caught up in the panels. Consider not walking on your roof anymore, you can use the gunwales that's what they are for. The edge of the roof is to sloped to walk on so you might as well max out with big panels! Good luck and keep going!
@@TheNarrowboatThatJamesBuilt the larger size at around 250w are the most cost effective to get hold of. Good used or new other off the bay typically ninety quid each but just depends what you can fit on yours. Also the tracer mppt controllers. I've got a total of 1100 watts and would like even more but can still get a full charge on a favourable day at this time of year. Go for it.
Not sure if they've got any left but I bought and installed 2 x 250w panels from Bible Solar. Was £190 inc delivery. Been getting up to 30v out of them the last few weeks when its clear, apparently was getting some charge through the snow that was on them too 🤷♀️🤷♀️ mine are just flat on the roof at the moment, but I plan to add the angle brackets once the roof is painted and finished.
James, few things to research. 1. Battery banks, old vs. new batteries. Mixing them has consequences, there are lots of articles. 2. check with the manufacturers of the motor driven components (pumps, fridge etc.). They probably have a rating for "Surge" current, meaning the cost, in watts, of starting the device. For example, a standard home refrigerator may consume 900 watts, but takes 2000w to get the compressor started for a small period of time. 3. in your charge calculations, you neglected to account for the drain of having the listed items consuming power from the battery as you are charging it. Remember you're also draining the battery as you charge it, so you'll need to account for that as well.
Best wishes for the New Year, Don't worry about the Nav and Tunnel lights as they will not be on unless the engine is running, also although you use 12volts as a nominal voltage the batteries will be 13.2 v so there will be less current drawn. If you use a monitor with an HDMI input and an Amazon Firestick instead of a TV No TV licence will be required. Do you plan to live in a Marina or on the Canal bank?
Thank you James! You are like my mate at school, Higgy! (Carl Hignett) He was always so very good at explaining stuff to me, so good I never had to do the hard work!! Bob 😊
Don't be tempted to add brand new batteries to a bank of older batteries. The old batteries will be of reduced capacity and will charge faster than the new batteries meaning that the new batteries will never be fully charged and as a result of this will die much earlier. The best policy is to buy a big new bank of batteries - much bigger than you think you need. Not only will they be discharged less of their capacity each day and so last much longer but also when one does eventually die you can just remove it and still have a pretty big battery bank - then when another dies remove that and still have a usable size. Once you are down to too small a bank it is time to throw them all away and buy a new set. This is a big outlay at the beginning but you will get far better value for money from your batteries and a much longer service life. As others have said on here it will take hours and hours to put the last bit of charge in to your batteries so you should never do your calculations based on 100% charge and a 50% maximum discharge. On a separate note I see you have your bilge pump running for an hour a day - I do hope not as that would mean that you are sinking! Hopefully it will never run but with a massive bank of batteries at least you can sleep well knowing that if it ever did come on it could run for a very long time before your batteries go flat and you finally sink!
What counts when sizing solar panels is the average daily solar insolation in kWh per square metre per day, which can be got from a number of web sites dealing with solar PV. This is a useful figure to know as solar panel sizes are quoted with 1000W/sq.m (equatorial noon) incident on them. So e,g. a 160W panel delivers 160W with 1000w/sq m incident on it. FROM MEMORY, the figure for a horizontal surface in Coventry is about 5 kWh/sq.m/day, in July. To get the panel output just multiply the daily insolation in KWh/sq.m/day for the chosen orientation by the panel rating. Then allow a few percent for losses, say 20%, (which I have not done). So a single 160w panel laid flat in Coventry in July would deliver in an average july day: 5 x 160 = 800Wh/day. In winter I think the insolation is only about 0.6kWh/sq m/day, meaning a 160w panel laid flat would deliver only about 96Wh/day. Tipping the panel up to face south in winter will not quite double that. These are averages, so in winter you can strike lucky, or get nothing at all! Tipping panels to face the sun in summer can be counter productive as in the morning and evening the sun will then go "behind" the panel, so you will get more at noon, but less at certain other times.
I found this site www.fabhabs.com/solar-insolation-calculator but it wasnt the one i had used previously. It has Coventry as about 4.2 kwh/sq.m/day in june, and 0.46 kwh/sq.m/day for december
@@TheNarrowboatThatJamesBuilt I met a motorhome user who had a satellite antenna mount that in daytime tracked the sun with a solar panel, but if you turned on the tv, it spun round and looked for satellites. No longer made, I was told. Not surprised - Too much to go wrong. A bigger panel flat on the roof would have been cheaper I think. I have seen the lazy Susan thing on a canal boat, but no point using them in summer. More to trip over on the roof, too.
Bear in mind batteries deliver their rated output only in maybe the first month of their lives. The figure you quote of 50% capacity of discharge is the maximum recommended. This will degrade the batteries more quickly than the 20% discharge figure which is the recommended amount. In the real world, particularly in winter you will struggle greatly to fully charge the batteries from the engine. This is because after reaching 75% state of charge the "acceptance" rate of current will fall to just a few amps. This means to get from 75% to 100% charge will take many hours. Most people won't leave the engine running for 6-8 hours a day so you never reach 100%. Therefore the capacity you have available is maximum 50% of 75% of 115Ah or 43.1Ah and that is with new batteries. If you are charging to 75% you will get sulphation and the capacity will fall over time. After a year you might only have 75% of the original 115Ah so now you have 50% of 75% of 75% of 115Ah or the best part of bugger all in correct English ;) Granted in the summer months things will be better but experience tells me you will need at least 4 new batteries now and you will be replacing them every 2 to 4 years depending on quality and use. People do often keep batteries longer but they are just throwing diesel away trying to charge dead batteries. You are doing the right thinking process so respect for that :)
I am going into my third year living off grid in a Tiny House on Wheels, I use a generator in the winter if I don’t pull in enough power, how ever , over the years I have found I just don’t use any electrical appliances in the winter, I turn my inverter off and only use the power to run my 12v fridge freezer and fan on composting toilet, I use rechargeable lights which I charge from my car when driving around, or if I have generator on and all my other electrical appliances, tablet, iPhone, power packs etc. I think throughout the whole winter I only had to put generator on about 8 times, I live in northeast England. For the first couple of years I tried to live very much like I did when I lived in a house, but gradually this has changed, I am so frugal now with power. Also in the winter I heat as much water for drinks, hot water bottle, washing up, etc on the wood burner , this has really helped with my consumption of gas this year, it is definitely a learning curve :)
I have my solar panel on a simple turntable. Long term, this may be worth thinking about. In winter I find this really makes the most out of what sun we get. In summer, I get more than enough power but winter is a struggle just off solar. Some other boaters near me have looked at it and said they are going to copy the idea. One of the boaters said he's working on a way to make his an automated turntable which will follow the sun on its own.
Hi James like your vlog I.ve used lead and gel but as your right 50% but i would say 25 to 35% of the 50% to keep your batterys in a nice state but victron agm gel or lithium po4.s have a higher efficiency so you get more % mine are 98% but most i use is 60% thats of 400ah liesure. Hope it helps .
Interesting stuff James. Dont forget that the fridge motor should only be actually running for about 50% of the day so that adds some more padding to your daily 'draw'. Tilting solar panels makes a huge difference in Winter, so maybe look for ones which can tilt fore and aft as well as port/stbd for when youre moored North-South !
I went through the same process for my electric lobster boat. Be sure to check torque on your battery bolts on a regular basis. If they get lose there will be arcing and melting of the post...it happened to me. Get an MPPT type charge controller rated for the maximum output of your panels. Review the number of cycles VS depth of discharge from the battery manufacturer and pick your ideal depth of discharge in order to size the array. 50 is likely too much, I'd go for 25%. Also, if the batteries are to be wet (not gel) allow for good ventilation (H2) and of course, regular topping up with distilled H2O. Wet cells have a slightly different charge voltage requirements than gels, so make sure your controller is matched to the charge requirements in the battery literature.
Thanks for the video... With similar demands my set up consists of an 800watt solar array( 8 *100w panels mounted 4 per side with a central wallk way hinged) 450 amp/hr battery bank(wet cell) ,a decent 60 amp mppt solar charge control (morningstar) ,a sterling altenater to battery split charge controller 210amp.,dual engine altenaters (250amp approximately), a sterling combi 3kwh inverter charger( mainly for the washing machine, but comes in handy for a small 360w electric cooker which I power via the solar in sunny times and charging the battery bank via a small inverter genny which is more efficient than running the engine....try not to scrimp on cabling and aim for a voltage 3% drop in all runs .. incidentally most mppt charge controllers allow for an input voltage of up to 150v saving a ton on cable and this also lets you run your panels in series.. Being onboard for about 15years and only replaced the battery bank once after nine years.. good luck ... Merry bobbins and all that.
James lead acid batteries don't like to be rushed - because of their internal resistance you just can't charge them drom half empty to full in 3hr - I have just built a 310 amp /hr Lithium ( lifepo4) for my Mororhome and got change out of £500- they can be charged much faster and will return almost all the energy sent into them - they can overtax a standard alternator but there are ways round that
That was a first class instructional vid.. Well done,,, and you can always use your SUN picture if you run low in the winter... Happy New Year James...
James Reference cleaning your sink.Get a large bottle of coca cola, put a plug in the sink making sure its a good seal. pore in all of the Coca Cola and leave overnight. Hopefully this should get rid of the Stane's.
Hi ya fantastic work your showing us.. I love it.. please when. It comes to sorting putting running the electrical stuff .. please could you take it slow and. Show how it can be done by a novice Jaimes Thank you for your effort and time.. kind regards.. steve north London .. God bless
although you may get 3 hours light in winter, the panels wont ever be 100% efficient, In summer they may only be 80% efficient. In winter I would think 20-30% is more likely.
You can, and most marine engines have a secondary alternator mount, as I understand it. You can also charge both sets of batteries with one alternator, but that isn’t really the best solution for reliability.
Get your solar panels from bimble solar very cheap and very helpful best person to speak to is Phil brooke-little of the 12volt narrowboat group(on facebook) he has put comments on your post so I know he is following your build he is a mind of information.You mentioned at the beginning of this you might buy one more battery for your bank this is a complete no no you never put new batterys with old if you do the new battery will only work as good as the worst battery in the bank,you will find the batterys you have got already may be no good unless they have been kept fully charged they will charge up but drain much to quickly the only way is to use them and see.little mistake in your power audit you normally do not add in any thing that is only used when the engine is running things like nav lights and tunnel lights as they use no power from the battery bank
Not an electric item but I have been worried about how you intend to fill your water tank. As a single hander you cannot be at both ends of the hosepipe at the same time. My filler leaks a bit if I let the water bubble out at the top so I stay at the filling end and whip the hose pipe out at the first warning gurgle. But water goes everywhere which is not a problem for me as the filler is outside the boat. Yours currently is in your bedroom! So you would have to lurk at the tap end and keep switching it off and checking how full your tank is. Which would be annoying. Plus you might get distracted if people chat to you as you are filling. And they do. Enjoy the break.
That`s great to know James as my new wide beam 62`ft x 12`ft will be totally electric with 6x320 solar panels and a marina generator as back up the system will be Victron. if you need any advice check out offgridhappy 💙👊😎
Leisure battery is, like traction battery, really a term for usage and not construction. Both are deep cycle batteries. Starter batteries, on the other hand, are extremely different. They are constructed in such a way that they can deliver extremely high currents (hundreds of amps), but aren’t really otherwise very good at anything at all, especially not deep discharge cycles.
@@JasperJanssen --so the leisure batteries, as James says above, power things like lights and washing machine, while the starter batteries are more powerful and designed (or at least used) just to start the boat's motor, which requires a heavy duty kick of power, but they aren't very good at providing lower-level, but more sustained, power?
@@suecox2308 yep. Precisely that. The same thing applies to RVs. They’ll have the regular starter battery for the engine, and normally in addition to that some number of leisure batteries for the electrics in the living accommodation. You can power *some* limited amount of stuff off a regular starter battery without making it unable to start your engine - cars have lighting, and a radio, and some other stuff that *does* work when standing still, for instance. It’s just that once you get fridges and TVs and the like you might end up only being able to power your home for an hour without the engine running, which is... suboptimal.
James you won’t get the rated power out of the panel as you say flat there will be a loss of about 25°. we have 660w of panels on our motorhome which are flat the best we get this time of year is about 10amps.
Cool... but I think you are a little "light on" for the fridge power usage. and think you should watch this video.... th-cam.com/video/SUzbp18L9oc/w-d-xo.html plus remember, the warmer the inside of your boat is.... the harder the fridge needs to work (I insulated around the sides of my fidge to help it, and it still averaged 2.5 A/H) Merry Christmas
NO NO NO NO!!!: It's not quite as straightforward a you suggest. 1. At about 10:00, you halve 330 AH and get 115. Here in Australia, we use more advanced mathematics and would call it 165 AH. Check with your local university to get the correct value for the Northern Hemisphere. Maths changes all the time. 2. You should make clear to your viewers that the reason for halving it is something called Depth of Discharge, and that all batteries have a max DoD to deliver their full life. Lead acid batteries have a max DoD of 50%, and if you regularly discharge them below this level, you will pay by getting less energy and having to replace them sooner. Other battery technologies such as lithium can be discharged further, but as yours are lead acid that's what we'll go with. Prospective buyers who do not yet have batteries will need to take this into account. 3. Even in the summer you won't produce the theoretical amount of energy as suggested by the panel ratings. On sunny days your panels may be in part shade from passing clouds or trees, or even dust and birdshit, and your production will drop considerably. And even in full sun they will not produce their full theoretical power, which is determined under lab conditions and is not achieved in real life. Here in Melbourne, where our sun is much better than yours, we generally anticipate a year-round average of 5 usable hours of sun per day and then allow enough extra to cover 3 days of cloud, which happens even in summer sometimes. So don't just round it up or you'll be "caught short", so to speak. 4. Your equipment suppliers will be able to provide you with better calcs for your situation. Use them.
ive never been good with electric but the way you have just shown and calculated this i feel i can do this myself, thank you james
James, another way of thinking.... Put as much solar on your roof as you can! Also, you can use two centre lines which will negate the problem of getting caught up in the panels. Consider not walking on your roof anymore, you can use the gunwales that's what they are for. The edge of the roof is to sloped to walk on so you might as well max out with big panels!
Good luck and keep going!
Would you have opinions on max wattage per panel or max size per panel for that matter ?
@@TheNarrowboatThatJamesBuilt the larger size at around 250w are the most cost effective to get hold of. Good used or new other off the bay typically ninety quid each but just depends what you can fit on yours. Also the tracer mppt controllers. I've got a total of 1100 watts and would like even more but can still get a full charge on a favourable day at this time of year. Go for it.
JohnyLondon that’s great thanks. There’s a guy at the wharf who says totally cover your boat in panels - you can’t have enough !!
Not sure if they've got any left but I bought and installed 2 x 250w panels from Bible Solar. Was £190 inc delivery. Been getting up to 30v out of them the last few weeks when its clear, apparently was getting some charge through the snow that was on them too 🤷♀️🤷♀️ mine are just flat on the roof at the moment, but I plan to add the angle brackets once the roof is painted and finished.
James, few things to research. 1. Battery banks, old vs. new batteries. Mixing them has consequences, there are lots of articles. 2. check with the manufacturers of the motor driven components (pumps, fridge etc.). They probably have a rating for "Surge" current, meaning the cost, in watts, of starting the device. For example, a standard home refrigerator may consume 900 watts, but takes 2000w to get the compressor started for a small period of time. 3. in your charge calculations, you neglected to account for the drain of having the listed items consuming power from the battery as you are charging it. Remember you're also draining the battery as you charge it, so you'll need to account for that as well.
Sorry, I see you did account for daily use.
Best wishes for the New Year, Don't worry about the Nav and Tunnel lights as they will not be on unless the engine is running, also although you use 12volts as a nominal voltage the batteries will be 13.2 v so there will be less current drawn. If you use a monitor with an HDMI input and an Amazon Firestick instead of a TV No TV licence will be required. Do you plan to live in a Marina or on the Canal bank?
Thank you James!
You are like my mate at school, Higgy! (Carl Hignett)
He was always so very good at explaining stuff to me, so good I never had to do the hard work!!
Bob 😊
Don't be tempted to add brand new batteries to a bank of older batteries. The old batteries will be of reduced capacity and will charge faster than the new batteries meaning that the new batteries will never be fully charged and as a result of this will die much earlier.
The best policy is to buy a big new bank of batteries - much bigger than you think you need. Not only will they be discharged less of their capacity each day and so last much longer but also when one does eventually die you can just remove it and still have a pretty big battery bank - then when another dies remove that and still have a usable size. Once you are down to too small a bank it is time to throw them all away and buy a new set. This is a big outlay at the beginning but you will get far better value for money from your batteries and a much longer service life.
As others have said on here it will take hours and hours to put the last bit of charge in to your batteries so you should never do your calculations based on 100% charge and a 50% maximum discharge.
On a separate note I see you have your bilge pump running for an hour a day - I do hope not as that would mean that you are sinking! Hopefully it will never run but with a massive bank of batteries at least you can sleep well knowing that if it ever did come on it could run for a very long time before your batteries go flat and you finally sink!
What counts when sizing solar panels is the average daily solar insolation in kWh per square metre per day, which can be got from a number of web sites dealing with solar PV. This is a useful figure to know as solar panel sizes are quoted with 1000W/sq.m (equatorial noon) incident on them. So e,g. a 160W panel delivers 160W with 1000w/sq m incident on it. FROM MEMORY, the figure for a horizontal surface in Coventry is about 5 kWh/sq.m/day, in July. To get the panel output just multiply the daily insolation in KWh/sq.m/day for the chosen orientation by the panel rating. Then allow a few percent for losses, say 20%, (which I have not done). So a single 160w panel laid flat in Coventry in July would deliver in an average july day: 5 x 160 = 800Wh/day. In winter I think the insolation is only about 0.6kWh/sq m/day, meaning a 160w panel laid flat would deliver only about 96Wh/day. Tipping the panel up to face south in winter will not quite double that. These are averages, so in winter you can strike lucky, or get nothing at all! Tipping panels to face the sun in summer can be counter productive as in the morning and evening the sun will then go "behind" the panel, so you will get more at noon, but less at certain other times.
That’s amazing information - loads to think about in there. Now I’m thinking of massive lazy Susan’s !! Thank you 👍🏼
I found this site www.fabhabs.com/solar-insolation-calculator but it wasnt the one i had used previously. It has Coventry as about 4.2 kwh/sq.m/day in june, and 0.46 kwh/sq.m/day for december
@@TheNarrowboatThatJamesBuilt I met a motorhome user who had a satellite antenna mount that in daytime tracked the sun with a solar panel, but if you turned on the tv, it spun round and looked for satellites. No longer made, I was told. Not surprised - Too much to go wrong. A bigger panel flat on the roof would have been cheaper I think. I have seen the lazy Susan thing on a canal boat, but no point using them in summer. More to trip over on the roof, too.
You should get those full tilt brackets for the solar mate, they can get the panels up to much straighter in the winter for better efficiency
Yeh but only if the boat is in a favourable orientation to start with.
🧖🏽
My late uncle Ohm once told me :
“Remember: With great power comes current squared times resistance.”
🤔
Bear in mind batteries deliver their rated output only in maybe the first month of their lives. The figure you quote of 50% capacity of discharge is the maximum recommended. This will degrade the batteries more quickly than the 20% discharge figure which is the recommended amount. In the real world, particularly in winter you will struggle greatly to fully charge the batteries from the engine. This is because after reaching 75% state of charge the "acceptance" rate of current will fall to just a few amps. This means to get from 75% to 100% charge will take many hours. Most people won't leave the engine running for 6-8 hours a day so you never reach 100%. Therefore the capacity you have available is maximum 50% of 75% of 115Ah or 43.1Ah and that is with new batteries. If you are charging to 75% you will get sulphation and the capacity will fall over time. After a year you might only have 75% of the original 115Ah so now you have 50% of 75% of 75% of 115Ah or the best part of bugger all in correct English ;) Granted in the summer months things will be better but experience tells me you will need at least 4 new batteries now and you will be replacing them every 2 to 4 years depending on quality and use. People do often keep batteries longer but they are just throwing diesel away trying to charge dead batteries.
You are doing the right thinking process so respect for that :)
I am going into my third year living off grid in a Tiny House on Wheels, I use a generator in the winter if I don’t pull in enough power, how ever , over the years I have found I just don’t use any electrical appliances in the winter, I turn my inverter off and only use the power to run my 12v fridge freezer and fan on composting toilet, I use rechargeable lights which I charge from my car when driving around, or if I have generator on and all my other electrical appliances, tablet, iPhone, power packs etc. I think throughout the whole winter I only had to put generator on about 8 times, I live in northeast England. For the first couple of years I tried to live very much like I did when I lived in a house, but gradually this has changed, I am so frugal now with power. Also in the winter I heat as much water for drinks, hot water bottle, washing up, etc on the wood burner , this has really helped with my consumption of gas this year, it is definitely a learning curve :)
I have my solar panel on a simple turntable. Long term, this may be worth thinking about. In winter I find this really makes the most out of what sun we get. In summer, I get more than enough power but winter is a struggle just off solar. Some other boaters near me have looked at it and said they are going to copy the idea. One of the boaters said he's working on a way to make his an automated turntable which will follow the sun on its own.
Hi James like your vlog I.ve used lead and gel but as your right 50% but i would say 25 to 35% of the 50% to keep your batterys in a nice state but victron agm gel or lithium po4.s have a higher efficiency so you get more % mine are 98% but most i use is 60% thats of 400ah liesure. Hope it helps .
Interesting stuff James. Dont forget that the fridge motor should only be actually running for about 50% of the day so that adds some more padding to your daily 'draw'. Tilting solar panels makes a huge difference in Winter, so maybe look for ones which can tilt fore and aft as well as port/stbd for when youre moored North-South !
I went through the same process for my electric lobster boat. Be sure to check torque on your battery bolts on a regular basis. If they get lose there will be arcing and melting of the post...it happened to me. Get an MPPT type charge controller rated for the maximum output of your panels. Review the number of cycles VS depth of discharge from the battery manufacturer and pick your ideal depth of discharge in order to size the array. 50 is likely too much, I'd go for 25%. Also, if the batteries are to be wet (not gel) allow for good ventilation (H2) and of course, regular topping up with distilled H2O. Wet cells have a slightly different charge voltage requirements than gels, so make sure your controller is matched to the charge requirements in the battery literature.
Thanks for the video... With similar demands my set up consists of an 800watt solar array( 8 *100w panels mounted 4 per side with a central wallk way hinged) 450 amp/hr battery bank(wet cell) ,a decent 60 amp mppt solar charge control (morningstar) ,a sterling altenater to battery split charge controller 210amp.,dual engine altenaters (250amp approximately), a sterling combi 3kwh inverter charger( mainly for the washing machine, but comes in handy for a small 360w electric cooker which I power via the solar in sunny times and charging the battery bank via a small inverter genny which is more efficient than running the engine....try not to scrimp on cabling and aim for a voltage 3% drop in all runs .. incidentally most mppt charge controllers allow for an input voltage of up to 150v saving a ton on cable and this also lets you run your panels in series..
Being onboard for about 15years and only replaced the battery bank once after nine years.. good luck ... Merry bobbins and all that.
We hope you had a good Christmas day, we are glad your having a bit of a rest. Keep well.
330 divided by two isn't 115 James :) But on the plus side you have 50amh more than you thought.
OMG - how embarrassing! But yeah you’re right, that will account for solar drop 👍🏼
Don't count on it. See my comment elsewhere.
James lead acid batteries don't like to be rushed - because of their internal resistance you just can't charge them drom half empty to full in 3hr - I have just built a 310 amp /hr Lithium ( lifepo4) for my Mororhome and got change out of £500- they can be charged much faster and will return almost all the energy sent into them - they can overtax a standard alternator but there are ways round that
That was a first class instructional vid.. Well done,,, and you can always use your SUN picture if you run low in the winter... Happy New Year James...
Nice explanation James. More power to your elbow! 😉
Excellent series James. Hope you had a good Christmas. Thanks for the GCSE physics reminder! Take care.
You’re welcome, although I’m sure you attended more lessons than I. Merry Christmas 👍🏼
James Reference cleaning your sink.Get a large bottle of coca cola, put a plug in the sink making sure its a good seal. pore in all of the Coca Cola and leave overnight. Hopefully this should get rid of the Stane's.
Wouldn't you be better to replace all batteries with new ones sometimes mixing new with old can cause problems ?
Hi ya fantastic work your showing us.. I love it.. please when. It comes to sorting putting running the electrical stuff .. please could you take it slow and. Show how it can be done by a novice Jaimes Thank you for your effort and time.. kind regards.. steve north London .. God bless
A happy 2021 to you, Parker Tools sell excellent Petrol generators and are reasonably priced
although you may get 3 hours light in winter, the panels wont ever be 100% efficient, In summer they may only be 80% efficient. In winter I would think 20-30% is more likely.
Just a thought can you fit a second alternator to your drive engine to charge the batterys......
Yes I’ll be doing that as much back up power generation
You can, and most marine engines have a secondary alternator mount, as I understand it. You can also charge both sets of batteries with one alternator, but that isn’t really the best solution for reliability.
Get your solar panels from bimble solar very cheap and very helpful best person to speak to is Phil brooke-little of the 12volt narrowboat group(on facebook) he has put comments on your post so I know he is following your build he is a mind of information.You mentioned at the beginning of this you might buy one more battery for your bank this is a complete no no you never put new batterys with old if you do the new battery will only work as good as the worst battery in the bank,you will find the batterys you have got already may be no good unless they have been kept fully charged they will charge up but drain much to quickly the only way is to use them and see.little mistake in your power audit you normally do not add in any thing that is only used when the engine is running things like nav lights and tunnel lights as they use no power from the battery bank
1,LG panels 2,stick on panels like silver fox have a look also like mick sims said a alternator 3,as well as a generator.
Great James. I have a question. If you run a tv of 40w off the inverter is it divided by 12 or 230 to calculate the usage or something else? Thanks
Not an electric item but I have been worried about how you intend to fill your water tank. As a single hander you cannot be at both ends of the hosepipe at the same time. My filler leaks a bit if I let the water bubble out at the top so I stay at the filling end and whip the hose pipe out at the first warning gurgle. But water goes everywhere which is not a problem for me as the filler is outside the boat. Yours currently is in your bedroom! So you would have to lurk at the tap end and keep switching it off and checking how full your tank is. Which would be annoying. Plus you might get distracted if people chat to you as you are filling. And they do. Enjoy the break.
Wait, wasn’t he intending to have an outdoor filler fitting?!
I suppose you can get a garden hose valve that you can have at the boat end.
That`s great to know James as my new wide beam 62`ft x 12`ft will be totally electric with 6x320 solar panels and a marina generator as back up the system will be Victron. if you need any advice check out offgridhappy 💙👊😎
James Reference cleaning your sink.
Get a large bottle on cheep
I've heard the distinction between "leisure" batteries and the other kinds of batteries--what is a leisure battery?
Al leisure battery is basically exactly the same but it’s purpose is to power leisure stuff only. Ie - not the engine !
Leisure battery is, like traction battery, really a term for usage and not construction. Both are deep cycle batteries. Starter batteries, on the other hand, are extremely different. They are constructed in such a way that they can deliver extremely high currents (hundreds of amps), but aren’t really otherwise very good at anything at all, especially not deep discharge cycles.
@@JasperJanssen --so the leisure batteries, as James says above, power things like lights and washing machine, while the starter batteries are more powerful and designed (or at least used) just to start the boat's motor, which requires a heavy duty kick of power, but they aren't very good at providing lower-level, but more sustained, power?
@@suecox2308 yep. Precisely that. The same thing applies to RVs. They’ll have the regular starter battery for the engine, and normally in addition to that some number of leisure batteries for the electrics in the living accommodation.
You can power *some* limited amount of stuff off a regular starter battery without making it unable to start your engine - cars have lighting, and a radio, and some other stuff that *does* work when standing still, for instance. It’s just that once you get fridges and TVs and the like you might end up only being able to power your home for an hour without the engine running, which is... suboptimal.
@@JasperJanssen That's really interesting and helpful. Many thanks.
Check out midsummer energy got a very keenly priced quality system from them they are on eBay but cheaper if you go directly to them! 😀
James you won’t get the rated power out of the panel as you say flat there will be a loss of about 25°. we have 660w of panels on our motorhome which are flat the best we get this time of year is about 10amps.
Are your solar panels mono or poly .
@@thekitowl mono I believe
👍👌🇨🇦❤
Cool... but I think you are a little "light on" for the fridge power usage.
and think you should watch this video.... th-cam.com/video/SUzbp18L9oc/w-d-xo.html
plus remember, the warmer the inside of your boat is.... the harder the fridge needs to work (I insulated around the sides of my fidge to help it, and it still averaged 2.5 A/H)
Merry Christmas
NO NO NO NO!!!: It's not quite as straightforward a you suggest.
1. At about 10:00, you halve 330 AH and get 115. Here in Australia, we use more advanced mathematics and would call it 165 AH. Check with your local university to get the correct value for the Northern Hemisphere. Maths changes all the time.
2. You should make clear to your viewers that the reason for halving it is something called Depth of Discharge, and that all batteries have a max DoD to deliver their full life. Lead acid batteries have a max DoD of 50%, and if you regularly discharge them below this level, you will pay by getting less energy and having to replace them sooner. Other battery technologies such as lithium can be discharged further, but as yours are lead acid that's what we'll go with. Prospective buyers who do not yet have batteries will need to take this into account.
3. Even in the summer you won't produce the theoretical amount of energy as suggested by the panel ratings. On sunny days your panels may be in part shade from passing clouds or trees, or even dust and birdshit, and your production will drop considerably. And even in full sun they will not produce their full theoretical power, which is determined under lab conditions and is not achieved in real life. Here in Melbourne, where our sun is much better than yours, we generally anticipate a year-round average of 5 usable hours of sun per day and then allow enough extra to cover 3 days of cloud, which happens even in summer sometimes. So don't just round it up or you'll be "caught short", so to speak.
4. Your equipment suppliers will be able to provide you with better calcs for your situation. Use them.
you forgot the cooker - is that a statement of intent?
Cooker and oven are gas fired, not electric. Unless it has an electric igniter, but that power consumption is seriously negligible.
Yes it’s gas and the 12v ignition isn’t worth writing down to be honest