5. Getting Solar Power on our Narrowboat
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ส.ค. 2024
- One of the main questions I'm asked is how do we get electricity on our narrowboat?! The answer is mostly solar power.
We got ourselves three new 305W solar panels: www.bimblesola...
You can also find me here:
Website: www.montheillu...
IG: / montheillus. .
Nice presentation 🙌👍
Excellent investment. Love that you guys are so well informed about your power needs. When I lived on my narrowboat, I picked up a cheap little generator to top up the battery bank if needed. Saved on running the engine.
I think that will definitely be our next purchase when we head into the dead of winter :)
A good effort and even bonus marks for not forgetting your GCE classes with the sketch-up. A failing grade though for physics - Amps measures electrical CURRENT.. Amps per day measures - well, nothing really. You're not alone, What you are interested in is WATTS or Kilowatts (kW) for power, and Kilowatt-hours (kWh) for Energy, i.e. the amount of the very stuff you are generating over (say) the day)
Don't give up though, you're on the right track. Just dig out the old physics text book you forgot to return to the school library and give it quick read. Everything anyone needs to know is in there :)
Came here to mention this. That saying we used 40 amps in a day is meaningless. Kind of like saying we used 40 psi of water today.
Edit: Yes, I know in using water as a metaphor for electricity that pressure is akin to voltage and flow rate is akin to amps BUT who as a layman can relate to flow rate? Distinguishing pressure from flow is as alien as amps from voltage to most people.
The only 2 things from that physics book you need to know are W=VA (Watts=Volts x Amps) and Energy used = Watts x hrs (Expressed as kWh which is Watts / 1000 x hrs). So a small 50 watt fridge that cycles-on for 15 mins every hour uses 0.05kW x 0.25 x 24 = 0.3kWh energy per day.
What that physics book won't tell you is that most solar discussions, related appliance stats and consumption figures seem to default to Amp Hours (AH) as the main default measurement. Maybe this comes from standardised battery "size" stats which is the capacity of the battery. Which is akin to the "size of the reservoir" in the water metaphor. Which is actually both easier to visualise and describes how much "potential energy" you have stored.
So that 12V 50W fridge would require 25AH of stored capacity every day. (0.3/12x1000)
Relating back to the video, I guess saying "We used 40 amps of power today" is shorthand for "We used 40 AmpHours of power today".
Condersending much! I think she did a perfect job and of course she meant amp hours a day. That was useful for at least me to know.
@@DiscoFang God, I hate to stir up this yet again, but 40 AmpHours still doesn't equate to power.
Power = volts * amps
Energy = Power * time
So, assuming this is a 12volt circuit, she could have said "We've used 480 watt hours of energy today" which at current prices is about 10 pence worth.
That was a very good presentation. The costs do mount up but the panels will keep you powered for most of the year. I think it is best to look at Watts rather than Amps coming in as Watts are power. If you just look at Amps, what is the voltage at which those Amps are supplied?
Fitting and wiring panels is well within the scope of most boaters, perhaps a little lees time on the CAD and a bit more with the screwdrivers? However, well done for thinking ahead and getting prepared for less favourable conditions. You must now have well over a Kw of panels, excellent.
I was quite sure you meant amp hours, though without stating the voltage we can't know the power (I presume your mppt gives readings for both the panel side and battery side). For example if your panels were (instantaneously) giving 8 amps at 24v then you would see 16 amps on the 12v side.
I'm puzzled why you would want to sit on the roof when there is so much towpath around though?!
Good luck with it all.
Very clever calculations. Brilliant.
Great pic of Boat
400 pounds!!! They plug together with the sockets omg
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Very informative vlog. Are you planning to cruise all winter or use a marina?
We’re going to be cruising all winter ❄️
Would be better to put them on linear actuators
Owning a boat makes for DIY learning or paying - both have good & bad outcomes
cracking price on the panels did bimble install them?
Such a good price! No, they just shipped them over! We found an electrician from the London boaters directory :-)
Good vlog but I was confused about amps as I needs to know watts to see how much they would support my appliances x.
I’ll try to make a power usage video soon :)
When you say you use "40 amps", do you mean 40 amp-hrs?
What a total lie.. they never taught sketchup for gcses they just teach office monkeys spreadsheets.. what gcse was this?