Solar Power, Panels, Charging, Etc.`

[Tony G]

Ooh! Forgot about the fans. How about a recumbant style stationary bike with a generator hooked up on the foredeck? A guy's gotta stay in shape out there. We did buy the complete nav/boat toy kit, but I'm hoping to only use instruments to verify sail trim until I know what the boat likes and maybe check depth on the go. Lap-top is probably going to be-necessary(?). You're exactly right with windowbox analogy!

I figured I'd just spot all the Morris and Hinckleys in the bay and then go 'glob' off of them. Just kidding.

Didn't want to pay the extra $8 for the low-limit cut off so we stuck with the SS-10.

[c_amos]

Looks like a good set up Tony.

FWIW, We started our trip with a 40w panel, and found that was lacking for our engle fridge. I added 2 25w Sunlinq flexible panels which fit perfectly on top of the dodger.

I was sadly disappointed by these Sunlinq brand panels. I see West Marine has now picked them up.... I can not say enough about how poor their output was. I tried several locations, and never got more then a couple hundred ma out of either of them (or both). Fortunately I was able to return them to the hippie alt-energy place I bought them from (~750 for the pair).

Next trip we plan to have a ~120w panel over the top of the pushpit. If not for the fridge, we would probably be happy with the 40w panel we started with.

As a matter of fact, I was at the boat a couple hours ago. I have a link 10 battery monitor that keeps track of all the amp-hours that go into and come out of the battery bank. It has not moved from %100 since we turned off the fridge.

[Tony G]

Craig

That real world experience is what I'm looking for. So are you going to have a 120w and a 40w on Faith? Now I'm just being stupid...

This may be stretching this thread a bit too far but do you think your Engel's performance is in line with that of other owners? Was it a matter of loading less than cold items into it or going into the unit frequently such that it was continually catching up? Will adding more insulation, in your opinion, around the refer help?

If there is another, more appropriate thread out there for your answere, please redirect me. Or you could pm me also if you have some info for me. Thanks

[c_amos]

I don't think we have an Engle thread here. There is one on SailFar, but my impressions of the Engle (model 27) were favorable.

The mgf lists the current use as .7a That is based on a 24 hour day at a given ambient temp. It uses 2.4a when it is running, and it does not matter if it is in refrigerator or freezer mode. The difference is all in how much of the time it runs.

We only used ours for some cold water, and a couple of food items we might have done without. When it was cooler, it ran very little. When it was hot out, it ran much more often. Using the Link 10, I would estimate it averages 30ah a day... not bad by refer standards.

That real world experience is what I'm looking for. So are you going to have a 120w and a 40w on Faith? Now I'm just being stupid...

No, I would just replace the current panel with a 120 or 130w panel. If I were doing without the fridge, or only doing weekeends I bet the 40w panel would be fine.

I looked for a picture of the way the panel was mounted, here is the best I could do;



Also, FWIW, I had the panel(s) running through a NC25a flexcharge controller. I did try the sunlinq panels without it, and found it made no difference (the Sunlinq really are junk IMHO). The controller was added more for the output of my outboard, since it lacks a regulator.... but it seems to cause no appreciable loss.