Solar Power, Panels, Charging, Etc.`

[ebb]

I'm challenged by electrics. Don't have the knack for it.
In roaming around the net looking for info - or really looking for how one person did it on their boat - I've often been disappointed. Or 'put off.' General and basic info is useless - the only way I can learn is by example - so going to manuals and books for me is not an option.

The only way to learn is to jump in and acquire the basic stuff by example and necessity. Most controllers of info think you have to start at the beginning. Their tutorials are based on classic education models which are deadly and boring.

The teacher however has to be truly gifted - that's the problem - there aren't too many of them. I have not found a single book on electrics that uses a creative hands-on method to inform the reader on how to wire a 30' foot boat, let's say, from scratch. Of course there'd be a start at a beginning, like learning to sail, basic basics, but then: 'Bam!' here's some ways of setting up your distribution panel, etc. etc. With the whys and wherefores sidebarred and referenced.

Anyway, It is probably a testosterone allocation problem that can't be dealt with here.

We boat people are an RV by definition,
http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/index.php
Set up like Bill's here, there is a nice familiarity, with tons of stuff to wade through and personalities, some seeming well informed.....and there is for newie's a PV Beginners Corner.

[if you go to the url above and get the intro page.
go to the PV Beginners Corner.
go to pg 2 and find an entry by 'techomadia' / 'Solar recommendatiions for a tiny RV....'
Read that entry, naturally, and check out
"Details and pictures of new project archived here."
There is a blue bar that is unresponsive off that page.
But the connection with we who are redesigning the A/C interior and yearning for long passages is obvious: minimalist nomad necessity, gear, construction of their new glass trailer , and solar. Meet somebody new, a couple into tiny living spaces - nice bright blog.]

There are boat specific discussions and prognostications by self-ceded shoguns and gurus on the Advanced Solar Electric Forum.


We have to deal with electrical energy from the minimalist stand. Most posters talk as if they have a huge house platform and addictive needs. It's doubtful that an Ariel can carry a Honda generator and an Ampair wind turbine Yet depending on only the sun for charging batteries out in the South Pacific seems rather foolish. Small boats can't take much hardware weight.
Some people want to get away from it all.
How much is too much - how minimalist becomes too uncomfortable to be fun and sustainable???