I installed the panels on the boat on Friday, 2 x 95 Watt panels with the Morningstar MPPT charge controller. At a little after 7 Saturday morning the sun wasn't more than 2 diameters above the horizon and the panels were essentially horizontal, I was putting 2 amps into the batteries, I tilted the panels a bit and it went up to 4. By mid day I was putting 4+ in each battery, but since they were probably overfull at that time, they were just on float. There are 4 220 Ah 6 volt batteries in the system with a starting battery. The refer doesn't draw enough juice to run the batteries down very far. I'll toss on the inverter the next time I'm down and bring the batteries closer to a 50% discharge and see what happens.
Incidentally, I have an Alder Barbour refer and the muffin fan that cools the evaporator got real noisy and finally seized. I coaxed it along for a few months with WE-40 but it finally got so noisy I couldn't sleep, so I replaced it. While I was in there I brushed the cat hair, cobwebs and other assorted trash away from the cooling surface. When I got through, the draw went from almost 8 amps down to 4.5 amps. I replaced the fan with an exact duplicate and I think it was rated at 320 ma. I'm not sure I understand why but I'm very happy. So thanks to all who answered my dumb questions earlier this month. I've got juice to spare, at least for now. But that brings up a new question. The refer box sits on the other side of the bulkhead from the engine. The top of the box and the inside of the box get very warm when the engine is running. It's all sealed up and glassed in around the box so I don't have a clue as to how much insulation is around the sides. The lids are probably 3" thick. Without tearing out a section of the bulkhead I'm open for suggestions as to how to reduce the effect. Of course the hottest side of the engine is the side next to the refer. There is room for 2 or 3 inches of insulation beside the engine, if anyone thinks that will help. The only vent from the engine is through the pedestal (center cockpit) and I've installed a series of muffin fans to assist the natural flow of air, which will help keep the engine room cooler, but I don't think that'll be the end of it. Jim. _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list Liveaboard@liveaboardnow.org To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to liveaboard-j...@liveaboardnow.org To unsubscribe send an email to liveaboard-le...@liveaboardnow.org The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/liveaboard@liveaboardnow.org The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
