Hi, Norm, and list,
While I am sure Skip's electrical arrangement suits him, on board Bandersnatch
we have a different experience.
I don't understand his statement "your solar and wind will have to be
balanced to the size of the battery bank". The job of the PV controller is to
prevent overcharging of the battery bank. When the batteries are charged and
one has available even more electrical power it could be diverted to a
watermaker.
My concerns are not an excess, but a sufficiency. Shortly after our refit, we
did a thorough energy budget (the results may have even appeared here in the
prior iteration), starting by noting the draw from each and every device,
moving on to the expected time of use, in at-anchor, under way, day and night
modes, and then calculated how much it would take to support that load.
I would say that when it comes to energy gathering the bigger the better.
Our 1,300 watts of PV keeps up with our electrical requirements when we have
sunny days while the solar charge controller prevents the batteries from being
overcharged. On cloudy days we let loose our two KISS wind generators and if
there is significant wind they help keep the batteries from sagging too much.
If we can't get enough wind or sun there is always the 8KW diesel genset.
Easy for you to say :{)) 8KW goes a very long way, but still has the
bulk/maintain/float charge issues for how long it may run. But you make my
point for me. I agree that bigger is better, and it was that to which I
directed my balance comment. If you can't reasonably charge your batteries
with the available green sources, you're forced into some dinosaur
remains-driven sources. We only have one KISS (I'd initially thought we'd need
two, but John at Hotwire talked me out of it), and, aside from my not thinking
outside the box causing me to miss out on more watts than I have now, there
wasn't anyplace else to put more than our current 370W of solar. Even if I'd
been thinking outside the box, likely we couldn't put up more than 500 on our
current platform. With an 880AH bank, we could run the KISS all the time even
when charged, without a great deal of concern, as, unless it's blowing over 20,
we'd only see about 15A max, under 2%. I'm a bit foggy on my battery wizardry,
but I THINK I recall that a bank can take that much pretty much ad infinitum.
My solar controller would cut that part off, unless I was trying to do the soft
equalizing mentioned before.
That said, in the ECarib, likely our current (pardon the expression) setup
would suffice, as the sun shines pretty reliably, and the wind blows even more
so. It was to that environment it was designed.
None the less, one of our chief major projects we want to accomplish is a
hard bimini, with the chief objective being the ability to install massively
more solar. At that, I don't know that we'd approach the 1300 you have
available to you. The other major project is to address the POS arch I have
(Thanks, Sanchez Brothers, Ruskin FL), either a major mod or entire
replacement. We might well go to a second KISS, or perhaps one of the more
current models with higher outup/maybe quieter (but I certainly have no
complaints after diligent balancing of our setup) at the same time.
If we had 2,000 watts of PV perhaps we could air condition at least part of
the boat like a sailboat we met in Norfolk on the northbound does.
Having too much PV is like having too much sex or too much money. I just
don't understand the concept!
Ditto that :{)) However, on all three counts, I can say from experience that
not having nearly enough to suit your preferences/usage patterns really sux...
The Honda allows relief from one of them :{))
Norm
S/V Bandersnatch
Lying Gloucester MA
L8R
Skip, currently off Settlement Harbour, Great Guana, Abacos
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery !
Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog
and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
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