Sail Life - How much solar is enough?

1) Understanding your energy needs is essential to determine how much solar you need. Start by making an "energy budget". List all your consumers and their daily usage. For example, if your LED lights use 1W per bulb and you have eight bulbs on for 5 hours a day, that would be 8 Watts for 5 hours or (8x5) 40 Wh (Watt hours). I like to use kWh to keep things consistent. 40 Wh = 0.040 kWh. It's a good idea to list what you're using while at anchor and another list of what you're using while underway (for instance, you don't use your autopilot at anchor). Remember to list everything: fridge, freezer, watermaker, autopilot, nav lights, chart plotters, etc. For example, here aboard Athena, with an electric galley, fridge, freezer, watermaker, two computers, etc, we use an average of 5.5 kWh per day. 2) To give you a quick estimate, use https://globalsolaratlas.info/ to find "Global horizontal irradiation" per day for your location. Take your daily energy consumption from step 1 and divide that by the number of solar hours. In the case of Athena, located in the Caribbean, that would be 5.5kWh per day / 5 sun hours = 1.1 kW solar array. Keep in mind that this is a theoretical number that does not take into account the shading or degradation of the panels over time. Let's add 30%. 1.1 x 1.3 = 1.43 kW. You can now divide that number by the panel's Nominal Power output. In the case of Athena, our panels are 400W SunPower panels. 1430W / 400W = 3.6 panels needed to cover our 5.5 kWh per day consumption. 3) Understand that the amount of solar you can install on a small sailboat is limited by the size of the boat and heavily influenced by shading and, of course, the boat's location. The size of the panels might also be defined by the height of your stanchions or the size of an existing solar arch. Figure out where you're able and willing to install panels. That will dictate the size and number of panels. 4) Use Victron Energy's MPPT Calculator to calculate what MPPT is ideally sized for your solar panels and expected output based on location. Based on our experience in the Caribbean, the estimate provided by the guide is reasonable. https://www.victronenergy.com/mppt-calculator. Remember that it's best practice to avoid combining panels with different specs on the same MPPT. #sailboat #sailboatproject #boatwork #saillife #liveaboard #liveaboardlife #saltlife #sailing #sailingadventure #travel ingcouple #livingonaboat #solar #sailboatsolar

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Wait until Nick stops talking to take in the amazing clouds and sunset. =========================== Transcription I hope you are out and enjoying this or you're at a restaurant in Croatia and you're going to see it roll through and I just told one of my beer voters this guy's called them before I left the boat so make sure you close your hatches because this is rolling through so hopefully you're not one of those people that is now watching this seeing it and realising all their hatches are open have a great night. Like, Subscribe, Comment =========================== Looking to sail in Croatia? Here are four ways we can help make it happen for you: ⛵️ ⛵️ Premium Tours ➡︎ ➡︎ https://rb.gy/wrvmtg ⛵️ ⛵️ Flotilla Sailing Weeks ➡︎ ➡︎ https://rb.gy/xozady ⛵️ ⛵️ Bareboat Charters ➡︎ ➡︎ https://rb.gy/yg7l2v ⛵️ ⛵️ Buy a Yacht ➡︎ ➡︎ https://rb.gy/afxrbv Or check out our great free resources here: https://www.45degreessailing.com/resources/ =========================== Looking for help with your charter, check out our PREMIUM CHARTER SERVICES found here: https://www.45degreessailing.com/resources/ 🛟 Premium Charter Service 🛟 Yacht Charter Guide 🛟 Yacht Charter Checklist 🛟 Bareboat Assist 🛟 Itinerary Planning Service =========================== Filmed and Edited by Nick Hathaway, 45 Degrees Sailing Music provided by Epidemic Sounds. Start your free trial here ➡︎ ➡︎ https://rb.gy/cvexwp =========================== Connect with Nick & 45D on Social Media: =========================== ➡︎ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hathaway-03b60934/ ➡︎ https://www.linkedin.com/company/45-degrees-sailing/ ➡︎ https://www.facebook.com/45degreessailing ➡︎ https://www.instagram.com/45degreessailing/ =========================== Buy Us A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/45DegreesSailng 45D Swag: https://45degreessailing-2.creator-spring.com/"

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Manta Mating Magic - The boys that fly through the Komodo National Park waters like it a little rough. Nevertheless, after a racy chase and a bit of foreplay. I always end up on top. The men make their move under my tummy. The act itself doesn’t last long, and every encounter inevitably turns out to be a one night stand. Now don’t go judging me. I’m not easy, and I’m certainly no submarine slut. Read More...http://uberscubakomodo.com/manta-mating/ Uber Scuba Komodo Dive Center, Jl. Soekarno Hatta, Komodo National Park, Labuan Bajo, Nusa Tenggara Timur 86554