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

0

18,950

A short clip from our latest release, which looks at basic boat docking. Executing a tight turn in a sailboat is dependent on which way our prop walk affects our control. A prop walk to port means our boat does a tighter turn to starboard, and vice versa. We have a look at how boats behave in close quarters and what to look out for when leaving or approaching a dock. Covers essential topics such as prop walk and steerage, as well as setting up slip lines and bridles.. All in an easy to follow, animated tutorial, created in Blender3D. 👍 Don't forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe for More Adventures! #SailingAdventure #learntosail #sailingtutorials #tutorials #sailinglife #yachtlife #travel #adventure #blender3d #blender #animation https://www.skipperblogs.com/searchingforcoconuts Theme song: (Audio Network) Aotearoa (Mark Williams, Adam Alexander, Bruce Maginnis) For those who wish to contribute to help keep our journey going, please use our Patreon link below, or donate through PayPal (link is on channel banner), much appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/searchingforcoconuts https://searching-for-coconuts.skipperblogs.com/

0

13,857

SUBSCRIBE ➡️ http://bit.ly/wsnsubscribe The Asian / Oceania Youth Olympic Games kiteboarding qualification event was held in Pranburi, Thailand. Follow World Sailing 🌍⛵️ on: Facebook ➡️ http://www.facebook.com/worldsailingofficial Instagram ➡️ http://www.instagram.com/worldsailingofficial Twitter ➡️ http://www.twitter.com/worldsailing Website ➡️ http://www.sailing.org Newsletter ➡️ http://bit.ly/wsezine

0

793

The Daychaser 48 was developed by the Barton and Gray Mariners Club. Designed by Doug Zurn and built by Boston Boatworks, the DC 48 combines traditional timeless design with a modern functional layout optimized from thousands of hours of hosting club member cruises all executed with the expert craftsmanship Boston Boatworks is known for. The result is what many would regard as one of the world’s finest day boats. SOAVE is a 2024 Daychaser 48 built for a private owner, and with very few engine hours. SOAVE is a nearly new offering for the private owner or large yacht harbor tender. Listing Link: https://hinckleybrokerage.com/yachts-for-sale/boston-boatworks-daychaser-48-2024-4308462/