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

0

0

18,952

See the world from a whole new angle... from the top of Oosterschelde's mast! This magnificent Dutch schooner is sailing back to Cape Verde for an island-hopping adventure away from all the tourist hot spots. Explore the islands in a warm tropical climate and learn to sail a traditional tall ship as you navigate the waters between them. With voyages ready to join over the upcoming months, this is your sign to book yourself aboard Oosterschelde for a Winter Sun sailing adventure.

0

0

0

69

0

0

0

0

392

At Rustler Yachts we've been working with engine manufacturer Yanmar to produce a robust and efficient charging system for our yachts. This option gives you more power for less charging and means auxiliary charging systems like wind, solar, hydro or diesel generators are needed less. Let Simon, our Head of Engineering talk you through the system we use on our Rustler 42. Beautiful boats, built beautifully Visit http://rustleryachts.com to find out more #Rustleryachts #oceancruising #sailing #sailboat #yacht #sailing #offshorecruiser #boatbuilders #boat #handcrafted #bespokeyacht #semicustomyacht #handbuilt #cornwall #charging #YanmarEngine

0

0

0

1,422

How could we not check on ForTuna now that we are back in Panama 🇵🇦🤩 She is well taken care of and the last 3 months showed us that there is no way anyone could ever steal ForTuna as so many of you reached out to us with pictures and reports whenever you spotted her 😂 thanks for that you can never have enough reports on your boat ☺️⛵️ Stay Salty, Greta and Michael on Fortuna (for a day)⛵️ #sailing #sailboat #sailinglife #sailingadventure #liveaboardlife

0

0

0

1,281

assez de pile pour faire tous nos repas comme a la maison

0

0

0

9