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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Well I got the body fill as done as it is going to be, be warned if you don't have a popper shop and you are doing this in the garage, wait till summer. The body fill was a pain in the butt, lot of sanding, did not have the patients to fill all the holes that magically appeared. Just hope the paint I am using fill cover them, also I think there are primers that would fill these holes as well. I have put the first coat of rubberized paint on, nice and rubbery. Parts sourced from Home Depot: Fiberglass resin and acetone, gorilla wood glue, wood, latex gloves, brushes, saw saw blades Parts sourced from AutoZone: Wires, connecters and body filler. Parts sourced from Amazon: Boss Marine Radio, Boss Marine Speakers 6.5, Fiberglass BOSS AUDIO MCKGB350W.6 Marine Package Includes MGR350B In-Dash Gauge AM/FM Digital Media Receiver with Bluetooth, One Pair of 6.5 inch MR6W Marine Speakers, MRANT10 Marine Antenna Weather Proof One Pair of MR6W 6.5" Full Range Marine Speakers with Poly Carbon Cone and Rubber Surround 180 Watts MAX 90 Watts RMS Power Handling per Pair IPX6 Rated Marine MR350B has 60 Watts x 4 Max Power and Preset built-in EQ Plays USB/MP3/WMA, FM/AM, Smart Phones. Does not have a CD or DVD player. USB, Aux Inputs and Front, Rear/Subwoofer Switchable Pre-Amp Outputs Compatible with Audio out from Smartphones and MP3 Players Bluetooth Audio Streaming - play music and apps like Spotify/Pandora wirelessly 3 Year Platinum Dealer Warranty Boss AR1500M ARMOR 1,500-Watt Mono Mosfet Amplifier 1500 W MAX Power, 1 Channel 1125 W X 1 RMS @ 2 ohm 563 W X 1 RMS @ 4 ohm Monoblock, Class A/B, MOSFET Power Supply High and Low Level Inputs Variable Low Pass Crossover, Switchable Bass Boost Remote Subwoofer Control Pyle PLPW6D 6-Inch 600 Watt Dual 4 Ohm Subwoofer Black Steel Basket - 30 OZ Magnet Non-Press Paper Cone - 300 Watts RMS / 600 Watts Max Power Specially Treated Foam Surround - SPL: 89 dB 1.5" 4 Layer Dual Voice Coil - Spring Loaded Push Down Speaker Terminals are not supplied. Solder tabs are provided. Dual 4 Ohm Impedance - Dimensions: 6.6'' (Diameter) x 2.9'' (Depth) Amazon LED lights: Zone Tech 30cm LED Car Flexible Waterproof Light Strip BLUE Bestpriceam Universal F1 Style Auto Car ATV SUV 12v LED Stop Fog Tail Brake Light Lamp Red Nilight 36w LED Spot Work Light Off Road Led Light Bar 12v Led Light Super Bright for Jeep Cabin/boat/suv/truck/car/atvs Nilight 2 X 18w 1260lm Cree LED Spot Driving Fog Light Led Work Light Bar Mounting Bracket for SUV Boat 4x4 Jeep Lamp