Chris,
My trimaran has a solar panel to maintain the 12v house battery, but the 4 stroke Tohatsu 9.8 outboard does a better job of charging the house battery. The 45w solar panel produces 3A under optimal conditions, in practice I'm lucky to get 150wHr in a day. That said, I have very low electricity requirements, so this is usually sufficient.
If I figure the efficiency drops of an inverter and the Torqeedo charger, the panel might be able to recharge the Torqeedo battery in about 3 days if completely dedicated to that task alone.
With out spending any more money or adding any other systems to my boat, the Torqeedo meets my current needs (no pun intended).
My real back-up is a little Honda EU1000iA generator. I can charge my house battery at 40A from a smart charger. I can get over 500wHr into the boat in about an hour using less than 1/2 liter of fuel. The generator, charger and 1 gallon of gas weigh less than a Group 24 battery. The generator and the outboard use the same fuel, so it is easy to manage both engines. The generator and charger only go on board if I'm going to spend many days away from my home base, so I don't carry the weight penalty during day sails and races.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@
>
> just a thought - you could have a solar panel and/ or windgenerator onboard the trimaran to top up the dinghy battery.
> Chris S
>
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
No comments:
Post a Comment