Next year I will be adding a full length hard canopy over my boat, and installing solar panels as I can afford them. I will also be building a wind generator, possibly using a truck alternator and feeding the regulator from a voltage divider, possibly using a motor, possibly building a permanent magnet alternator from scratch. I will be installing a small water heater, which could be used as a dummy load if required. I will also still have shore power charging as a backup when shore power is available. Eventually I will add a reserve bank, but I will not need to charge them at the same time. I will be okay with charging one bank, then the other. Some of my 12v loads I will convert to 48v and the rest will be fed from a DC-DC converter. There will be a separate isolated 12v battery fed from a dedicated solar panel for emergency power for vhf and navigation lights and this will not be connected in any way to the 48v system.
So, I need to engineer a control system to use these multiple sources to charge a single 48v bank, and not be directly involved with charging any 12v stuff. My budget is as little as I can get away with. Initially I will only have about 500w to play with but I need to be able to expand to about 2kw as I add more solar. My main bank is 220ah or so, 8 6v GC2 flooded lead acid golf cart batteries. The reserve bank, to be added later, will be similar or smaller.
My ultimate goal is to be able to run my propulsion motor during times of decent sunshine at 8 amps or so, and run normal house and nav lighting, and maybe at anchor or docked run a small air conditioner and fridge and crock pot, with only minimal assistance from infernal combustion generator or shore power. Cost definitely IS an issue. However, saving on the electric bill is not the reason for going solar/wind.. I want a fairly high degree of self sufficiency in the event of another hurricane like Katrina.
So the main question is what sort of controller or controllers I need, and how many panels in series I should have. I am not looking for state of the art, high cost and highest possible efficiency. Just an acceptably efficient system that will tend itself to some degree and at least allow me to cook after a fashion, charge electronic devices, and allow some limited use of the propulsion motor as needed. Any knowledgeable advice or ideas appreciated, before I start buying stuff.
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