Thanks for the information King of New Orleans. I have 20KW/hr of batteries on my catamaran and the 2160w of solar and well I never got anywhere near empty on my bank in the limited testing I did. I will possibly be adding another 720 watts of solar just to maximize what I can collect on dreary days. I usually pull some current from the sun even on cloudy rainy days but that is the reason you keep the generators. I'm pretty confident in my Alphagen DCX 3000's to provide all the amps it takes to drive 100-120 amps into my bank if need be especially during night cruising to arrive for the most part fully charged by morning to let the solar do the work. For the cost of a few liters of gasoline the peace of mind is priceless.
The math gets pretty simple if my solar array is pulling 25 amps from the sunshine and I'm making my 4knots at 40 amps I'm cruising for 15 amps divided by 400 usable amp hours (my lithium batteries hold more energy than what they are rated for see compass marine 12v 400ah balqon capacity testing) gives oh 26 hours or so of useable energy at the 15 amp draw. Now just simply managing that power as the solar levels increase or decrease certainly increases range to the point of almost making the generators a moot point but when the generators keep the bank roughly at 52.5v who wouldn't want to arrive at the location still almost fully charged.
When I did my testing I wasn't light on the throttle and never had 25amps of solar although I know it is quite possible. Didn't seem to matter down the river or up the river the target speed was easily obtained with actually excess current available. Literally wasting power more or less for no good reason other than to see if I can get hull speed back upstream against 3 or 4 knots of current on the Fraser. No problem.
Funny how more people don't go electric. We had so many people stop and ask about the boat and people from shore waving. Even docked people were always stopping in to ask. I'll venture 75% of the boats in the marina will hardly move this year and fuel is for the most part cheap right now. We were out half a dozen times already this year but then it was early in the season in April. We were seeing 17amps @48v nominal from the panels. With the addition of the extra panels I hope to provide close to the cable maximum 30amps at most times during bright sun days in the PNW.
I know I can make my batteries pretty happy on a 30amp charge. That is about what my shore chargers produce 15 a side for each lestronic. We lived off them all winter on the asphalt. So that is still the goal with the solar. At that rate I can cook, do laundry, use the electric head, motor or whatever for a normal boat home environment. It is the winter months that have the constant draw of the electric heaters that pull the amps to keep the boat warm. But I have a kerosene kozy cabin heater I just have to plumb it in.
Arden
From: king_of_neworleans <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 7, 2016 10:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] AC vs DC motors - new EC cat
I can cruise 10 hours on my batteries alone, no problem. Depends on the speed I want. I have about an hour available at full power. I just don't use full power. And it depends on the size of your batteries, of course. Currently I have 48v, 220AH for about 10.6KW/hr and I am going to add another bank of the same size, soon. Cruising for multiple hours without recharging can be quite practical, if your system is set up for it. However, adding solar charging capability will extend your range. I hope to eventually have 2KW of solar panels and will be able to cruise independantly of generators as long as the days are sunny and I keep the speed very low.
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Posted by: Arden Wiebe <albert682@yahoo.com>
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