New Electric Wiring

[dlochner]

In some of Nigel Calder's latest writing he estimates daily solar panel energy production at 3 times the nominal rating of the panel. Thus a 100 watt panel will produce about 300 watts of power or about 24 amp-hours per day. A 100 watt panel will measure in at about 2 feet x 3 feet.

For your purposes, a 50 watt panel would probably suffice. Defender has one from Go Power, just under $300 plus another hundred or so for a good controller.

Solar Power for Boats | Defender

Shop Solar Power for boats of all types at Defender. Get fast delivery and free shipping on eligible orders over $99.

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Don't waste your money on the cheap 10-20 watt plug in solar panels. They don't put out enough energy to come close to meeting your needs.

 

[DougM]

i USED ONE BREAKER ON THE PANEL AND RAN ONE WIRE TO THE MAST AT THE INSIDE OF THE DECK. THERE, PLACE A SWITCH FOR THE 3 MAST LIGHTS. THIS FREED UP A BREAKER ON THE PANEL.

I did something similar: DPDT switch at the mast inside the cabin. One direction steaming, the other direction anchor light. I Don‘t have a third, presumably spreader light, that Ron has.

 

[Bad Obsession]

I did a big rewire to Saga when I had her. Saga was a Compac 23.

The big upgrades that did to her were because I was use to a larger boat and I use to cruise for a few weeks at a time.

First: Upgraded the battery bank to 2 golf cart batteries.

Second: Ran all new wires in the boat. Since the mast was down it was easy to re-wire the mast too. I also ran VHF cable up the mast and added a masthead antenna.

Third: I added a second fuse panel to accommodate all of the stuff I was running on the boat (auto pilot, gps, vhf with AIS receive, etc).

Fourth: I added a 100 watt flexible solar panel which I fixed to the bimini. That ran to a Genasus GV-10 charge controller.

Fifth: All lights were changed over to LED lights. Sometime it was as easy as a bulb change, others I changed out the light itself.

I had plans of eventually adding a battery monitor. If you do this buy the Balmar Smart Battery Monitor.