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Post by don on Apr 20, 2014 9:55:07 GMT -8
I have a small houseboat that has a twist lock receptacle on the side for charging the batteries and for shore power when available. It's not available where I'm docked so I am looking at solar. The boat has a mounted battery charger inside and both 12v and 110 power outlets if needed. I have a 2300 Yamaha invertor on top of the houseboat if needed. I would like to mount a 50 watt solar panel on the roof and be able to plug right into the twist lok receptacle on the outside of the boat. Is this possible without an invertor? I could run cable to the batteries but it would be a nicer install if I could just plug into the side of the boat. Thanks
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Post by joe on Aug 7, 2014 9:10:06 GMT -8
Hey don,
I am assuming the twist lock receptacle is an AC socket, and I am assuming your 2300 Yamaha inverter is actually an AC generator?
You definitely need a converter/inverter to take the non-uniform solar DC output and ultimately charge the battery. Easiest and most cost effective route is probably to connect your 50W panel to a charge controller, and the charge controller directly to the battery. The more round about way (and $$) would be to do solar panel to converter to inverter to twist lock receptacle.
If you go solar, you will have to have two systems. One as I described above and the other just your Generator-to-twist lock receptacle.
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Post by johann on Oct 25, 2014 13:09:43 GMT -8
The easiest way would be....solar panel to charge controller....then you may need a diode to isolate the controller to prevent back feeding.....then from the charge controller or diode if used go to the battery. That is all that is needed. The more power you use directly from the battery without inverter the more efficient the system will be. If you have room for a 100 watt renogy panel then I would go with an higher watt panel.
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Post by levi on May 13, 2015 5:39:57 GMT -8
I have 2 100watts renogy monocrystal solar panels connected to two vmax 125amh batteries and a 2000watts pure sine renogy inverter on my boat. There are 4 27watts LED lights, 1 18w LED light, 10 1w LED light and 2 deep freezer 85 watts each. Because the freezers are 220v and the boat is 110v, they are connected to a converter which is 1000w. How long can I have everything working before i loose power completely on a single charge. Keep in mind the batter are fully charge and getting about 7-8 hours on sunlight a day.
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2015 10:08:10 GMT -8
Hello don,
Everything Joe and johann have said is correct. The socket on the side of your boat is most likely an AC receptacle which will not interface with a DC panel or charge controller. I would wire a charge controller directly to your battery to make your life simple and avoid the hassle of trying to interface with the socket.
Renogy Tech Support SR
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2015 10:15:03 GMT -8
Hello levi,
There are two considerations to make for your system. First is how long you can run your loads on your battery bank (from 100% to 50%). Second thing to consider is how much capacity your solar panels can replace in an average day. You want these two numbers to ideally be balanced so that you are replacing the capacity you use in a day with solar energy.
You're loads all running at once will consume 306W of AC energy, but because of the efficiency of an inverter will require about 358W of DC energy. If you're running all of your loads at once, you could run them for about 4 hours to run the battery from 100% to 50%.
On the other hand, using the average sun hours for the US, you would replace about 56Ah or 22.4% of your battery's capacity in an average day. This is where you want to consider the balance of energy in/out. If you wanted to keep a balance you could only run all your loads at once for a total of 1.7 hours.
Hope this helps! Feel free to call anytime and we can guide you through the calculations to get all of these numbers.
Renogy Tech Support SR
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Post by levi on May 19, 2015 4:04:52 GMT -8
Hello levi, There are two considerations to make for your system. First is how long you can run your loads on your battery bank (from 100% to 50%). Second thing to consider is how much capacity your solar panels can replace in an average day. You want these two numbers to ideally be balanced so that you are replacing the capacity you use in a day with solar energy. You're loads all running at once will consume 306W of AC energy, but because of the efficiency of an inverter will require about 358W of DC energy. If you're running all of your loads at once, you could run them for about 4 hours to run the battery from 100% to 50%. On the other hand, using the average sun hours for the US, you would replace about 56Ah or 22.4% of your battery's capacity in an average day. This is where you want to consider the balance of energy in/out. If you wanted to keep a balance you could only run all your loads at once for a total of 1.7 hours. Hope this helps! Feel free to call anytime and we can guide you through the calculations to get all of these numbers. Renogy Tech Support SR Even using the 2 125ah vmax batteries, I would only get 4 hours running everything at once? The batteries get fully charged everyday since we get 7-8 hours of sunlight
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Post by levi on May 19, 2015 4:06:06 GMT -8
Even using the 2 125ah vmax batteries, I would only get 4 hours running everything at once? The batteries get fully charged everyday since we get 7-8 hours of sunlight
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Post by jsb2000 on May 19, 2015 6:41:50 GMT -8
Even using the 2 125ah vmax batteries, I would only get 4 hours running everything at once? The batteries get fully charged everyday since we get 7-8 hours of sunlight Yes, that's all you could expect under ideal conditions. Remember, with everything running at once, you are draining the batteries faster than you can recharge them, even with 7-8 hours of sunlight. Also, that assumes that you're only going to drain your batteries to 50% capacity. You could run them lower, but that's not wise to do on a regular basis. Deep cycle batteries will generally tolerate drains to about 40% capacity on an extremely intermittent basis. But each time wears down the plates, and that wear is cumulative. If you want longer run times, there are three things you can do: 1) Add panels. 2) Add batteries 3) Reduce the load (either by not running everything at the same time OR by making your load more efficient). That last part is how I decided to go with my solar installation. I went to 12VDC everything. Lights, chargers, the works. I still have an inverter for a couple of things, but I hardly ever have to use it. And that's where most people lose their juice: They try to maintain a wasteful 120VAC or 240VAC lifestyle when a more efficient 12VDC/24VDC lifestyle is called for.
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