MRBear Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 Hi guys I'm after some advice again. I am considering having a solar system installed, but cant decide if its worth the money, the system I'm thinking of is a 6 panel, 990w system. I originally thought it would cover a big percentage of my electricity needs, but I've been told that it wont provide enough power to run the immersion heater as well as the 12v systems. I have a vitron combi 3kw inverter. 5x 110ah leisure batteries, I am a leisure boater I understand its just a form of battery charger but I'm struggling to understand why I cant run a 1kw immersion or anything else with a power draw of only 1kw when I have such a big inverter. I look forward to getting your advice and comments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 Your inverter will run the immersion fine, until the batteries are flat. That solar system is not enough to keep your batteries full with the immersion on all the time - in the UK it might replace in an average day what your immersion uses in an hour or so. More in summer, less in winter obviously. If you have access to shorepower, use it. If you don't, you need to consider disconnecting the immersion heater or making sure to only use it when the engine is running. Read this to see if it makes a bit more sense: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lowe Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 13 minutes ago, MRBear said: I am considering having a solar system installed Are you installing the Sol system, or maybe Alpha Centauri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post system 4-50 Posted May 10, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 An analogy: Your battery bank is a water barrel. Your inverter is a bucket for getting water out of the barrel. Your solar is a small pipe feeding water into the barrel, fitfully. Your immersion heater is a camel that can take enormous quantities of water. The bigger your bucket (the inverter), the faster you can empty the barrel into the camel, but the quantity of water is the same whether the bucket is big or small. The first essential is to get enough water into the barrel, before you worry about the size of the bucket. 900W solar is nominal max and you won't get near that a lot of the time. And your barrel is quite small, 550Ah when new and significantly less as they age. Another point is that you can only take out of the barrel (battery bank) down to half full, so that there is only half as much to use as first appears, even if the barrel is full. The moral is that you can't realistically use camels on canal boats. 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 To add to this: the only boater I know of who successfully drives the immersion from the solar is @peterboat, but he has around 4kw of solar and an electric boat so massive batteries. And even he switches the immersion heater off sometimes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 Other have already explained well. My twopenneth is that solar is great for many people but not always worth the money. Example myself AT PRESENT. I amplugged into mains full time so by far the cheapest way is to use immersion and pay the peanuts mains leccy bill. When we do go cruising we cruise enough each day to charge batteries and get a tank of hot water so again no need for solar. Solar is great say for someone on a mooring not moving much and without mains hook up to HELP run the lectric stuff but not the immersion. Solar is useless in winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 1 minute ago, mrsmelly said: Other have already explained well. My twopenneth is that solar is great for many people but not always worth the money. Example myself AT PRESENT. I amplugged into mains full time so by far the cheapest way is to use immersion and pay the peanuts mains leccy bill. When we do go cruising we cruise enough each day to charge batteries and get a tank of hot water so again no need for solar. Solar is great say for someone on a mooring not moving much and without mains hook up to HELP run the lectric stuff but not the immersion. Solar is useless in winter. Not if you have enough of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 1 minute ago, peterboat said: Not if you have enough of it Yeah we know Peter But covering the whole roof in it and paying 54 million pounds for the panels and batteries sort of defeats the object innitt. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 5 minutes ago, peterboat said: Not if you have enough of it Are you selling the Whispergen then? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said: Are you selling the Whispergen then? Hardly used it last year, it was more for when I came back to the boat and it was cold. So press a button warm in minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 22 minutes ago, mrsmelly said: Yeah we know Peter But covering the whole roof in it and paying 54 million pounds for the panels and batteries sort of defeats the object innitt. Doesn't cost that much and future proofs my boat against unknown circumstances like moorings with no electric or one that is constantly broken!!!! Or even diesel a a zillion pounds a litre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 9 minutes ago, peterboat said: Doesn't cost that much and future proofs my boat against unknown circumstances like moorings with no electric or one that is constantly broken!!!! Or even diesel a a zillion pounds a litre Yeah its a great way to do things thats why nearly every boat is doing it. You will tell me next you have a composting bog another great idea again why nearly all boats have them fitted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBiscuits Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 1 minute ago, mrsmelly said: Yeah its a great way to do things thats why nearly every boat is doing it. You will tell me next you have a composting bog another great idea again why nearly all boats have them fitted By that argument, most people live in houses not on boats anyway. Maybe you should try it for a couple of months ... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 9 minutes ago, mrsmelly said: Yeah its a great way to do things thats why nearly every boat is doing it. You will tell me next you have a composting bog another great idea again why nearly all boats have them fitted Only the clever boaters the ones around me with holding tanks are currently in the poo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 13 minutes ago, peterboat said: Only the clever boaters the ones around me with holding tanks are currently in the poo? Yeah. Same when theres a freeze innit stoooooooopid pump out tanks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRBear Posted May 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 thanks guys, I have concluded that the £2000 for the solar system isn't going to be a good investment for me. as usual, I would like to express my thanks to all those who spared the time to respond 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard10002 Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 24 minutes ago, MRBear said: thanks guys, I have concluded that the £2000 for the solar system isn't going to be a good investment for me. as usual, I would like to express my thanks to all those who spared the time to respond You are correct If you only wanted it to run your immersion heater, it was never a goer. Having said that, how do you power your immersion heater at the moment? My water is heated by gas. 2 x 245w solar panels, via a Tracer MPPT controller, provide enough power for all my electricity needs, (around 100Ah per day), most days between about March and September. Cost of the system was about £500... worth every penny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRBear Posted May 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 I use it when I'm hooked up to shore power. the investment of £2000 with the limits of the system and the limited time I can be aboard indicates that it would take about 10 years to pay for itself, so I may as well stay using shore power when in the marina and the engine when out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard10002 Posted May 10, 2020 Report Share Posted May 10, 2020 7 minutes ago, MRBear said: I use it when I'm hooked up to shore power. the investment of £2000 with the limits of the system and the limited time I can be aboard indicates that it would take about 10 years to pay for itself, so I may as well stay using shore power when in the marina and the engine when out Sounds like the right idea. At what cost would it have been worth doing? You could probably do a 1000w system for around a thousand, rather than two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEngo Posted May 12, 2020 Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 Well, if £2000 has a ten year payback £1000 one would expect will be about 5 years, ignoring discount rates etc. N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen-in-Wellies Posted May 12, 2020 Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 25 minutes ago, BEngo said: Well, if £2000 has a ten year payback £1000 one would expect will be about 5 years, ignoring discount rates etc. N With a half size system, you only get half the electric, so the payback is still ten years or so. Solar is hard to compete with grid electric from a shore line. Where it shines (see what I did there ?) is when out cruising, or moored away from shore power. Jen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewbacka Posted May 12, 2020 Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 37 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said: With a half size system, you only get half the electric, so the payback is still ten years or so. Solar is hard to compete with grid electric from a shore line. Where it shines (see what I did there ?) is when out cruising, or moored away from shore power. Jen Not a half sized system, but a full size system for half the price, see #19 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard10002 Posted May 12, 2020 Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 15 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said: With a half size system, you only get half the electric, so the payback is still ten years or so. Not in the case I was making. The OP was talking about £2k for his 1000w system, and I was saying that he could get a 1000w system for about £1k. So same size system, same electric, half the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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