Solar Problem (low amps)

[jenevers]

It goes back on pretty much straight away. Did you get a chance to check yours? I've also tried playing with the load settings and turning it off manually. Doesnt change a thing.

Checked mine and its stays at Zero/zero when I switch it off.

[Arthur Brown]

"Either they are not charged enough or they are not holding charge" Probably it's a good idea to book some time on a shoreline with a competent charger. Getting a battery to full and holding it there for a while is a good way to preserve it.

[Scooby]

Terry, I am a liveaboard and a heavy user, 700 watts of solar and 5 batteries x 110amp, 12v fridge, laptops, monitor screen, led lighting, water pumps, dvd player, radio, macerator, oven, inverter x 2(600 watt and a 3kw), shower pump, webasto, mifi's, microwave, mobile phones, slow cooker, etc the list goes on, i have 5 batteries but only cheap ones, if i get 2 years out of them i will be happy,(they are a year old now) they cost £50 each and when i scrap them you get about £7.50 back per battery so 2 years costs about £215 which i am happy with, i barely put the engine on during the week in the summer and only an hour a day in the winter, my suggestion for you would be think about more batteries when its time to replace them, (dont add new ones to old), and more solar panels, i had 200watts of solar last year and never had enough power the upgrade of 500 watts more has made all the difference, i have used the slow cooker this summer for the first time using up the excess solar power. I did buy the outback controller which cost £450 which is brilliant. We do have a travelpower as well which obviously works well for a quick charge when using lots of power.

 

I cant recommend enough to buying a nasa 2 battery monitor as well that way you can always make sure you dont let your batteries drop below 12.2.

 

I would say i have gone from 3 hours a day of engine use to 1 hour in the winter and from 1 hour per day in the summer to almost zero.

 

Solar is definitely the way forward now the price has dropped.

[MtB]

Blimey how do you fit 700w of panels on a NB roof?

 

Don't they get right in the way/foul the centre line/leave you with nowhere to put the coal?

[Scooby]

[David Mack]

I dont have anything significant running so then it will have to stop at the batteries.

Do you have an electric fridge? If so that will be by far the largest electricity use on board.

[MtB]

 

 

Lovely pic, very organised and tidy!

 

But where do you keep a month's worth of coal?

[Scooby]

Them 2 roof boxes at the front are actually pretty big, approx 1200 x 1200 each and 250mm high so they would easily fit 6 bags in each maybe more, but due to them having tables, chairs, fishing tackle and lots of other crap in them i put the coal on the riverbank lol.

[MtB]

Them 2 roof boxes at the front are actually pretty big, approx 1200 x 1200 each and 250mm high so they would easily fit 6 bags in each maybe more, but due to them having tables, chairs, fishing tackle and lots of other crap in them i put the coal on the riverbank lol.

 

 

Cheat!

 

I was asking because I thought I'd read you say you were a CCer, but on checking I see you actually wrote liveaboard. My furry brain equated this with CC, it being FAR too early to be awake, still...

[Scooby]

If i was a cc er the roof boxes wouldnt fit coal in anyways where would a months supply of beer fit haha.

[Terryb]

Blimey Scoob, that surely is the tidiest NB I have ever seen ( in use) and thanks again for the very useful input. I am sure that adding more batteries to my bank (4 months old) shouldn't be a problem though should it.? I noticed today in the most beautiful sunshine, that one of my panels has stopped working, as my overall volts had in the past seen nearly 48v but today was just 36v. I was the victim of a falling tree limb back in July scoring a direct hit on one of them. Honestly if I didnt get bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.

[Scooby]

Yeah 4 months old batteries would probably be ok. It's good you noticed one panel not working too. Add a little more and you will notice that you can survive without the engine and then charge up with solar again the next morning.