energy

Our current solar setup

We have 2 solar panels(2 x 100 W). Our engine has a 75 A Balmar alternator, but it is only used to charge the house and starter batteries on cloudy days, which is not terribly often (last time was in 2020, while in the north pacific ocean. Generally, 200 W is enough to keep us powered throughout the day. We used to have a small Honda gas generator, but we sold it in 2020 (again, solar is enough).

We have a total of 464 Ah. We have lead-acid flooded-cell batteries. Our banks consist of a series configured starter bank (2x6 V Cells) and a series-parallel configured house bank (2x6 V cells). Both sets are identical, equalling 12 V each. Because they're identical, we often use both as house banks. If this is your planned usage, keep in mind that using both banks will mean that they will degrade together, and if they fail you'll be left with no power of any kind. This is a big risk to take. We keep an eye on our batteries, to make sure to replace them before they fail.

We don't have a windlass, pressure faucet, water heater or a fridge (see refrigeration). Because of this, it's easy to keep our power consumption low, reducing our need for extra solar, keeping our costs down and reducing the amount of things that can break, or fail.