biglurr54
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2011
- Messages
- 234
I know this has been covered but I can never believe that we can power our homes with solar but not a boat. After doing the research on adding a solar array to my house, I started running the numbers for my boat and got some interesting numbers back. These are all best guess numbers and i could be off somewhere. Its all based on the magic formula of watts=voltsxamps. So i have a party boat that I am powering with a 80 lb minn kota. I figure it draws about 60 amps at WOT. (still waiting to hear back from Minn Kota on exact numbers). I figure the boat is under power for 12 hours per week. This is being generous because it is not under WOT for 12 hours a week. So I will be consuming 720 amps at 24 volts each week.
Every time I ready anything about solar panels on boats everyone talks about how you would need an array bigger than the boat. But thats not what I found. I figured 3 x 240 watt Solar Panels mounted as a solid bimini top over the back half of the boat. The dimensions of this array would be 9.675 ft by 5.375 feet. That's smaller than the original hard top on my 16 foot pontoon boat. This would be a 720 watt array. if we plug that into the formula 720watt=24volt x Yamps. Y is 30 AMPS. This array will create 30 AMPS/ hour at peak performance.
My consumption is 720 amps. 720amps/30amp hours = 24 hours of peak performance per week to replenish my battery bank. That's 3.42 hours per day. This is not accounting for non peak production or cloudy rainy days so I figured that was a wash.
Ok so it can be done and the boat wont be exceeded by the panels. The cost of it must be why we don't see it ever right? Well the panels cost $294.80 a pop and you need three. That's $884.40 in just panels. Then you have batteries and a charger. This comes down to user preference. Two 1125amp Optima yellow top batteries would provide 2250 amps and would cost $412. $200 for a charger and your total is $1496.40. That's a hefty start up cost.
Ok gas is the way to go then right? Lets see. 12 hours with a 5 hp motor wot would burn about 4 gallons of gas. So 4 gallons of gas a week. Mid grade gas here in upstate NY is $4.25 a gallon. I wont count oil price but i should because that is getting outrageous like the gas! I doubt its going down any time soon. Thats $17 bucks a week in gas to do the same amount of water time. I figure we have about 20 weeks of boating here in NY. pretty much when there is no Ice on the lake. That is $340.00 every year! That means that if i use the solar panels for 4.4 years they would have payed for them selves. After the 4.4 years it would be 100% free boating! I plan on boating for quite a few more years than that!
I'm guessing I messed something up here. I'm a complete novice to electrical engineering. Please let me know where I have messed up!
Here's a link to the panels: http://www.gogreensolar.com/product...dftrk=gdfV21109_a_7c323_a_7c2152_a_7c80353012
Here's a link to the Batteries: http://autoplicity.com/products/104...eModelFitment&utm_campaign=GSMakeModelFitment
Every time I ready anything about solar panels on boats everyone talks about how you would need an array bigger than the boat. But thats not what I found. I figured 3 x 240 watt Solar Panels mounted as a solid bimini top over the back half of the boat. The dimensions of this array would be 9.675 ft by 5.375 feet. That's smaller than the original hard top on my 16 foot pontoon boat. This would be a 720 watt array. if we plug that into the formula 720watt=24volt x Yamps. Y is 30 AMPS. This array will create 30 AMPS/ hour at peak performance.
My consumption is 720 amps. 720amps/30amp hours = 24 hours of peak performance per week to replenish my battery bank. That's 3.42 hours per day. This is not accounting for non peak production or cloudy rainy days so I figured that was a wash.
Ok so it can be done and the boat wont be exceeded by the panels. The cost of it must be why we don't see it ever right? Well the panels cost $294.80 a pop and you need three. That's $884.40 in just panels. Then you have batteries and a charger. This comes down to user preference. Two 1125amp Optima yellow top batteries would provide 2250 amps and would cost $412. $200 for a charger and your total is $1496.40. That's a hefty start up cost.
Ok gas is the way to go then right? Lets see. 12 hours with a 5 hp motor wot would burn about 4 gallons of gas. So 4 gallons of gas a week. Mid grade gas here in upstate NY is $4.25 a gallon. I wont count oil price but i should because that is getting outrageous like the gas! I doubt its going down any time soon. Thats $17 bucks a week in gas to do the same amount of water time. I figure we have about 20 weeks of boating here in NY. pretty much when there is no Ice on the lake. That is $340.00 every year! That means that if i use the solar panels for 4.4 years they would have payed for them selves. After the 4.4 years it would be 100% free boating! I plan on boating for quite a few more years than that!
I'm guessing I messed something up here. I'm a complete novice to electrical engineering. Please let me know where I have messed up!
Here's a link to the panels: http://www.gogreensolar.com/product...dftrk=gdfV21109_a_7c323_a_7c2152_a_7c80353012
Here's a link to the Batteries: http://autoplicity.com/products/104...eModelFitment&utm_campaign=GSMakeModelFitment
