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Old 30-11-2012, 09:13   #16
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Re: One battery?

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Originally Posted by salticrak View Post
I am am up on the sunshine coast, and you are right about the vhf/charger. The trojan route with more panels later seems to be a good idea.2x6v or 12v ?

cheers
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I have cruised the Whitsinday islands a few times, which are near you. In the middle of winter ( converting to your 40w) should provide an average of about 9Ars. Other times of year will be better, but those annoying cyclones put me off summer cruising those areas.

I think more panels are going to better for you than more battery capacity, unless you can plug into shore power. Given that batteries are dear in Australia, but solar is cheap I would concentrate my expenditure increasing the solar panels rather than a large battery bank.

Say 80w of solar and 100ahrs of battery capacity will give you much better usable power than 40w solar and 200AHrs of battery capacity.
The solar panels will last for 25years plus. The batteries (even with 200Ahrs ) 5-7 years and the weight penalty of the larger batteries is significant for a vessel like yours.
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Old 30-11-2012, 10:51   #17
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Re: One battery?

"what is a poor boy meant to do?"
1- Avoid expensive luxury hobbies like sailing.
2-Don't use the electrics.

I mean, really. If stuff is beyond your budget, you don't use it.

You only need the nav lights if you're sailing at night. You don't need the chartplotter if you read your charts and do a little traditional nav and avoid think waters.

There's no magic, you either go in debt to a credit card or you accept the concept of delayed gratification. Or make do without.
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Old 30-11-2012, 10:55   #18
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Re: One battery?

It is very feasible to get by on one battery for simple electrical systems and for boats that don't have an engine that requires a dedicated start battery.

I don't know if they are on the East coast but Costco also has inexpensive, decent quality deep cycle batteries. Costco does not mark up their merchandise more than 15% above their cost. (according to Clarke Howard, my consumer advocate guru)
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Old 30-11-2012, 11:02   #19
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Re: One battery?

Costco is on the east coast but their "battery" policy is quite unlike their usual customer service. They cannot and will not order in a battery for you (unlike tires) and they cannot and will not check to see what is in inventory or what is usually stocked, so all you can do is go to the store, see if there's a battery you want, and drive to the next store if there isn't.

Is that dumb or what?

And apparently, there's no set inventory policy beyond "we have some for cars and some for golf carts, if there's a lot of golf around a store".
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Old 30-11-2012, 11:06   #20
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Re: One battery?

I cruised a Stiletto 27 catamaran--similar in many ways--extensively with 2 x group 24 12v batteries. I started out with one group 24 and that was not quite enough if there were a few cloudy days. However, if I had a fresh start, I would recommend one group 27 or the equivalent. Certainly the sort of boat where watching EVERY POUND pays rewards.

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Old 30-11-2012, 12:00   #21
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Re: One battery?

We called Costco to inquire about golf cart battery stock when my son set up his home's backup power system.
Costco let us know what they had, we asked them to put his name on 8 batteries and they did, no problem.
Maybe it's an East coast vs. West coast thing.
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Old 17-12-2012, 11:26   #22
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Re: One battery?

So i decided to go with 2x 40watt panels in parallel and a 70 amp hour agm battery.I have secured them to the rear beam of my wharram tiki 26. between the two panels is the mounting I have made for the windvane.
cheers paul.
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Old 17-12-2012, 11:36   #23
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Re: One battery?

Sounds like a great set up and should give you plenty of power for your modest needs. Don't forget the regulator though.
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Old 17-12-2012, 11:52   #24
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Re: One battery?

Thanks mate,I have a morningstar sunsaver 6 for the panels.
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Old 17-12-2012, 12:01   #25
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Re: One battery?

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So i decided to go with 2x 40watt panels in parallel and a 70 amp hour agm battery.I have secured them to the rear beam of my wharram tiki 26. between the two panels is the mounting I have made for the windvane.
cheers paul.
I hope I'm mistaken to think you are erecting a windvane between and above your solar panels?

As we are all aware, panels require full sun without shadows across the cells.
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Old 17-12-2012, 12:08   #26
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Re: One battery?

It is the best compromise, with the limited space I have at the back of the boat.There will be a trade of for sure.I will also have a tiller pilot.The windvane is demountable as designed by Hanneke Boon.
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