Why you might consider still keeping your generator

[Chotu]

Lately, the solar insolation has gone way, WAY down.

Anyone doing higher latitude cruising might want to consider keeping their generator.

The sun doesn't get directly above my boat anymore. Not by a long shot. So, even if it's out, which it is for a short time each day that it's not cloudy, you are getting severely reduced solar power with catamaran style fixed roof mount solar.

Very thankful to have my generators

No, that's not the moon. That's the sun on a "mostly sunny" day. Lol

No longer keeping up with my 120(ish) AH nightly use. Use is also increased from running heaters, which heat my refrigerator and freezer.

Using the generator to top off

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Lately, the solar insolation has gone way, WAY down.

Anyone doing higher latitude cruising might want to consider keeping their generator.

The sun doesn't get directly above my boat anymore. Not by a long shot. So, even if it's out, which it is for a short time each day that it's not cloudy, you are getting severely reduced solar power with catamaran style fixed roof mount solar.

Very thankful to have my generators

No, that's not the moon. That's the sun on a "mostly sunny" day. Lol

You didn’t even get that foot of snow on top of the panels yet! Saving my “told you so” for later

[Kinkircating]

Yep totally agree, solar isn’t enough even with a large bank for lots of people’s cruising styles (including ours). But there are alternatives to heavy traditional generators like the Integrel system. Works amazingly well and takes 500 pound off your catamaran.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

You didn’t even get that foot of snow on top of the panels yet! Saving my “told you so” for later

Ha ha ha! Yes. Shoveling/sweeping snow off the panels will be not a lot of fun.

yes I am actually thoroughly enjoying this. So you will still have to save the "I told you so.".

I just bought new snowboarding gear. All set up to have a great winter!

very excited. It’s been so many years. I think something like 15 years since I have had a winter.

With the right equipment and clothing, it’s going to be great. I am just so happy here. So tired of hot tropical places. I know it’s the opposite of you. And the opposite of most people.

let me tell you a funny story. A girl that grew up in Florida got a ride up to the northeast with me before. By RV. she hadn’t really done any traveling and she was going to stay up in the Northeast for a while.

we got to somewhere around Georgia and she turns to me and she says, "thank God. No more fn palm trees...". Ha ha ha.

This was the funniest thing I have heard in years. She doesn’t realize that most people dream of those palm trees. But, to her, having been in them her whole life she hates them. We all want something different than what we have had.

Me? I am very burnt out on Florida and the Caribbean right now. Too much time spent in them. Monotonous.

[Kettlewell]

Ha ha ha! Yes. Shoveling/sweeping snow off the panels will be not a lot of fun.

My solar panels all have a slight tilt to them, and being very dark in color they melt off very quickly. The snow just slides off for the most part. If there's any wind a lot of the snow will blow off before it sticks. Even after some very heavy snowfalls I have checked on my boat in the yard and typically find the panels mostly uncovered.

[rslifkin]

Yup, unless your power needs are very low and you've got a massive solar array, it's likely to be insufficient in the winter or a long period of bad weather. Adding wind generation will help (as it's often more windy when it's less sunny), but it's unlikely you'll quite get enough there. So the choices become either to have a generator for when you really just need to make a bunch of power or plan around the idea that you may periodically need to go find shore power for a day or 2.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Kinkircating

Yep totally agree, solar isn’t enough even with a large bank for lots of people’s cruising styles (including ours). But there are alternatives to heavy traditional generators like the Integrel system. Works amazingly well and takes 500 pound off your catamaran.

Oh yeah! Those are cool. I agree. Great if you are talking about heavy diesel things.

Since my boat was custom I did it a little bit differently.

I have 60HP of propulsion and 5.4KW of generator power for 480lbs total weight.

My boat was designed from the ground (water?) up using the "every pound counts" philosophy

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

My solar panels all have a slight tilt to them, and being very dark in color they melt off very quickly. The snow just slides off for the most part. If there's any wind a lot of the snow will blow off before it sticks. Even after some very heavy snowfalls I have checked on my boat in the yard and typically find the panels mostly uncovered.

Interesting!! I hope it goes that way for me. My tilt is equivalent to the very slight camber of the deckhouse which is next to nothing. Looking forward to seeing how it works out with tye blowing and melting.

[noelex 77]

I think everyone’s experiences, demands and set ups are different, but we have been happy with basically just solar for the last 17 years of almost full time cruising.

On our current boat we also have high output alternators, but we don’t motor much so these contribute very little.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

Yup, unless your power needs are very low and you've got a massive solar array, it's likely to be insufficient in the winter or a long period of bad weather. Adding wind generation will help (as it's often more windy when it's less sunny), but it's unlikely you'll quite get enough there. So the choices become either to have a generator for when you really just need to make a bunch of power or plan around the idea that you may periodically need to go find shore power for a day or 2.

Oh no. not that last one. Lol

when this boat is in for the winter I am not moving it. Ha ha. Definitely sounds awful doing that in the winter.

I have 1500 watts of solar but that's still not enough. Wind definitely doesn't produce enough. I suppose it can get people by sometimes, but it’s pretty low output

The good news is the gasoline lasts literally forever with the generators. they use a similar amount of fuel to a lawnmower. I will fill up the tanks (150 gallons) before winter starts and that may last all winter since the LiFePO4s fill right up so quickly.

Still working on finding a spot to go. This is assuming I am at anchor for the winter. Which is looking to be a possibility lol. Places have filled up while I was waiting for my crane appointment, which is tomorrow finally.

might still be some places to go. One of them is $5000 for the winter and that’s not seeming too attractive.

but anyway, I thought I would throw it out there for people that are considering taking a boat that is set up for sunnier and warmer climate and bringing it up north. A lot of times on this forum people go through and tear out generators replacing them with solar. And this is a data point for them. It’s not always going to work. Not unless you are always in the nice weather

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

I think everyone’s experiences, demands and set ups are different, but we have been happy with basically just solar for the last 17 years of almost full time cruising.

On our current boat we also have high output alternators, but we don’t motor much so these contribute very little.

100%.

It depends where you are cruising.

different for everyone for sure. Not many people do stupid things like I am going to do this winter. So they don’t get to see the system put to the test. With 1500 W of solar I had no idea what to do with this power for years. 100% charged by noon. Generators were never run except to use it for air conditioning.

Now? It’s all different.

it’s getting dark out at 4:30 now. The sun is not really coming up much above the horizon. I haven’t seen this in a while. Plus it’s not sunny all that often.

A huge difference in solar insolation and it's only just beginning

[Chotu]

to give it some numbers:

typically in the morning when I am up and making breakfast when I am in Florida or the Carolinas or Virginia or in the summer type of weather up here, I'm seeing 30A per side on my port and starboard solar array. 60A of charging power.

Now on the absolutely sunniest of days I'm lucky to see half that because the angle of incidence is so low due to the sun being low in the sky all day.

It's going to get quite a bit weaker up until the solstice.

Pivoting panels would help a lot up here. But more trouble than it's worth

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Chotu

100%.
Not many people do stupid things like I am going to do this winter.

I am not sure where you are, but I bet we have done stupider things . Winter in the Hebrides springs to mind.

[s/v Jedi]

What we did in this tropical place last Friday

It’s a bit chilly in the morning so a light jacket is nice but from 11:00 on it’s still T-shirt weather. We just had dinner outside at Grills with live music and fish taco’s with sushi grade yellowfin tuna seared for a couple seconds

Today I was activating all systems after2 years on the hard… turns out both toilets have failed, with the plastic discharge units completely disintegrating. Delay for our departure

[SailingHarmonie]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Lately, the solar insolation has gone way, WAY down.

Anyone doing higher latitude cruising might want to consider keeping their generator.

The sun doesn't get directly above my boat anymore. Not by a long shot. So, even if it's out, which it is for a short time each day that it's not cloudy, you are getting severely reduced solar power with catamaran style fixed roof mount solar.

Very thankful to have my generators

No, that's not the moon. That's the sun on a "mostly sunny" day. Lol

No longer keeping up with my 120(ish) AH nightly use. Use is also increased from running heaters, which heat my refrigerator and freezer.

Using the generator to top off

Sucha profound observation that anybody could have predicted exactly with just a bit of high school trigonometry and an ephemeris.