Fridge and watermaker on 27' mono?

[Gene Neill]

Originally Posted by misfits

If you need ice for cocktails, this works real good & is very quick.

We have the same panel arrangement on our Catalina 22! Twin Renogy 30's.

[Gene Neill]

Originally Posted by misfits

Personally I'd do the ice box conversion

I can't. The icebox is gone, and I've built a battery box for the two 6volts in the space the icebox once occupied.



It's either buy an Engel or build something. The same amount of space will be taken up either way, roughly.

[boatman61]

The problem with the Honda is you need valuable storage space for it and the fuel needed to run it..
Surprised no one has suggested two alternators, or did I miss it.
I would go for the solar arch with a wind gen mount, ignore all the windage crap your cruising not racing.
Had a Bene 331 that I fitted an arch on with 2 panels and an Aerogen plus fitting so it could hang my dinghy.. sailed a transat, around the Med and up to the UK with no noticeable detrimental effect in performance/safety and experienced f8's+ along the way.
Bimini is easy.. make it attachable to the dodger at one end and the arch at the other with pockets for stiffeners.
Quick n easy to put up/take down to suit conditions.

[a64pilot]

Little Honda stays in the the cockpit.
For a small boat refrigeration and a Watermaker will almost certainly require fossil fuel to be burned, your very unlikely to have room for enough Solar to do the job.
So your faced with running either your propulsion engine as a generator which may require repropping a small motor so it’s not overloaded when motoring, and if you price a good alternator and alt controller, it’s more expensive than a Honda.
Room wise, nothing even comes close to making the kind of power a Honda can, for it’s relative size and price.

I’m not saying don’t have Solar, everyone ideally should as nothing beats the silent near every day continuous power production, just it’s not going to be enough, even for a very efficient Watermaker due to the small size.

Once you make the decision to have a generator, then you open up the possibility of running an inefficient, but simple and way less expensive AC powered Watermaker, but your not running one of those without a generator, not realistically anyway.

[Gene Neill]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The problem with the Honda is you need valuable storage space for it and the fuel needed to run it..
Surprised no one has suggested two alternators, or did I miss it.
I would go for the solar arch with a wind gen mount, ignore all the windage crap your cruising not racing.
Had a Bene 331 that I fitted an arch on with 2 panels and an Aerogen plus fitting so it could hang my dinghy.. sailed a transat, around the Med and up to the UK with no noticeable detrimental effect in performance/safety and experienced f8's+ along the way.
Bimini is easy.. make it attachable to the dodger at one end and the arch at the other with pockets for stiffeners.
Quick n easy to put up/take down to suit conditions.

No, no one has mentioned the use of two alternators unless I also missed it. This can be done on a lil' ol' 14HP engine?


But alternators in general are a mystery to me. Any discussion of them at all would surely be helpful. I DO WANT to maximize whatever charging potential is to be had from the engine.



Witzgall said:

Originally Posted by witzgall

Upgrade the Beta with the 75 amp alternator w serpentine belt that Beta Marine NC offers. Regulate it externally with an MC-614

..... and I was planning to do that. But I don't fully understand regulators, so I need to do some reading. I seem to recall MaineSail wrote a good long article about regulators, I'll have to look it up this evening.

[Quadrille in JB]

Originally Posted by Buzzman

Thanks, Quad, that confirms what I was told. I believe most MPPT controllers can take multiple panels, and so people tend to hook multiple panels up to a single MPPT controller, is that right?

Or are you saying a single MPPT unit can enable separate connections for multiple panels?

I get the blocking diodes. Sorta what I was referring to when I said some panels can keep each *cell* separate.

So can you get away with a single MPPTcontroller or do you need one for each panel, not quite sure what you're saying..?

The best setup to minimize the effects of shading with multiple panels is to have a dedicated mppt controller for each panel. This isolates the panels output so they don’t interact. The Victron mppt controllers work great, provide output data and history to your phone, they’re reliable and affordable.
I would suggest a resettable breaker on the output of each panel. This is for safety as well as to enable you to reboot the controllers into bulk (max) charging mode when you need the extra output.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYpa6isaFjA

[Gene Neill]

Originally Posted by Quadrille in JB

The best setup to minimize the effects of shading with multiple panels is to have a dedicated mppt controller for each panel.

I thought wiring the panels in parallel accomplished that. No??

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Gene Neill

I thought wiring the panels in parallel accomplished that. No??

yes gene it does the same thing . I am running both of my rigid panels and when needed my flex panels all in parallel to a single p30l PWM controller.

[mitiempo]

Originally Posted by Quadrille in JB

I would suggest a resettable breaker on the output of each panel. This is for safety as well as to enable you to reboot the controllers into bulk (max) charging mode when you need the extra output.

No reason to reboot the controller. Turn float off as because there are continuous loads the batteries will never over-charge. Victron MMPT controllers are fully adjustable.

[john61ct]

> I believe most MPPT controllers can take multiple panels, and so people tend to hook multiple panels up to a single MPPT controller, is that right?

Yes, since that often saves money, mounting space and wiring costs.

But Victron's MPPT pricing makes several smaller SCs very inexpensive.

Originally Posted by Buzzman

are you saying a single MPPT unit can enable separate connections for multiple panels?
…
So can you get away with a single MPPTcontroller or do you need one for each panel, not quite sure what you're saying..?

Not "need", but that is the optimum for maximizing power output in partial shade.

[Quadrille in JB]

Originally Posted by mitiempo

No reason to reboot the controller. Turn float off as because there are continuous loads the batteries will never over-charge. Victron MMPT controllers are fully adjustable.

The “reason” I reboot the controller is so that it will provide max output to the batteries during periods of large discharge such as when I’m running the watermaker. The controllers will eventually go into the bulk mode but I would much rather be force them into bulk immediately so as to minimize the drain on the battery bank.
When you temporarily disconnect the panel from the controller, the controller thinks the sun has just come up and it goes into max/ bulk mode.

[a64pilot]

Bulk isn’t a “mode”
Bulk is just when the banks acceptance rate exceeds the panels capacity so the bank is being charged but hasn’t reached absorption voltage.

Balmar queers this up on their alternator regulators by making bulk a mode and allowing a different bulk and absorption voltage, but I think they are alone in doing so.

However many chargers that aren’t very programmable when they trip to float prematurely can be made to go back to absorption voltage by turning them off and back on again.

[a64pilot]

A bigger alternator needs a good regulator to work properly.
Also 80 amps is about the max you can pull on a single belt and even that is iffy.
Defender is a good place to buy them so look at the prices

[Buzzman]

So you can't set the controller to 'bulk' via its manual input or via a phone app? Seems odd you have to disconnect the panels to 'trick' it into bulk mode...?

[john61ct]

Again, Bulk is not a "mode", the regulator does not control when the CC (Bulk) to CV (Absorb) transition occurs

that is up to bank size, current rate, chemistry and physics

and rebooting / resetting will make no difference, to that.

If a device is dropping to **Float** voltage so early and that problem can't be fixed / adjusted (AHT, Absorb Hold Time) then it svcks and should be replaced with a better unit.