boat radio

[mbutler734]

I'm trying to hook up a solar panel just to run a small radio/cd player on my boat so I dont have to worry about killing my boat battery. I am trying to figure out what size I need, can anybody help? Thanks

[Mike90250]

You need to have a panel that can replenish what your radio consumes. When we know:
1) how much the radio draws
2) how long you play it daily
then we can caculate what size panel you will need.

Anything else is a wild guess you could make.

[Sunking]

You are going to need more than a solar panel. You will need a charge controller and another battery or your boats battery

[MarineLiner]

..... so I dont have to worry about killing my boat battery.

[BuzzBuds]

Ok I understand the idea of what has been said here but to have a sun cannopy that jams sounds like a great project let us know how you do on that. with it being a boat I would like to know the size available for cannopy first off let see what size of panel you can aply?
then you can work out the hours of your party time this is going to last well into the night you might be able to but you would spend more on feul carrying all the extra batteries to run past dusk

[Sunking]

Well everything depends on what kind of radio he is talking about. If this is just say something like a 5 or 10 watt output, you are wasting your time and money using a solar panel and extra battery. Your boats starting battery can handle it just fine.

If it is a high wattage output stereo, then you have something to worry about, but you do not need a solar panel or a charge controller. Just install an auxiliary battery and a battery isolator. Run the stereo on the aux battery, and let the boat motor charge it up when it is running.

[mbutler734]

I'm talking about a 180 Watt cd deck with 2 small speakers. I understand the motor charges the battery but I only use the radio when it's anchored

[MarineLiner]

... but to have a sun cannopy that jams sounds like a great ...
with it being a boat I would like to know the size available for cannopy first off let see what size of panel you can aply?

[Mike90250]

I'm talking about a 180 Watt cd deck with 2 small speakers. I understand the motor charges the battery but I only use the radio when it's anchored

is it 12V or mains voltage ? (does it run off battery, or do you need an inverter ??)

[BuzzBuds]

is it 12V or mains voltage ? (does it run off battery, or do you need an inverter ??)

I think if he is using it on a boat if it required an invert he would have that already I am going to guess at this and say he is running on 12v if he adds one more battery and wishes to part at NIGHT I woulds make that 12 v into 24v and build a 24v solar pannel of what ever amount of juice he wants to pull off of it and during the day even if he is not using it it will be charging which brings me to one Item I am sure has bin mentioned earlier in this thread is a charge controler for 24v or X in amps.

But there might be an issue with the item being used how would you hook up the 12v item to the 24v battery sys

I would like to see what size of cannopy he can usegive use some mesurments for the size of panel you can have

[BuzzBuds]

I'm talking about a 180 Watt cd deck with 2 small speakers. I understand the motor charges the battery but I only use the radio when it's anchored

What voltes are you using 12v?