Solar for a Houseboat

[Houseboatliving]

Greetings!

I am going to build out my Houseboat with solar and have a few questions. I have never worked with solar but I have with worked with 12v boat electrical systems my whole life.

I was planning on putting panels on the roof around 165W each. Shading is not an issue. Does anyone have good or bad things to say about Newpora or AltE panels?

	Newpowa	4 panels (s/p)		renogy	6 panels (s/p)		ALT-E	4 panels (s/p)
price	$204.53	$818.12		$115	$690		$189	$756
watts	175W	700W		100W	600W		165W	660W
price/watt	$1.17	$1.17		$1.15	$1.15		$1.15	$1.15
Voltage	19.06V	38v		16.0V	48v		18.72v	37.44v
Current	9.18A	18.36A		6.25A	18.75A		9.49A	18.98A
Effienciecy	16-17 %			15-18 %			16.60%

Another question, Is it wise to have the Charge Controller and the Battery Monitor the same company. Do they work together? A little fuzzy on this.
I was looking at the Midnite KID MPPT charge controller and a Victron Battery monitor. Midnite due to it being marine grade?

I will have many questions in the future but I am building out my shopping cart now and will be purchasing parts through out the winter.

I have not done a power calculation but this is what I will put on the boat-
DC LED lighting thru out the boat. 45 foot boat 4 rooms, roof deck so lots of lights
DC Stereo, Subwoofer AMP
DC water pumps (4)
USB chargers
DC fans

2000w Inverter/charger
AC outlets
30' TV
Fridge?


Thank you all your help and advice
Captain Terence

[Logan5]

If you wish to run a fridge, get a chest style that runs from native 24volts and replace your TV with one that uses 12 or 19 volts and use an appropriate step down transformer. Doing this allows you to eliminate the inverter and makes your project more possible. Before you buy any solar panels or batteries, you need an energy consumption audit. You also need to get out of the "12 volt box" especially if you plan to run any refrigeration. Solar battery power is limited and very expensive. Yes Solar battery power cost many times more than grid power. You need to do a lot of reading and test before you or anyone will have any idea how to make your project feasible. and Battery bank, you will need to know how to use a hydrometer and keep distilled water on hand. Save your money. Anything you buy now will end up in the junk pile.

[whazzatt]

Greetings!

Fridge?

I have a 24V system with a Dometic CF50 chest style fridge running straight from the terminals and a Victron step down unit (can't remember its official name at the mo) to run the 12V lights, car stereo, and a few basic laptop and cell phone chargers.

The fridge uses a minimal amount of power. I am extremely surprised by how little it uses. It is switched off at night and the excess power produced by the panels during most days seems to power the fridge without taking the controller out of float setting.

The youtube video named "Waeco vs Engel 4wd fridge power consumption comparison" has very accurate actual usage power consumption info - I should know, because I did a lot of research before making the purchase and this vid was the best. No I didn't make the vid and no I have no affiliation with Dometic!

[Houseboatliving]

[QUOTE=whazzatt;n385006]


Thank you for all that great information. I was looking at the Dometic Coolers. They look great and perfect for what I will be using the houseboat for.

Terence

[whazzatt]

... a Victron step down unit (can't remember its official name at the mo) to run the 12V lights, car stereo, and a few basic laptop and cell phone chargers.

The step down unit is called Victron Orion TR-24 DC/DC converter.

If you search online for it, the pictures don't show that the fuse (20A 'car style' fuse) slots in at the bottom left of the unit. I like this because it makes for easy replacement... not that it's popped on me yet!

It is solidly built, and cost a lot less than anything else I could find. Side by side next to a different unit that cost double, I would have taken the Victron as a no-brainer build-quality wise.

The max load I run on it is a bunch of 12V lights, a 12V phone charger, a car stereo, and two car-laptop chargers that are rated for 65 watts but I'm sure the two laptops don't use anywhere near it. Point is the step down unit clearly handles all that at the same - and yes, I did calculate max load first and it was well below 20A.