Solar Houseboat

[Givie]

Hello from mid state California where the temperature is over 100 degrees for days an days.
I own a houseboat that I want to install solar on. The 120 DC solar power must provide 120 AC power to operate the: electric refrigerator, electrical outlets that periodically run a tv or kitchen appliances and to charge the batteries.
Any help with a diagram and your personal evaluation or opinion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[SunEagle]

Hello Givie and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

Sorry about your post being held up for approval. It contained the word kitchen in it which is a trigger for our software to keep a lot of spammers from posting.

Hang in there and hopefully someone will come by and help you out.

[oakdale]

Solar electric systems are expensive, so the first step is to find every way that you can to reduce your power needs. You might need a very large set of solar panels just to produce enough power for your electric refrigerator. Some boats have highly efficient fridges, but they aren't as big as household units.

If you move the houseboat around, you may have a difficult time trying to point your solar panels to the sun so that they would perform near their output rating.

I don't know where you plan to put the panels, the electronics and the batteries. Finding a place for a small system might be easy enough, but it won't produce enough power to do what you want.

It might also require careful thought to keep water away from the system.

So you need to figure out how much power you need each day, after you've done everything you can to conserve. Then someone might be able suggest what you might need to produce that much power. There is an electric usage meter called a "kill a watt" that can help you measure how much power your electric appliances are using. That could help you calculate how much power you need.

The issues of finding a safe place to put everything might not be easily resolved.

It would also help if you could learn the basics about electricity, battery banks and direct current wiring. I'm still surprised at the number of people want to build a solar electric system but have no electrical skills. I hope my comments help a little.

[Sunking]

Very first thing you MUST DO is determine Daily Watt Hour usage. Otherwise you will fail.

Boats are almost impossible. Panels must remain at fixed orientation, tilt angle and no shade from sunrise to sunset. About the best you can hope for is like an RV where soolar just supplements and minimizes fuel burn. Most of the power will come from your auxiliary engine alternator/generator.