Larry wrote in
:

Geoff Schultz wrote in
:

You can't produce more power
than the panels are generating.


Ok, here's a little electricity for everyone....

Thank you Professor Larry for the edification. I always enjoy it when
this forum is used to exchange information instead of throwing barbs at
one another.

I am of the personal opinion that boats should have a combination of
solar and wind. I believe that a wind generator gives you a much bigger
bang for the buck, but there are days when the wind doesn't blow and
likewise when it isn't sunny.

You need to regulate both sources. I spend about 6-7 months a year
cruising (at anchor) and rarely have seen the regulator regulate as my
power demands almost always exceed my wind/solar generation capacity.
Any time that I do see the batteries getting topped off, I can always
make more water. If you spend lots of time at a dock connected to a
power cord and your batteries fully charged, then yes, you do need
regulation. (I actually pull the fuse for the solar panels and feather
the generator at dock.)

Solar panels don't care if there's no load attached to them, but wind
generators need a load to keep them from free-wheeling. As a result you
need a controller which can be used in diversion mode with a resistive
load. Due to space and $ constraints, I don't want to have multiple
controllers. I would rather put the cost of another controller towards
more generation capacity.


-- Geoff