Well, back from the boat for a bit, and trying to keep up...

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach sez use my name at earthlink dot
fishcatcher (net) - with apologies for the spamtrap wrote in
:

Hm. Help me with the math. As a lapsed math, physics and chem major,
I don't remember my stuff all that well. However, I'll have right in
the neighborhood of 500W solar

How big are these solar panels? A Kyocera KC120 panel at 120 watts is:
Max power: 120 Watts
Max voltage: 16.9 Volts
Max current: 7.10 Amps
Dimensions (LxWxD): 56.1" x 25.7" x 2.2"
Weight: 26.3 lbs

4 of those kinda hinders going on deck, I suppose. Or, do you mean 500
watt-hours per day?? 500 watts x 8 hours = 4 KWh/day...pretty nice!

Well, that's sorta what I thought.

First, these (whatever they turn out to be, based solely on first, space,
and second, availability) will be run through an MPPT which will allow me
higher voltage/smaller wires - for example, ones designed for 24V systems..
Second, it appears I'll not be able to get the 500W I wanted - but quite
possibly more than 450, e.g 3x http://www.partsonsale.com/bp4170.pdf 170w
63x31, 34v or 4x http://www.affordable-solar.com/kc125g125watt.html 125w
56x26 24v but Third, these are going on our arch
http://www.justpickone.org/skip/gall...rch&star t=42
which, on construction, appears not to have the space above I'd expected.
So, back to the drawing boards for what will fit up there. You can muck
around in the rest of that gallery to see what else we'd looked at in coming
up with the specs and drawings. In any event, moving about on deck won't be
an issue..

None the less, 400W isn't out of the realm of possibility. Real world
experience suggests "normal" accumulation of something above 125AH/day...

The arch is in the rough welded stage, without any of the custom hang-ons,
at the moment. I assume it will be finished by my next time down there,
which I expect to be 10 days or so, when I'll take up the regimen of staying
on the boat for 3 weeks and coming home for one, in hopes of finishing in
May, as I have another surgery scheduled for June 6th, this time to relocate
muscle from my back to replace the dead ones in the rotator cuff...

L8R

Skip and Lydia, refitting as fast as we can


--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"There is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply
messing about in boats.
In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
the charm of it.
Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get
anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in
particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and
you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."