Holiday has stock alternator, 300 watts Renogy solar panels, only 240 amp hours of house battery, and a 40 amp mppt HQST charge controller. No wind generator. Before purchasing and installing all this (and prior to moving aboard), I did all the estimating and figuring based on Nigel Calder's books and had determined that I needed 400-500 watts solar and that I might need to run my engine as much as 3-4 hours a day if too cloudy (because alternator not high output). After getting opinions from more experienced cruisers, I decided that my estimations were very "worst case" and went with the above (first paragraph) system. Thinking I could always add solar, upgrade alternator, or add wind later. Well, after living aboard for almost 9 months cruising and never once plugging in, we've only had to run the engine for charging at anchor maybe 5 or 6 times for a couple hours here and there (bear in mind, you end up motoring around every now and then too which helps). Mostly, I don't even have to check on batteries at all and when I do, they are above 40% in the morning, mostly above 50%. Our only big power draws are the DC fridge/freezer (we always have ice) and charging laptops. I did upgrade to a newer laptop with long battery life and less charging demands. Now that its summer, we also run fans constantly. I installed all LED bulbs and also insulated the fridge lids. We have also been cruising Florida and the Bahamas where sunshine is frequent. If I were to make one change, the first would be more amp hours of batteries. The MPPT charger is so good, I find that I've reached trickle charge with plenty of sun left most days. With more amp hour capacity, we might have never needed to run the engine for charging but once or twice.
_________________ Zach Duncan SV Holiday Hull# 280
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