Horsepower hours

Fuckin' hell, Dave, a giant Wotsit's just floated in! — my neighbour Brian, to Dave.

Hello! Happy Sunday :)

It took me a few days to recover, to not feel tired from non-stop sanding and painting, so besides a bit of wiring I happily enjoyed programming for most of the week.

Then on Friday morning, after 3.5 hours sleep, I installed the first 3 solar panels which felt amazing – free energy!! I didn't have enough connectors for the 4th, so I installed that one on Saturday. And by "installed" I mean temporarily-taped down, as the roof needs redoing.

Exhausted, it felt like the world could've ended, but my paddle board arrived and I fought against the wind downriver to spend 10 minutes lying in the gushing weir and hell yeah, joy restored.

It was delightful to disconnect from the grid:

However, my energy needs seem higher than my production, and I haven't even finished the boat. The panels are 160W each, and on a sunny-ish day it seems they generate just over 0.7kWh, or about 1 horsepower hour. Granted I've only had them for 2 days, but it's currently 23:23 and the battery's at 71%.

I'm gonna need more panels.

The four panels in series generate around 100 volts, and I got the 250V-60A charger so I could connect up-to 10 in series, or maximally-configured 90 panels in 9 parallel series of 10. But I don't have that much roof space, nor are my energy needs that insane. But I could.

Now in my quest to make this as non-boat-like as possible, I'm not turning the inverter off (the fridge is AC), I don't worry about the lights or plugs turned on, and also I got Starlink this week which is 25W, or 0.6kWh per day. I could be more efficient, but I don't wanna think about it; I don't want the mental tax. So I'll get 2 more panels, and come autumn/winter I may need another 2. And another battery.

And one thing I forgot: I was confused why the battery level showed lower after a period where solar power was higher than consumption, but then I remembered the sneaky gremlins of DC loads — they get lost in the battery input & output, and the consumption was only measuring AC loads through the inverter. I had no way to measure those, so I ordered a "SmartShunt" for total visibility, which arrives tomorrow. Also did I mention moar panels?

I'm hooked on these energy charts, Victron is awesome. Here's today's:

Also this evening I did another coat on the port gunwale, and around the stern. I need to finish this painting before the cold spell, and I can't wait to crack on with the saloon; I need more living space.

Until next Sunday!

- Nick