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400 watt with alternator charging

dcs02d

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Joined
May 29, 2021
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Hi all,

I'm looking at these plans - https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/simplified-400-watt-fewer-wires-and-alternator-charging.html

I'm making plans for a camper boat. I'm considering purchasing a 10HP 48Volt kicker motor in addition to a 25HP gas outboard motor and using a 48 volt system in the interior of the boat. This would let me charge a 48V battery bank while running the gas motor and also be able to run the 10HP electric motor when the battery bank is fully charged. This is the electric motor - https://www.elcomotoryachts.com/product/ep-9-9-electric-outboard/

Is it even possible to do this? I would need to swap the Renogy charger with something that supports 48 volts as well as the inverter?

Is this a bad idea?

The boat I'm remodeling is here -
 
Is it even possible to do this?
Don't think so.
The setup in the link is for a RV with a large engine and alternator, any outboard motor will not have charging ability above a few amps. Also the parts are not suitable to charge a 48v battery.

With a small roof area the solar contribution is limited.

It may be viable if the batteries were charged at the dockside via shore AC power.

some sums.
the 48 volt motor will consume at full 10HP around 7500 watts of electrical power.
Elco suggest 4 off 110Ah batteries, each will hold 1320 watts, 5280 watts for the four, so 40 minutes at full power using all the power in the batteries. In practice the motor wont be at full so you will have more run time.
At very low boat speeds the engine power will be low, less than a 1000 watts. In good solar conditions the contribution would go some way to extend run time

400 watts of solar panels, typically over a day will deliver 1500 watts, around 4 days to recharge the batteries from empty.

The gas motor may deliver 10 amps at 12 volts, this with suitable equipment could put some charge into the batteries, 120 watts per hour, thus 44 hours of running the recharge the batteries.

Of course you need to consider the expense of all the electrical equipment needed to charge the batteries and the weight of all this plus the panels plus the batteries and the effect it will have on the boats performance.

Lots of simplifying for the sake of discussion but I hope you get the idea.

Mike
 
Don't think so.
The setup in the link is for a RV with a large engine and alternator, any outboard motor will not have charging ability above a few amps. Also the parts are not suitable to charge a 48v battery.

With a small roof area the solar contribution is limited.

It may be viable if the batteries were charged at the dockside via shore AC power.

some sums.
the 48 volt motor will consume at full 10HP around 7500 watts of electrical power.
Elco suggest 4 off 110Ah batteries, each will hold 1320 watts, 5280 watts for the four, so 40 minutes at full power using all the power in the batteries. In practice the motor wont be at full so you will have more run time.
At very low boat speeds the engine power will be low, less than a 1000 watts. In good solar conditions the contribution would go some way to extend run time

400 watts of solar panels, typically over a day will deliver 1500 watts, around 4 days to recharge the batteries from empty.

The gas motor may deliver 10 amps at 12 volts, this with suitable equipment could put some charge into the batteries, 120 watts per hour, thus 44 hours of running the recharge the batteries.

Of course you need to consider the expense of all the electrical equipment needed to charge the batteries and the weight of all this plus the panels plus the batteries and the effect it will have on the boats performance.

Lots of simplifying for the sake of discussion but I hope you get the idea.

Mike
Thanks very much... that was a helpful summary. PErhaps I should use a solar generator for 'house' power and can be kept inside the boat away from the elements and for the battery for the motor I'll buy a small simple starting battery and keep the systems separate.
 
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