Solar on a Sailboat - How To - Lady K Sailing Mini Series

[@patrickjustdo-inthings2936]

You lead the class of explaining in detail your operations of similar KZbinrs. Kudos.

[@Seafariireland]

Maybe this electric stuff is not overly complicated after all! Super presentation. Thanks again and fair sailing, Ray.

[@tghounsell]

This is exactly the kind of detail I'm looking for!

[@sonnylange3051]

Great Info! From actual use and not theory. Glad to see 550W is enough as I was thinking more towards 700. Enjoy all your videos and this addition of shorts is awesome.

[@LadyKSailing]

Thanks so much. We are power hungry and we do just fine here. State side it was worse but less sun so there’s that

[@carlthor91]

It all depends on your draw. They are keeping above the 70% line so baring mechanical issues with a battery (bad plate in manufacture) they should see about 4 - 6 years life, with proper maintenance (water, clean and grease, dielectric grease, on the posts) as necessary. Some will be over 7 years. Some will be one to two years, if those people are blase about battery draw down, care and maintenance. Cheers all

[@ThompsonBMXbikes]

I'm still learning this stuff and this video is perfect timing. I'm trying to generate 121 gigawatts to engage the flux capacitor and time travel back to 1979 so I can see Bob Marley in concert.

[@seawhaturnissen]

😂

[@seawhaturnissen]

One Love! I'm learning also. Very helpful video

[@LadyKSailing]

Omg Thompson. I fucking love u

[@mhensen1]

Best reason, imo worthwhile goal

[@peterengel7885]

I like it when some one knows what they are trying to do.

[@rgray43]

Great video. Would like to see rain water collection system

[@hansjensen7823]

Very informative introduction to solar wiring, thank you for sharing.

[@SailingwithHuonCry]

I would like to say this Was very helpful as our yacht is of a similar size and has about the same storage and set up or will have by the time we go cruising.

[@TheCraigBlakeley]

Great video Tim Very informative and to the point. Great work, and Thank You

[@sailingnordicsun7199]

Thanks for the additional information. Good luck on getting certified. I'll have to check out that sinking video.

[@bartblack7326]

Your videos are getting better and better. Keep up the great work. You guys are informative and very entertaining... Great job!

[@LadyKSailing]

Thank you ❤️

[@lawrencestark1944]

I really enjoyed the video. Thank you

[@kendalstrickland1813]

Awesome video, makes me optimistic that my setup (newbie-designed) will power our Tayana 37 similarly well. We are putting 480W of flexible solar on top of the bimini and 2x 100W on either side of our cockpit, plus D400 Wind Gen.

[@LadyKSailing]

That's plenty! Where you get into trouble is with a separate freezer unit. A fridge/freezer will draw less than 6 amps 60-70% of the day. An extra freezer adds another 6amps.

[@edrymes3653]

Thanks for the tech talk. The one thing I've found out in cruising is that everyone seems to have their own electrical set up. Your description of Lady K's system was clear and valuable since it works. Perhaps you can follow up with how your AC shore power is rigged. I find it is always good to watch videos right to the end. Especially since you got photo bombed at the 8:33 mark. ;-)

[@Brandon-qr8zz]

Thank you for this informative video.

[@Robbie1820]

nice solar set up have installed quite a few Canadian solar panels on houses. Think that you will benefit at some point by upgrading the batteries. Your battery monitor is a must in my opinion, anything else is guess work and will catch you out at some point. Big thumbs up

[@LadyKSailing]

Agree 100%

[@ItsRainingTacosProductions]

Very well done and informative!

[@RiggingDoctor]

We have been using a volt meter since we basically base our house batteries status on “do the lights work?” We are upgrading our batteries and I want to put in a proper monitor.

[@chiefcliff]

Would like to hear about boat security where you are and beyond. What stories have you heard? Steps to take?

[@LadyKSailing]

Hey. Never heated anything bad since we left the US. Lots of crime in and around Miami. Doesn’t seem to be any here but we skipped Freeport and avoided spending to much time in Nassau. The small islands are extremely safe.

[@bigjohnhere6522]

Great vid yeah Canadian solar makes a great panel. That battery meter is very cool it’s almost like a little computer the way it keeps track

[@LadyKSailing]

It does. We love it. And we love u 😘

[@garyengelman7867]

Note, output of solar panels are rated at a Standard temperature. I think 68 degrees, but check your panel. ANYTIME the temp gos above this the out put drops, the hotter it is the lower the output. It could surprise you a lot to see how much the drop off actually else.

[@garyengelman7867]

^ Actually is

[@mrrobkennedy]

Great job brother

[@brianchamber]

Tim, one important thing that you forgot to mention...it is very important to keep the Solar charge controller above the water line!!!! LOL. Good Job!

[@LadyKSailing]

lol yes it is 😃

[@Tb0n3]

After all this time I somehow had missed that you had a desktop computer on the boat. I wonder with the salty air how did the components wind up handling it?

[@sailingdutchman7000]

Thanks I'm fixing to move on to a boat soon and I have panels that I'm going to put on. I also have the t105 but think of going to gel what do you think about gel batteries

[@LadyKSailing]

Sounds good. I’d go lithium if I could afford it. Gel is good too.

[@livewire6925]

Good job!

[@catnguyen174]

So you can charge deep cycle batteries with the solar panels? Also, you can use your battery while charging it with the solar panel?

[@davidross5291]

How are you liking the Wen generator over the years.

[@colbjallen8334]

Thanks for the info

[@jackpatteeuw9244]

EXCELLENT job of documenting your system ! You description of the battery monitor is spot on as well as your explanation of why battery voltage alone is inadequate, How often do you check the liquid level in the batteries ? How do you filter the water for the batteries ? I understand it is difficult to cover all the details so that you need a script, but maybe next time you can position it behind the camera so it does not look like you are looking off to the side all of the time. Perhaps in another video you can go more in depth on your computers, cameras and networking equipment. (The biggest mistake that most KZbinr make is NOT having a RAID NAS for bulk storage. Many to chose from.)

[@LadyKSailing]

Hi. Thanks. We check the water weekly and it hasn’t needed a top up in more than two months. We have reserve bottles of distilled water. I had the GoPro clipped to the laptop I was reading from. I know. I wish I could have looked at the camera more sorry. Wish we could afford a NAS. We can’t do we don’t have one.

[@jackpatteeuw9244]

@@LadyKSailing Your "script reading" will get better ! You have a good narration voice. You might try reading from a list of "bullet point" and adding verbiage of the fly (although that's what get POTUS all of the time !) There are several fairly inexpensive NAS out there. Would you like me to do some research for you ?

[@LadyKSailing]

Jack Patteeuw thanks. I’d really like a NAS. I fear however, nothing can be shipped to the Bahamas cheaply. We will have to wait until we get somewhere that is easier to ship to. 40% import tax here.

[@spinnaker5514]

Thanks for an excellent video. I just bought a 32' trawler with 4 solar panels on top of her cabin top. I bought the boat from an estate so there's no explaintion of how things work! I followed my wiring down to a solar charge controller (fairly cheap one) then to a Xantrex inverter/converter? From there it goes to two D house batteries and to two D starting batteries in two different sections of the boat. It's all a bit confusing to me. I just hoping to be able to live at anchor as a single sailor for weeks at a time without visiting a marina except for food and fuel every now and then. I guess my next step is to convert the lights to LED. I'd love to know a bit more about your refrigeration set up and how you run it on solar??? Thanks for an excellent video!

[@LadyKSailing]

Hey sounds like a good set up. Depends on how much power to use. A big fridge and freezer will be the biggest thing. Also find a way to watch tv on something small. We use a laptop. Our fridge is just a conventional marine evaporator fridge. Most boats have the same thing.

[@PatriotCanadian]

Awesome

[@humbertosandri2053]

Thank you!

[@dancottle9848]

What are you guys going to do during hurricane season?

[@LadyKSailing]

Hide in Grenada 😃

[@geneneill530]

Outstanding video, thank you! Your narration is flawless, very precise and easily understood. I may have missed it, but do you have a round number (despite the randomness of your power consumption habits) of what your actual energy budget is? Or rather, your average energy consumption - since you clearly have more than enough juice for what you do! I'd like to compare that to your 550W solar and your 450Ah bank before asking you any stupid questions. Thanks so much! :)

[@LadyKSailing]

Good question. Wish I could answer it. We’ve never had to figure it out because we have more than we need. To guess I’d say we generally use 4 amps per hour while sleeping and average using about 7amps while awake. So 24ah night plus 112 day is 136ah per day. That’s if we’re home all day.

[@AndysEastCoastAdventures]

Been looking into this a lot as just bought a new mppt controller. Concluding it seems that running them in series is best if the panels are the same and you experience frequent cloud and if you have mixed panels then parallel is the best option as panels in series on put out the maximum amperage of the smallest one in the series . On the whole though it concluded that the panels should be the same throughout the boat as mixing smaller panels into the array brings down the final amp output. i think your not noticing any difference due to the fact you are running 2 identical panels in more or less full bright sun.

[@AndysEastCoastAdventures]

solarpanelsvenue.com/mixing-solar-panels/

[@AndysEastCoastAdventures]

This link explains it very well.

[@LadyKSailing]

But the parts to run both ways and figure it out. We found no difference.

[@VmaxBR549]

Are you checking the specific gravity of the batteries ?? That is really the best way to test IF your lead acid batteries are getting to a fully charged state. Undercharged batteries are the best way to shorten battery life. I can see that where you have your batteries located it would very difficult to check water levels and specific gravity of all the cells. Just a thought, (;-) TP

[@LadyKSailing]

Yeah we have a hydrometer we use. The batters slide forward for that reason.

[@benkanobe7500]

Are you still using FLA (flooded lead acid) or have you gone hybrid or completely Li?

[@A4Chase1]

Do you carry a small generator on board?

[@RAJAesq]

any reason your batteries are not in a battery box?

[@LadyKSailing]

No reason specifically other than we didnt get to building one. The tight spot they are in makes it very difficult to install a box but a custom box is on the to do list

[@chenegabfree7617]

As stated below... are there pump outs in the Bahamas? I’d be surprised if so but what is expected for discharge..?

[@LadyKSailing]

Hey. We have a natures head composting toilet so very sorry but we are the wrong people to answer that.

[@hogroamer260]

Tim, just curious, why 6v batteries in series and parallel rather than 12v batteries in parallel? Cost???

[@LadyKSailing]

Yes. Golf carts are 6v and way way way cheaper than anything else.

[@sailingnordicsun7199]

Looking for some advice in a couple areas. Why did you add the circuit breakers before and after controller? Secondly I'm a new youtuber trying to grow my sailing channel. Any advice?

[@LadyKSailing]

Hi. The circuit breakers are important to prevent overloads and for use when servicing. Growing a KZbin channel... good content. Don’t use click bait.

[@sailingnordicsun7199]

Thanks. It make sense to have them to disconnect the solar panels by flipping the switch prior to the controller. But how can your panels overload the controller? Aren't you suppose to size the panels, to have less capacity of the controller? For the one after the control is this used mainly to disconnect your panels from your battery? If so what situations would you want to do this? Great stuff here. Just trying to make sense of it all.

[@LadyKSailing]

Sailing Nordic Sun good questions. I am almost all the way through for ABYC certification and it taught me that every electricity circuit needs some sort of fuse. You never know what’s going to have a short or get wet. When we almost sunk on our mayday video (not sure if you saw it) I was able to shut off electricity coming in from the panels. My lesson learned was “you never know what’s going to happen” and having the ability to shut off every circuit mattered.

[@VmaxBR549]

How do you have the banks wired to the Battery charger ? There is a good way and a not so good way to wire them to the charger. Can you give us a diagram of the wiring ?? Thanks (;-) TP

[@LadyKSailing]

Hey. The positive and negative come from opposing corners. The opposite ends of the bank to make equal draw and charge.

[@dougford5691]

Who si the manufacturer and what is the length of Lady K. Enjoy the video on solar.

[@LadyKSailing]

Lady K is a Hughes 35. Previously known as a Columbia north star 1500. Sparkman Stevens design.

[@changodelaporcelainacanada4819]

I’m no expert but I heard you need a min 45 to 90 amp charger for a 450ah house bank?

[@LadyKSailing]

No. Our solar is a max of 50 and everything works beautifully.

[@vandbaxelrad6902]

What about Wind and Hydro generators?

[@LadyKSailing]

If we ever need one we will let you know. So far not needed

[@gary5831]

Did you see any noise from the LED lights?

[@LadyKSailing]

No electrical noise no. Nothing.

[@jackpatteeuw9244]

Why would you expect noise. LED are pure DC no alternating current.

[@gary5831]

@@jackpatteeuw9244 While and LED itself is DC. It is a diode and can rectify producing noise. Also MOST LED lights consisting of more than one LED are not straight DC but are a PWM driven devices. Cheaper LED lights can cause noise, even the coast guard has issued a marine safety bulletin on the issue . www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/5p/CG-5PC/INV/Alerts/1318.pdf?ver=2018-08-16-091109-630

[@jackpatteeuw9244]

@@gary5831 If you are feeding a DC device, like an LED, with DC power, then the "rectification" is continuous and is called "forward bias voltage drop". That Coast Guard report is very vague. Some one who know more than I do about forward biased LEDs will have to explain to me how a properly install LED can generate RF "noise". PWM for light dimming or converting AC to DC is a whole different situation.

[@rickloberger7739]

We see noise from LED lights that were designed to replace fluorescent lights. The noise will show up on the SSB radio mostly. The smaller plug in LED units don’t have the little inverters so there is minimal noise.

[@tonychantun]

I guess you use the solar "bimini" to collect rain water, am I right?

[@svvictory4379]

Nice 👍

[@martyjackson4806]

Who is the local boat wrecker? (I'm in London Ont.)

[@LadyKSailing]

Hi. There is a guy on kijiji out of leamington. Just look for boat parts leamington. Let me know if you can’t find and I’ll look

[@martyjackson4806]

@@LadyKSailing Thanks. I looked at every add in boats in Leamington, Chatham, and Windsor. No luck. If you wouldn't mind taking a look for and old email address I'd be grateful. Thanks again! Marty

[@eddieluers3rd563]

I used to think I was fairly smart. Now after Watts, Volts, Amps, 😳🤯

[@jastark22181]

I got an idea on your next 'How to' video... How about you make one on 'How to not sink your boat when you have 5 gallons a second gushing in' 😉😆😆😆 I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! I love the videos and keep up the hard work 😉😊

[@hebelson444]

Very informative. You can take as much time going through the explanation next time, don't rush it as there's a lot of information to be understood. But Wait.... it might be you want people to watch several times over and over and get that "VIEWS" count sky high?? wink, wink...LOL

[@LadyKSailing]

Haha thanks. I just don’t want to be boring. I figured keep it short and simple.

[@alvin1984fiji]

Noted

[@stanleybest8833]

You're promoting batteries in parallel. Bad. What would work is a second battery charger to the second battery pairs and separate battery loads for the 2 battery sets. Think of how many boats used to have battery isolation switches and how much trouble owners had when they skipped using an isolator switch.

[@charlescain7962]

You double voltage or double the amp hrs, can't do both at the same time. Parallel, doubles voltage 6 to 12 volts, but amp hrs stays the same 105, whatever. Series, double the amp hrs, voltage stays the same, 6 volts. So, 2 batteries in parallel becomes 12 volts at 105+/- amp hrs, plus another paired set, in series(total of 4 batteries), becomes 12 volts and 210 amp hrs.

[@LadyKSailing]

This is completely inaccurate.

[@fortnitebloopers2130]

What ever happened to y'all?