THE POWER SAGA

Before leaving Malta in 2017 I researched buying an energy efficient 12 volt (and mains) fridge. The salesman in England assured me that our solar panel would run the Waeco CFX 35. It is indeed a great fridge but last summer we did not have enough battery power and to resolve this was a major objective for 2019.

Andrew Browning (yacht Stonehenge) had showed me his NASA BM1 battery monitor and recommended that I buy and fit one. I brought it to Greece with me this year and I am grateful  to Don Boulter, Catamaran Nautitec 395, who wired it up for me.

It really is the most useful piece of equipment and showed me that my solar panel was giving maximum 0.5 amps, whereas everyone told me it should be giving at least 2 amps. I was also able to see that using gps and depth / log instrument we were consuming 0.5 amps, so it was clear why I had to keep charging batteries to shore power last year.

Don recommended a solar panel set which he uses, 120 ah, and I ordered it from UK. Cost including 3 week delivery to Greece was under 150 GB pounds so very reasonable compared with equipment I had seen elsewhere, plus it is a complete package ready to attach to the battery terminals, with solar controller fitted, and even  having 2 USB charging points.

It was working but I was unsure how to set it up to the system. Anchored close to us in Preveza was an interesting catamaran with A frame rig and two furling genoas, and no mainsail. 

I had to row over to ask about it and Austrian owner Johann offered to look at my solar / battery system.

An hour later it was correctly connected to the right side of the “shunt” on the battery used by the battery monitor. Soon I could see 5 amps charge, ten times more than from the 20 year old smaller panel. Amazing !!

Gratitude also to Pit (LARGYALO) who showed me their power system, and to Christoper  Defeyter, who had cleaned or replaced my battery terminals before Apataki launched in June.

We have a small 200 watt inverter on board which can plug into a cigarette lighter socket. That is a heavy user but now with good sun I can draw 1.6 to 2.0 amps from the system to recharge the computer, as long as I have net charge still, otherwise I don’t use it. After the fridge, the ability to charge the computer was a high priority.

After more a week I can say that each night the batteries rest at about 13 volts with the fridge off and I am so excited to have solved, step by step, the problem. I have started to change lights to LED and will change more next winter, but to be honest we hardly use lights in the long summer days.

These panels and monitor have really increased our self-sufficiency and independence.