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Old 10-01-2019, 08:35 AM   #79
rslifkin
Guru
 
City: Rochester, NY
Vessel Name: Hour Glass
Vessel Model: Chris Craft 381 Catalina
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 7,551
How much power does your diesel furnace draw? My house bank is only 400ah (2x L16) and if I added some solar, it would be plenty big enough. Between just fridge and other small loads, I typically draw around 40 ah overnight. Daytime consumption is a bit higher (fridge works harder with higher temps, usually have the stereo on, etc.). So figure anywhere from 100 - 150 ah in a 24 hour period.

Do you have similar draw numbers for your current boat? And maybe a sense of how similar your draws will be on the new boat?

In my case, I end up running the generator 1 - 2 hours per day while away from shore power whether the batteries need charging or not. My galley is all electric, so the generator gets run in the morning to make coffee and use the stove or microwave. And often in the evening for galley power as well. Plus, one of those runs usually serves to warm up the hot water tank for showers. So that generator runtime (most of which can't be replaced with an inverter) plus probably 600-ish watts of solar (which I don't currently have) would make me power independent basically indefinitely even if my loads grow a bit.
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