battery charging/maintenance with solar panels

[ks65609]

I currently have two switched 12V marine 60 ah cranking batteries connected in parallel. Our 230DA is wired for 12V dc with no shore power option.
I have purchased an 12V DC/AC television for occassional use with probably 2 to 3 hour continuous run time.
The tv draws 70 watts which I believe can be converted to 5.8 amp hours.
I am thinking of a small solar panel to keep the batteries fresh however unsure of the unit capacity I should purchase.

It looks like maybe a 5 watt unit may be adequate but could sure use some expert advice.

Thanks
Ken

 

[ks65609]

I am curious as to why I have not received any responses to my post.

Have I posted in the wrong section ?

Or is solar panel battery charging/maintenance a ridiculous option ?

Or is there no interest in this topic ?

I have always had good responses to my previous posts.

 

[kml9705]

I'm in a similar situation, no shore power where I dock. I just purchased a 15w solar panel and a dual battery charge controller off of ebay. I plan on using it to keep the batteries charged while using the inverter and while docked. Don't know how it will work yet but I will let you know how I make out....

 

[out-n-aboat]

I dont think your tv will work pluged into 110. AC/DC it will work but limited.

 

[Nehalennia]

Ken. The downside with solar is the low and slow recovery. I'd love to have something similar just to keep up with the fridge while on the hook. The reality is though even in the best times of year, like now, you only have 10-12 viable hours of solar charging. Not enough at 5W to recover from the use of your TV.

 

[ks65609]

I'm in a similar situation, no shore power where I dock. I just purchased a 15w solar panel and a dual battery charge controller off of ebay. I plan on using it to keep the batteries charged while using the inverter and while docked. Don't know how it will work yet but I will let you know how I make out....

Thanks for the feedback and good luck with your venture. I ended up adding a third (deep cycle) switched battery to my system

 

[ks65609]

I dont think your tv will work pluged into 110. AC/DC it will work but limited.

I purchased a Pyle AC/DC tv with DVD player from 12 volt travel. We spent a week on the Trent system using the system each night and very pleased with my new battery set up. Two cranking and one deep cycle, all switched. Lots of reserve power if I ever need it.

 

[ks65609]

Ken. The downside with solar is the low and slow recovery. I'd love to have something similar just to keep up with the fridge while on the hook. The reality is though even in the best times of year, like now, you only have 10-12 viable hours of solar charging. Not enough at 5W to recover from the use of your TV.

I had sort reached the same conclusion although very difficult to get definitive answers from the retailers. I ended up adding a third battery (deep cycle, group 27) that can be used as the house battery. The two cranking batteries are connected in parallel. If I am just going for a short run I will use the cranking batteries. If a run for a few hours with a planned layover I set the switch to ALL to keep all three batteries fresh. We just returned from a week on the Trent system and all three units tested identically at 12.75 volts. Used the TV every night for two to three hours on the house battery, along with the cabin lighting.
So far I am a happy camper with this set up.

 

[tobnpr]

There's any number of ways to address the 12v, as well as 120v needs...

Without a gen, the house battery bank is the wtg. On my Chris-Craft (no gen) I had four deep cycle golf cart batts- plenty of reserve power for anything on the boat including the 120v microwave and tv powered through an inverter.

All depends on calculating your estimated amp hour consumption and time between recharging. Recharging can also be accelerated with a high-output alternator on the engine, and a battery combiner off the single engine to charge multiple banks.