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Sail Life - Living off-grid. Is 1600W of solar enough? Intro to our electrical setup
6 August 2023 · 19 min · 64K views
What this video covers
The 1987 Warrior 38 *Athena* utilizes a 1600-watt solar array and a 300-amp-hour 24-volt lithium iron phosphate battery bank to support off-grid living.4:47 The electrical system integrates 12-volt, 24-volt, and 230-volt AC circuits, managed by a Victron Quattro 5000 inverter-charger and an REC battery management system.1:04 Heavy AC loads, including an induction cooktop, water maker, and air conditioning, run through the inverter, while a DC-DC charger handles the 12-volt house loads to maintain redundancy.1:25 Monitoring occurs via a Victron Cerbo GX and the VRM portal.8:20 Daily consumption averages 5.5 kilowatt-hours, while solar generation averages 7.3 kilowatt-hours.11:25 During periods of low sun or high demand, the crew supplements power using a Fisher Panda 5000i genset or a high-output alternator on the Volvo D2-40 engine.4:29 While the 1600-watt array covers most needs in the Caribbean, the crew still requires approximately 10 to 15 hours of engine runtime per month to maintain full battery capacity.16:35
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