House battery bank, Magnum Energy inverter/charger and solar panel

We like to anchor out, but we don't like running the generator (and on this boat, the generator doesn't work...yet). So I installed five 12v deep cycle batteries as a house bank and tied them with 1/0 cable to the port 4D starting/house battery. Because I've had very good success with Magnum Energy charger/inverters, I installed a 2000w model with the house bank in the space under the galley floor. The weight of the batteries in this particular location also acts as ballast and helps keep the nose of the boat down when I push the throttles open.

Unfortunately, I ran out of wire ties a while ago and keep forgetting to get more. One of these days... ;-)

Magnum Energy inverter/chargers have outstanding remote panels that, in addition to providing state of charge information, also allow you to control all sorts of fancy features of the unit: equalization, charge rates, battery type etc. I installed the remote panel in the galley, where it's easily viewable.

With the inverter/charger and house battery bank installed, the next step was to install a Ramsond 100w solar panel and charge controller. The panel mounted very easily on the hardtop and is low enough that it's hardly visible except from the flybridge of other boats. The MC4 connectors are the latest weatherproof standard and should, along with the UV-rated #10 wire, hold up just fine in the marine environment.

The last step was to connect the solar charge controller at the 12v breaker panel. Ideally, the charge controller would be right next to the batteries, but it's cooler and drier in the aft stateroom closet than in the machinery space where the house batteries are located, and the #6 wire that supplies the breaker panel provides very little resistance to the 8 amps the panel and charge controller put out. It's a good compromise.

With this single 100w panel, I can anchor out from Friday night through Sunday evening without having to fire up a portable generator. When I get back to the dock, though, the Magnum charger kicks in and quickly recharges the batteries with a 100 amp bulk charge rate, followed by absorb charge, and finally float. The charger shuts itself off when it determines that batteries are fully charged.

Winter 2020 update: I finally got the Kohler generator working! Still, it's nice to have the solar panel.