Recent content by noelex

The cheap hydraulic crimpers are fine. The most important component that is not often given the consideration it deserves is the quality of the terminals. Heavy-duty, thick-walled, tinned, and long terminal connections are worth seeking out. The difference is obvious when you see the...

It is a serious issue that is rarely talked about. Modern anchors bury themselves very deep and even at 1:1 grip seem to have no give despite the high shock loads that can result from wave action. There are a couple of strategies to minimise this problem. The first is to have plenty of...

The screen has deteriorated. More illumination may help but is not the real answer judging from the photo. It is time for replacement, or a lot of squinting :).

We have (two) Jefa DD3 drives that steer our 49-foot yacht in all conditions. They are very nicely made powerful units, although I did have one problem after only a couple of months, and they refused to honour the warranty, which was disappointing.

If that open circuit voltage is correct, it would not work well with Victron, or most other MPPT controllers) unless you joined two or more panels in series, but it is likely to be a mistake as you surmised. There is typically around a 3-5V difference between Voc and Vmp, not the 0.6V reported

What panels are they? The open circuit voltage (Voc) is very unlikely to be this low. You are probably referring to the maximum power point voltage (Vmp). Typical 12V panels have a Voc of around 21-23V and a Vmp of around 17.5-19.5V. Before start-up, the solar panels are not connected to the...

There are no "12V" panels with an open circuit voltage as low as 18V.

Yes, that is correct. There are only a few MPPT controllers that will boost voltage. This is not usually an issue. Solar cells still produce a reasonably high voltage in low lighting conditions. There is a very slight gain in the length of time power is produced by increasing the solar panels’...

Another option to consider is using multiple controllers, but not necessarily one per panel. For example, wiring two starboard panels to one controller and two port panels to another. This can sometimes be a sensible compromise.

Using multiple MPPT solar controllers will almost always result in a higher solar yield because the maximum power point voltage can be tracked, ideally, for each panel. When multiple panels are connected to one controller it can only select the maximum point for the group of panels. If the...

On an ocean-going yacht, autopilots should be more than capable of steering in adverse conditions. The drive units can (or should be able ) exert more steering force than a human helmsman. The computer cannot anticipate the wave conditions as well, but the better units are close and certainly...

I took your comment "PS - I'm not sure I understood anything else in your post" to indicate my post was unhelpful, wrong, or poorly written. This is not nice when someone has taken the trouble to answer your question. Now I understand your confusion; please accept my apologies.

But these loads are only for a very short duration. The loads from the air fryer are over half an hour. The original question from the OP was "Does this power inflow/outflow degrade the batteries?” The inflow does not, but the outflow does, as you correctly concede in post #20: I don’t think...

Paul, instead of posting derogatory comments as you frequently do, explain what is wrong with the post. As a professional, you should know better than post #2 see below : The voltage under load is not a predictor of SOC without taking the factors I indicated into consideration. I notice you...

A 660Ah lead-acid battery bank should not be regularly dropping below 12.0V with the loads you describe. The most likely cause would be a low battery state of charge, loads that are too high, a battery or batteries performing poorly, a wiring problem upstream of where the voltage is measured, or...