Solar charging, heater or fan

[Mistroma]

Oh dear me!

If you want to do that buy some 12 volt infra red lamps. The last ones I made were on a classified list and fitted a front line tank.

Also consider that generally you need the heat at night when the solar is not so good. So some batteries will be necessary along with a thermostat and something to prevent the load killing the battery.

Simple 12v 50 watt MR16 halogen lamps will do. They were indifferent light sources but did give off a lot of heat.

Might be slightly more efficient at generating heat but not by a huge margin. It doesn't address the basic problem of power usage and power generated.

I think that OP has realised he'll average around 140Wh on an average day in December and January. It isn't enough to do anything significant wrt heating a poorly insulated boat.

He could run a single 50W MR16 lamp for less than 3 hours each day. It might achieve something in a well insulated part of the boat but not really have much impact on keeping the entire interior dry. However, he wants to keep his batteries charged and charge efficiency will have a huge impact. I suspect that he'd be lucky to run a 50W device for an hour each night and leave enough excess to keep the batteries fully charged most days.

I do remember people suggesting that you could leave a 60W bulb running under the engine all winter on shorepower. Pretty certain it would have some effect in the confines of an engine compartment but only feasible on shorepower (or huge solar array, 2,500W- 3,000W).

 

[RJJ]

Oh dear me!

If you want to do that buy some 12 volt infra red lamps. The last ones I made were on a classified list and fitted a front line tank.

Also consider that generally you need the heat at night when the solar is not so good. So some batteries will be necessary along with a thermostat and something to prevent the load killing the battery.

Simple 12v 50 watt MR16 halogen lamps will do. They were indifferent light sources but did give off a lot of heat.

thanks. Would my proposal to use the house batteries on a voltage relay work?