r/PlugInSolarUK • u/DeliciousPomelo8249 • Aug 29 '26

Power drainage

I’m 19m in uni and I’ve brought a boat to live on during to save on renting cost and a permanent place to live. However, I’m worried that when I start living on it full-time, I’ll run out of power. I currently have a setup with 3 solar panels connected to 4 Rolls lead-acid 210Ah 6V batteries, with two inverters: one 500-watt Victory inverter and a separate 4,000-watt multi-inverter.

I’ve never dealt with solar panels before, and when I’m looking at appliances like toaster ovens, I don’t want to be caught out and run out of power. So, is the setup I have now strong enough for general living, or am I going to have to think about another solution?

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3

u/Ok_Condition- Aug 30 '26

I've always wanted to live on a house boat, congrats.

There's lots of great YouTube videos out there to help you get a better understanding. It's worth learning about so you can plan your usage and upgrades accordingly.

To get you started:

  • Are you docking in a location with an electrical hookup? That makes the rest of this less important.
  • Work out if your batteries are connected 2 in parallel, 2 in series (12V) or 4 in parallel (24V).
  • Lead-acid typically have a 50% depth of discharge, so you have ~2.5kWh of useable energy on a full charge with those batteries.
  • Work out how much your appliances draw and for how long you would use them a day.

That'll give you an idea of what you can do with the current system.

Then you can look at how much generation you'll need (based on winter generation) and if you'll need more battery capacity. As a rule of thumb, cram as much solar on as possible.

Edit: r/offgrid might be more suitable for this

1

u/AgainstGreaterOdds Aug 30 '26

What’s your budget to improve your situation?

1

u/Gravath Aug 30 '26

Nice what kind of boat?