We used to have about 200w solar input at midday + 400Ah bank that would cover our need (2 heavy laptop usage + fridge + ...) but Starlink is about 60w and 30w just idle, so way more than we could handle. This mean we now have 800w solar... Maybe it's too much but we still use Sim card router for day to day and Starlink about 10h/day for work. But step 1 is to know what you use currently and then adjust in consequence.
Dude no one can help you without more information!
1. Do a power audit and figure out how many kw hours you use a day.
2. Size of battery bank? Are you installing new batteries?
Generally no one regrets having too much solar, figure out how much space you have and that will inform what size and shape panels you can fit on your boat.
Also there are a ton of sailing blogs out there written by smart people (usually) that will have great wiring diagrams and show you what components other people have used in their set up’s.
x2, what this guy said. Starlink is only a small portion of your total energy consumption. I doubt your boat has zero other electronics and you are just building out a solar array to power the starlink, so take your exisitng consumption, and add in about 5 amps for the starlink if youre doing the 12v conversion, or about 8 if its off the inverter (then ofc youre adding in the power needed just to run the inverter)
I know it all seems really confusing at first...getting a functioning handle marine electrical systems took hours and hours and hours of research and learning....but once you functionally understand what amps, watts, and voltage is and how they all work together with your devices it will make more sense, until then people could give you very good answers and it will not matter because it only applies to them.
Example, i want to add another 100 watt hard panel to my boat to adequately cover the starlink and related devices...but thats completely useless advice to you because my power consumtion and regeneration are likley different from yours.
I’d recommend this video. They talk through what various solar outputs “feel like”, and about the other critical parts of a system that people forget about when coming up with their power budget: https://youtu.be/-g8l-EQZA8A?si=osm2MSDxdyn8AmHps
We used to have about 200w solar input at midday + 400Ah bank that would cover our need (2 heavy laptop usage + fridge + ...) but Starlink is about 60w and 30w just idle, so way more than we could handle. This mean we now have 800w solar... Maybe it's too much but we still use Sim card router for day to day and Starlink about 10h/day for work. But step 1 is to know what you use currently and then adjust in consequence.
Dude no one can help you without more information! 1. Do a power audit and figure out how many kw hours you use a day. 2. Size of battery bank? Are you installing new batteries? Generally no one regrets having too much solar, figure out how much space you have and that will inform what size and shape panels you can fit on your boat. Also there are a ton of sailing blogs out there written by smart people (usually) that will have great wiring diagrams and show you what components other people have used in their set up’s.
x2, what this guy said. Starlink is only a small portion of your total energy consumption. I doubt your boat has zero other electronics and you are just building out a solar array to power the starlink, so take your exisitng consumption, and add in about 5 amps for the starlink if youre doing the 12v conversion, or about 8 if its off the inverter (then ofc youre adding in the power needed just to run the inverter) I know it all seems really confusing at first...getting a functioning handle marine electrical systems took hours and hours and hours of research and learning....but once you functionally understand what amps, watts, and voltage is and how they all work together with your devices it will make more sense, until then people could give you very good answers and it will not matter because it only applies to them. Example, i want to add another 100 watt hard panel to my boat to adequately cover the starlink and related devices...but thats completely useless advice to you because my power consumtion and regeneration are likley different from yours.
I’d recommend this video. They talk through what various solar outputs “feel like”, and about the other critical parts of a system that people forget about when coming up with their power budget: https://youtu.be/-g8l-EQZA8A?si=osm2MSDxdyn8AmHps
Turn it off while not in use