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Even though my sailboat project is high & dry on stands in a friend's nearby lot, it still manages to collect water in the bilge. Last summer I threw a bilge pump in it with a long piece of zip cord over the side with a cigarette lighter plug on the end so i could periodically plug it into the car. Then i added a marine battery along with a 45 wt HF solar panel kit to keep the battery topped off along with a float switch to turn the pump on and off automatically. I had to disable it for the winter because the pump just plain refuses to pump hard water, otherwise known as ice.
I set everything up again 2 weekends ago. The battery had maintained a 12.6 volt charge throughout the winter without being connected to the charger. A week after being connected back up to the solar system it's at 12.4 volts. I'm getting output from all the panels so I'm assuming the HF controller gave up the ghost.
Ordered a new one from Amazon on Sunday and it was on the doorstep when i got back from my eye surgery a little bit ago. Obviously I need to go over and plug it in to see what's going on. Even on a boat that isn't in the water and doesn't go anywhere stuff still manages to break.
BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand
I set everything up again 2 weekends ago. The battery had maintained a 12.6 volt charge throughout the winter without being connected to the charger. A week after being connected back up to the solar system it's at 12.4 volts. I'm getting output from all the panels so I'm assuming the HF controller gave up the ghost.
Ordered a new one from Amazon on Sunday and it was on the doorstep when i got back from my eye surgery a little bit ago. Obviously I need to go over and plug it in to see what's going on. Even on a boat that isn't in the water and doesn't go anywhere stuff still manages to break.
BOAT = Break Out Another Thousand