There will be a marine diesel generator on board. I will stuff these in to some marine battery boxes. That means 1792 cells (I will probably buy 2000). Adding in the other electrical needs of the boat, make that 48V at 560A. My experience with Aliexpress makes me very wary of buying built batteries, so I plan to bulk buy 32700 7A cells (I will assume they will really be 5A). The only real choice here in the UK is Victron batteries (hideously expensive), or buying off Aliexpress. To power that, Lynch, who make the motor, recommend a 800W Lead Acid deep discharge bank, or a 400A Lithium battery bank with the ability of 2C discharge. But, we want to use an electric propulsion motor. The canal licence provides regular access to water, waste (trash and toilet) disposal. We plan to become permanent cruisers, which means no shore power. Often boats will rent a 'permanent' mooring to get a shore power hookup. So, solar is possible, but only as a top up bonus. Also, it is necessary to walk on the roof quite a lot, and the boat has to go through tunnels and under bridges often with only a few inches clearance (above or at the sides). Given our climate - cold, wet, cloudy with occasional sunny days - it would require a tennis court sized array of panels to charge a battery banks to run most things on the boat, and at best you might fit 4 or 6 panels on the boat roof. Some boats use the main engine for 12V DC and 240V AC electric power as well, but they are very inefficient being used like that, others have a separate diesel generator. They might have inverters, and a few have one or two solar panels. Traditionally, these are propelled by a 40(ish) hp diesel engine and have one starter battery and maybe one or two leisure batteries (both charged via alternators). My wife and I are planning to build a narrowboat (we are in England, and a narrowboat is a flat bottom steel hulled boat, in this case 57 foot long by 6 foot 10 inches wide - loaded weight about 14 tons, that you cruise on canals).
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