not a one thing completes the project.

Larry,

We DO have refrigeration, as a matter of fact, we have 2 systems aboard. We may or may not use both at the same time. We also have and use our 12 V water maker.
See our projects page for "Freezer" at; http://www.svguenevere.com/prep/proj/freezer/ for more info on how I installed one of the systems. The second one is an Engel unit.

I am not saying that these roll up panels are my only source of power. As my other message said we normally have a 85 W panels on the stern rail. And I can fly 4 other panels when at anchor from our pin rails; http://www.svguenevere.com/2006/gear/solar.html and fly these on our boom, or over the Shade Tree cover we use.

Add to that the diesel that we run at least one a week, and you have a "system" that works great for us.

On ALL of our outfitting and systems aboard, I try to look at not only what is needed or what we want NOW, I also try to look ahead at what will be required or needed later. I try hard to not make structural changes unless I have to. As I see it, the power required to keep things cold aboard keeps getting lower and lower. when I first installed our refrigeration I went with the portable unit because it used half of the power required by other systems. Today, that Engel unit uses just a tad over half of what my older system uses. I learned my lesson from that and will never build in another reffer system! A shelf that I can secure an Engel unit to now would be great! Then, when the next unit that only uses half of the power, I could just pull the old unit out and toss it in exchange for the new one.

By the way, if you are needing 200 W, or more at 40 Deg. north, you may need to look at the insulation in your reefer compartment. Have you done an ice melt test?

Before we departed the San Francisco Bay area, without any other instruments running (like Radar or GPS Plotter) our 2 Unisoler 32 W panels would run our reefer with no aid for weeks at a time, I tested it.

Greg