Solar power on a 46.6 convertable

We sorta did that backwards from your question. The boat came with a thruster on it's own dedicated battery bank.. and I wanted an inverter somehow... and the thruster bank seemed to me to be an under-utilized resource. We replaced the original thruster charger with a Victron inverter/charger, Voila!

The battery bank at the time was crap, due for replacement anyway, so we replaced with a pair of Lifeline 8D AGMs in series to 24VDC. Works pretty well... and Lifeline specs are appropriate for this kind of dual-purpose role, more emphasis on capacity than cranking amps. Odyssey AGMs would also work, the other way, more emphasis on cranking amps over capacity. Neither inexpensive.

I would have considered an LFP battery solution for that bank, but... at the time there weren't any viable products (that I could find, at least) that would be appropriate for the thruster's CCA requirement and at the same time useful for inverter Ah capacity. That seems to be beginning to change, these days, but I haven't kept current on that... 'cause my issue is solved for a while and I've got better things to shop on in the meantime. That said, there's a newer "Solid State" LFP on the market now -- eye watering prices -- that might be viable in a role like this. Maybe others less expensive...

Ref the thruster: specs say ours weighs 107-lbs, not what I'd call heavy. Came with the boat. The battery bank is located aft, not ideal, but not a problem. We only occasionally use the thruster, mostly for moving crew on the foredeck closer to one bow pile or the other to get a line on.

-Chris

It's not paying for itself and there is no free lunch. It takes HP to turn an alternator when it is putting out amperage. So you are burning the same amount of fuel to make that electricity, just burning more with the engine instead of the generator. Yes it keeps hours off of the generator I suppose, but you also have a bigger battery bank that needs to be replaced every so many years.

IMO the best thing about an inverter is the peace and quiet at anchor. I’ve got an inverter and solar (installed by PO) but generally run my genset when the engines are running. It’s very nice though with the hook out to shut everything off and enjoy a bev watching the sunset without worrying about the bait thawing. Also nice to have the inverter when my 25 year old genset decides it doesn’t want to run for whatever reason. Solar I figure helps a little, maybe gives me an extra hour or so before batteries are depleted. Not sure I’d add it if it wasn’t already there.