Green Houseboat Living - how to use Wind and Solar Power for Weekends?

by Jeff
(Louisville, KY)

We're going to rebuild our houseboat and go green, with wind and solar power, for living on during the weekends out at anchor.

We just purchased a 1969, 43ft Nautaline houseboat. and our intention is on that Friday's we'll move the boat from the dock, and go to a cove and return on Sunday afternoons.

Any running around the lake will be done in a small boat or jet ski's. I would like to depend on wind and solar power for the AC, refrigeration and lighting.

The houseboat is equipped with twin V8 318's, dana outdrives, and an Onan generator, and all will need going through. I will be doing some transom work and I'm sure some of the stringers as well.

My ideas are to remove the two old engines, outdrives, and generator, and in its place installing one modern engine and outdrive with electric thrusters.

The extra space and loss of weight would allow for battery banks on each side. The houseboat has no flybridge, so that space could be used for solar panels and wind generators.

Is this possible and how many watts and batteries would I need.

I also plan on heavily insulating, and possibly adding a mini split ac/heat pump.

Thanks, Jeff.

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Reply - Answer
Well Jeff, welcome to the houseboat forums, and congratulations on your plans of rebuilding, and going the green houseboat route.

I can't get into all the technical details, however I can give you a general overview of what I see needs to happen.

* To save yourself some engine & outdrive installation work, you may want to look into getting a suitable outboard engine, and mount it on a external bracket.

* When it comes to powering high current items (ac, electric stove, heat pumps, microwaves..) with wind and solar power, you may find that you need a very very LARGE system. (very costly)

You have two choices:

1) Build a large costly system, a large enough Self Sufficient wind and solar panel system, that is big enough to handle all of your electrical consumption, and yet has all the charging capabilities.

2) Build a smaller less costly system, to handle the lower power consumption items, and use a generator for the high current, high demand items.


There is so many different ways to do it all, and there is no clear cut answer as to how much wattage you will consume, or how many batteries in your battery bank you will need.


* I have now updated the Wind and Solar Powered Houseboats page with a link to help people learn How to Calculate the Load, Size & Power Requirements.


So Jeff, you definitely have some homework to do before you run out and start buying things. I would ask you to take some pictures, and share your Green Houseboat project here with us, as I am sure that you have inspired may other houseboaters to consider turning to green, wind, and solar powered houseboats.



Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their solar, wind, and green living houseboat experiences. Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.


Thanks again for sharing, IAN from all-about-houseboats

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