I'm looking to invest in a solar charging system for my macGregor. Any recommendations on types, sizes etc. It is going to be charging one marine battery to run bilge and lights.
Solar Charging Systems
- Thread starter ccraigmile
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Lot of variables you want to consider when sizing Solar....even if it is just the bilge and lights you want to calculate what your amp draw will be, and how long you have between uses to recharge battery....
Do you spend a lot of time with the lights on at night or just occasional..? IE: do you need to recharge battery daily...or do you have all week between weekends...?
Do you spend a lot of time with the lights on at night or just occasional..? IE: do you need to recharge battery daily...or do you have all week between weekends...?
I have been thinking the same thing. Even though I have a dock with power, I may not always have that luxury. So one day I took an amp meter and turned everything on. I found I was using around 4 amps or so. But some things I could not calculate because they were only in standby. That was mostly the autopilot. So I went to the manual on that.
With that in mind, I think I decided that 65w solar would work. Although it did not give me the 4 amps I needed. But at the same time, I do not run my lights during the day so the budget worked. While sailing, I run my GPS, autopilot, and VHF. The VHF is in standby (rx) while the GPS draws very little and the autopilot only when it is piloting will draw.
Overall, I figured that 65w was indeed a working solution. The solar power would run my electronics while I was sailing and keep the battery charged with the residue from the panel. While on the hook during the day, nothing is on except bilge and that draws nothing until it turns on. So for 5 hours a day I would get near 20 amps (65w * 17vdc * 5hrs) and that probably would satisfy my needs.
No sure if my math or research is 100% accurate, but all this is theory anyway. I have not yet gone solar as I have other things to worry about right now.
JMHO
With that in mind, I think I decided that 65w solar would work. Although it did not give me the 4 amps I needed. But at the same time, I do not run my lights during the day so the budget worked. While sailing, I run my GPS, autopilot, and VHF. The VHF is in standby (rx) while the GPS draws very little and the autopilot only when it is piloting will draw.
Overall, I figured that 65w was indeed a working solution. The solar power would run my electronics while I was sailing and keep the battery charged with the residue from the panel. While on the hook during the day, nothing is on except bilge and that draws nothing until it turns on. So for 5 hours a day I would get near 20 amps (65w * 17vdc * 5hrs) and that probably would satisfy my needs.
No sure if my math or research is 100% accurate, but all this is theory anyway. I have not yet gone solar as I have other things to worry about right now.
JMHO
If you do a search on solar by Sumner you'll find lots of Mac solar information.
The West Marine Advisors have plenty of solar and energy budget information.
The West Marine Advisors have plenty of solar and energy budget information.
Brian you likely overdid it. You have a battery say 100aHr of which 50 is usable.
With no panel at all you can run at 6A for 8 hrs. Starting from a full battery.
If you decide to go cruising for a week, then you need to worry about generation.
Your 65W panel and MPPT charger should be good for 4A 5hrs a day or 20aHr.
The big load you need to power is 24hrs of radio 500mA = 12Ahr
The auto pilot really depends but call it 24hr x 2A = 48Ahr
Navigation lights really depends, LED's are your friend 12hr x 0.5= 6ahr
So daily use of 66ahr versus daily generation of 20 you lose 46ahr a day your limit is 50 (assuming 100ahr battery) so after a day you need to run the engine for probably 1.5hr to push in some charge. If your battery is bigger then you don't need to hit it as often
With no panel at all you can run at 6A for 8 hrs. Starting from a full battery.
If you decide to go cruising for a week, then you need to worry about generation.
Your 65W panel and MPPT charger should be good for 4A 5hrs a day or 20aHr.
The big load you need to power is 24hrs of radio 500mA = 12Ahr
The auto pilot really depends but call it 24hr x 2A = 48Ahr
Navigation lights really depends, LED's are your friend 12hr x 0.5= 6ahr
So daily use of 66ahr versus daily generation of 20 you lose 46ahr a day your limit is 50 (assuming 100ahr battery) so after a day you need to run the engine for probably 1.5hr to push in some charge. If your battery is bigger then you don't need to hit it as often
I figured up my power usage before I did my first extended cruise in the Keys last year. Turns out I greatly over estimated my usage.
I have minimal electronics onboard like :
VHF
Auto/Tiller Pilot
Anchor and Nav Lights
GPS/Chartplotter
Recharging Cell Phone and Cameras (hardly needed to do this)
**Cabin lights are simple self contained battery powered LED's, loved them**
My VHF I didn't use that much. I'd have it on a few hours a day just monitoring and I would check the weather on it in the mornings and at night.
Auto/Tiller Pilot I never used, because I didn't take the time to configure it (next time I surely will)
Anchor light was used every night but I never needed to use the Nav Lights.
GPS/Chartplotter I only used once for a hour or two. I did turn it on a few times in the evening just to "look around" for fun.
I mainly just charged my cell phone, but that was only every other day. Might have charged a camera once.
I think I figured around 12 Ahr used a day and I didn't use half of that. I only have a small solar panel and didn't set it out but once or twice, didn't even need it. One thing I do have though on my 17'er is a 210Ahr battery bank..... Thought I needed that big ol thing but now, not so much.
So what I want to say is that if you like me and are really careful about your usage you may not need as much as you think. But you never know till you get out there and do some cruising.....
I have minimal electronics onboard like :
VHF
Auto/Tiller Pilot
Anchor and Nav Lights
GPS/Chartplotter
Recharging Cell Phone and Cameras (hardly needed to do this)
**Cabin lights are simple self contained battery powered LED's, loved them**
My VHF I didn't use that much. I'd have it on a few hours a day just monitoring and I would check the weather on it in the mornings and at night.
Auto/Tiller Pilot I never used, because I didn't take the time to configure it (next time I surely will)
Anchor light was used every night but I never needed to use the Nav Lights.
GPS/Chartplotter I only used once for a hour or two. I did turn it on a few times in the evening just to "look around" for fun.
I mainly just charged my cell phone, but that was only every other day. Might have charged a camera once.
I think I figured around 12 Ahr used a day and I didn't use half of that. I only have a small solar panel and didn't set it out but once or twice, didn't even need it. One thing I do have though on my 17'er is a 210Ahr battery bank..... Thought I needed that big ol thing but now, not so much.
So what I want to say is that if you like me and are really careful about your usage you may not need as much as you think. But you never know till you get out there and do some cruising.....
Solar
If you want to message me, I can give you more information and recommendations.
Mike
It would be good to supply a bit more information. Size of battery, how much your you plan on drawing. Your type of sailing. (day, weekend, cruising)
If you want to message me, I can give you more information and recommendations.
Mike
I am interested in just providing enough juice to keep a single 12 volt marine battery topped when not in use. Would one of those 1.5 watt battery charge panels from Harbor Freight be sufficient, or is more needed? And what keeps it from overcharging?
I was up to the boat last week and found the shore power disconnected and the battery was almost dead. Thats why im asking, as a self contained system would provide more reliability.
I was up to the boat last week and found the shore power disconnected and the battery was almost dead. Thats why im asking, as a self contained system would provide more reliability.
How long was the boat unattended? To have a flat battery after just a week means something was running. 1.5 watt charger won't be enough if you use that much juice on an unattended boat.
The battery is connected to an automatic battery maintainer, I believe its either .5 amp or 1 amp. My guess is that with it unplugged there is some powerloss from the battery into that charger, a back-feed if you will. Everything else was disconnected.
The boat had been unattended for over two months (not good, I know), but as it was connected to shore power I didn't worry about it. I had a friend take a peek from time to time, but he never noticed it was unplugged. Had I thought this would happen I would have just disconnected the battery completely.
As the boat is almost 40 miles away, I dont really want to risk going up to take a sail and find it dead. I also dont want to lug a 50 pound battery back and forth to make sure its fully charged. So rather than rely on someone keeping an eye on it, or a power cord someone will unplug for me, it would be best to have it all self contained.
The boat had been unattended for over two months (not good, I know), but as it was connected to shore power I didn't worry about it. I had a friend take a peek from time to time, but he never noticed it was unplugged. Had I thought this would happen I would have just disconnected the battery completely.
As the boat is almost 40 miles away, I dont really want to risk going up to take a sail and find it dead. I also dont want to lug a 50 pound battery back and forth to make sure its fully charged. So rather than rely on someone keeping an eye on it, or a power cord someone will unplug for me, it would be best to have it all self contained.
Edit. The outboard has a charging system, but its not much, 6 to 8 amps I believe, but enough to put a little back. The only power the boat uses is nav lights (and when I take the mast down I will look into lower wattage bulbs or possibly LED's), cabin lights as needed, stereo/CD player, and marine radio.
Also, currently the steaming light is tied in with the nav lights. When I take the mast down I will separate them and have the steamer on its own circuit.
Also, currently the steaming light is tied in with the nav lights. When I take the mast down I will separate them and have the steamer on its own circuit.
I installed a nice little solar system 2 years ago. 12w panel with a small MPPT controller. Assuming zero input from the engine, it can recharge my bank in about 4-6 days from a 50% discharge in the summer. In practice between it always hooked up and running and normal running of the engine, I never dropped he bank below 75% charge on a 5 day trip last year, even with running the stereo well into the evening most nights.
Forgot to add, details and pictures of the install are on my blog.
Forgot to add, details and pictures of the install are on my blog.
Anchor...it sounds like the same solar mission I was on and so far I think I have an adequate system. For me, I had to define the mission. I would go out for maybe one or two nights and stay on the boat. All of the lights on the boat are now LED. At night I burn the Anchor light and maybe one interior light for a few hours. Cockpit lightng is one LED bright enough to see on the deck. I charge the iPad and phone. I run one Bluetooth speaker off an inverter because I got tired of replacing the batteries. The speaker works great and switches from ipad to phone and serves as a speaker phone by the way...love it. I need to add up all of the amps over the day but I think it is very low with this setup. I'm thinking 8 amps max and 5 normal.
I use a Sunforce charger depicted here http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-50022-Battery-Trickle-Charger/dp/B0006JO0TC
I also use a 1.5 watt charger that is basically a maintainer only for charging the phone and ipad directly during the day if need be. They both can plug into a dual plug 12v outlet. One side of the outlet is input solar and the other side can be a direct consumer from that solar cell. When using the 5 watt Sunforce solar I have measured a no-load voltage off this cell at 22 volts full sun. Under load and charging at about 15v. The outlet is also wired to a charge controller. It's a Harbor Freight cheapie but works for over and under voltage protection to the main battery. I have one battery. I have another dual 12v outlet that is off the "load" output from the Harbor Freight controller. It is a strait 12v which is used to charge and run whatever...like my small inverter. It charges the next day and my battery is always topped off.
Some people say you don't need a charge controller with this small setup. My controller has 2 lights on it. One is "over voltage" and one is "charging". I have seen the Over Voltage light on before. This indicates to me the over voltage protection kicked in and prevented the solar cell from cooking the battery. I think it's necessary.
It's a super simple solar system for a trailer sailor. If anyone reads something that doesn't seem right with this system please let me know as I am new to this. I also read a lot of reviews on the 5 watt Sunforce charger on Amazon. About 150 reviews and they were helpful.
I use a Sunforce charger depicted here http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-50022-Battery-Trickle-Charger/dp/B0006JO0TC
I also use a 1.5 watt charger that is basically a maintainer only for charging the phone and ipad directly during the day if need be. They both can plug into a dual plug 12v outlet. One side of the outlet is input solar and the other side can be a direct consumer from that solar cell. When using the 5 watt Sunforce solar I have measured a no-load voltage off this cell at 22 volts full sun. Under load and charging at about 15v. The outlet is also wired to a charge controller. It's a Harbor Freight cheapie but works for over and under voltage protection to the main battery. I have one battery. I have another dual 12v outlet that is off the "load" output from the Harbor Freight controller. It is a strait 12v which is used to charge and run whatever...like my small inverter. It charges the next day and my battery is always topped off.
Some people say you don't need a charge controller with this small setup. My controller has 2 lights on it. One is "over voltage" and one is "charging". I have seen the Over Voltage light on before. This indicates to me the over voltage protection kicked in and prevented the solar cell from cooking the battery. I think it's necessary.
It's a super simple solar system for a trailer sailor. If anyone reads something that doesn't seem right with this system please let me know as I am new to this. I also read a lot of reviews on the 5 watt Sunforce charger on Amazon. About 150 reviews and they were helpful.
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If this is the controller you're talking about... http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...sc_googlepla&gclid=CJWU-PfS_rQCFcqY4AodPj0APg
...throw it away, and read why here:
http://sailingit.com/blog/boat-projects/solar-panel-charge-controller
I think it was this one. From Harbor Freight.
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-amp-solar-charge-regulator-96728.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-amp-solar-charge-regulator-96728.html
Unless you just really want a solar panel on your boat, I'd just rig up the shore power cord to not come unplugged.......
Seems like that would be the simplest solution since you don't need any charging while you are away from the dock.
Seems like that would be the simplest solution since you don't need any charging while you are away from the dock.
Four Points -
Very nice website and good projects too man. I really like those Hunter 27's, seem like the perfect sized boat with a nice open cabin and the tiller steering just makes it that much better
Very nice website and good projects too man. I really like those Hunter 27's, seem like the perfect sized boat with a nice open cabin and the tiller steering just makes it that much better
I thought so too, being I dry slip the boat mast up at the marina during the week and only go out on the weekends...
The parking lot has power available so I just hook up a 2 amp "maintrenance" charger on Sunday when I leave and it usually seemed to bring the batteries up to full by Friday when I launch again....
Except for the time the guy two parking spots over needed power to work on his boat during the week and "forgot" to plug me back in.... and the other time when the marina had to move my trailer to a different spot too far from an outlet and "forgot" or weren't able to plug me back in....:cussing:
Both times I come up to a still dead battery (from last weekends usage) and ended up haveing to rent a transient slip for the night to recharge (with my 10 amp charger) so I could go out for the weekend...
I kind of like the "independance" of not having to depend on the courtesy of others...and purchased an 80 watt panel with controler for next season ...should give me 20 amphrs a day X5 to keep the bank full and ability to take a week long cruise without shore power which I couldn't do before... (pull start outboard)
read through this thread, my recommendation still stands.
http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=132513&#post837499
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