My current project is adding flexible solar panels to the Bimini and dodger. I’ve got a suitable wire path into the port cabin and wire chase through the port head to the wire chase access above the Nav Station. I know of the molded wire chase that traverses the headliner but it has no access. Is there something that I’m missing?
Advice on running solar wires in 1999 H410
- Thread starter SailorFrank
- Start date
Look here for your H410 Solar panels and more...
Hunter 410 solar panel replacement
But that OEM design was for just the Start Battery, not house batts.
35 watts !
Jim...
PS: You could use the OEM Solar panel wire path.
Hunter 410 solar panel replacement
But that OEM design was for just the Start Battery, not house batts.
35 watts !
Jim...
PS: You could use the OEM Solar panel wire path.
Thanks Jim. I’m leaving the small 35w OEM panel as-is for the start battery. As a live-aboard with cruising plans I‘m installing 450w of solar to maintain my house battery bank. I hadn’t thought of that wiring path but routing the wires through that path which I’ll assume uses the same wiring chase. I’m simply trying to understand the access point to this wireway.
My 99 410 has panels (hard) behind the arch 380w and another 200w on the dodger. Each with it's
own controller.
My dodger wiring runs inside the dodger, then under the deck where the little start (50w with controller now) panel is. Once under there it goes through the conduit to the nav station along with the start panel.
Then they go down under nav seat to the batteries.
You can see on the left corner where I tucked them into the dodger.
My dodger wiring runs inside the dodger, then under the deck where the little start (50w with controller now) panel is. Once under there it goes through the conduit to the nav station along with the start panel.
Then they go down under nav seat to the batteries.
You can see on the left corner where I tucked them into the dodger.
Thanks for the feedback. For the panels on the dodger, how have you found the shading from the boom affects the output. I’ve heard everything from it will slightly reduce the output to it will drop it substantially (70-80%).
At anchor, move the boom accordingly, sailing, its hit and miss as you can guess, it can change depending on course and sun angle through the day.
But, they're always putting out something,
If you have enough panels up I wouldn't worry about it. 580w total usually puts me at float by noon or 2pm.
Even with some shading, my 200w on dodger will easily put 3 to 6. Amps out, covers my use and sure is better than having nothing on the dodger. If you look at the photo, you can see only 1 50w panel is shaded at the dock, the other 150w are clear.
By far, the best, most cost effective addition to my boat was putting up all the solar, hands down.
But, they're always putting out something,
If you have enough panels up I wouldn't worry about it. 580w total usually puts me at float by noon or 2pm.
Even with some shading, my 200w on dodger will easily put 3 to 6. Amps out, covers my use and sure is better than having nothing on the dodger. If you look at the photo, you can see only 1 50w panel is shaded at the dock, the other 150w are clear.
By far, the best, most cost effective addition to my boat was putting up all the solar, hands down.
Yes, I agree the solar panels are a game changer. We've been back on our mooring for two months now after being in a slip all summer and the panels are keeping our three 8D AGM batteries at full charge. We have been running the freezer/fridge on our H49 continuously, and the panels still have the batteries topped up. When sailing, we use all of the instruments, autopilot, radio, electric winches, and the thruster when mooring up. Still not a problem. We run the engine for just a short time while getting on and off the mooring, so all of the charging is from the panels. We'll see how it goes during the winter, but so far the panels have exceeded my expectations. We have 4 one hundred watt panels Mounted on the Bimini.
Well, we got through the winter on the mooring with only our solar panels for power. We continued running the fridge/freezer 24/7 and went sailing a bunch of times. Batteries are always topped up when we arrive at the boat. Looks like a great decision to add the solar array. The generator seems redundant now. We just run it a few times a month to keep it from gumming up.
If I remember correctly the access into the chase is from the rear lazarette. You can get into the area of the chase in the back berth from the narrow access panel or the speakers.