Hunter 49 Solar Panel Installation Advice

Jun 1, 2009
1,737
Hunter 49 toronto
Yes 14 gph is correct.

The previous owner did the install on the water maker, although I do like the setup and would do it the same way. The existing water manifold is under pressure, which the water make would not like. The "manifold " from the water maker is just a shutoff valve that can connect to a hose from any of the 3 tanks.

Sometimes the water tank gauges can be a bit flakey, requiring a tap on the sender to reset the float which can lead to unexpected surprises. With 3 tanks, I like keeping them separated so that I know I always have one tank full on reserve. I have on occasion allowed the water maker to fill 2 tanks at once, but I prefer to fill them and use them one tank at a time making it simpler to monitor water usage and water maker output.
With respect to the water manifold.
I think you are referring to the manifold under the waste bin in the galley.
There is another manifold under the floor just forward of the genset. It is where all 3 water tanks supply the intake to the water pump.
I’m the same way, the tanks self level through this manifold. In other words, if you fill one tank, all 3 will end up being filled.
I’m curious how your PO valved it so that he could selectively fill one tank. Perhaps you are thinking that the PO installed the manifold that was already installed by Hunter, and he simply tapped into the pipe between the manifold output, and the water filter input. That would make sense to me.
I did something a little different, but similar, on my boat.
I routed the stern dock water line so that it can actually fill the tanks by turning on a valve. So, I don’t need to take a hose to my deck fills any more.,Very convenient.
So, your water maker is 12v, not 120v. My understanding is that a large percentage are, in fact, 120 volt.
Obviously, it’s simpler, in many respects, to have a 12v system, but you need a good charging source; which you have.
How many hours does it take to fill all 3 tanks?
 
Jan 4, 2019
50
Hunter 50 Halifax & Martinique
Other than being lowered from a helicopter, how do you access the wind generator? Must be a little challenging.
ratio-wise what percentage of the overall power comes from the solar panels?
Have you thought of getting wheel covers made? I have them on mine, and it’s worked out quite well.
If you’re looking to recover them, boatleather.com has terrific options for this.
The original covers were not all that attractive, and didn’t weather well.
On Lake Ontario, neither solar or wind make any sense. I’m at a yacht club dock most of the time, and if I’m cruising for 3-4 weeks, the genset is more than perfect. The amount of fuel it consumes is negligible.
-I climb onto the davits to access the wind generator, there is good access from the sten pulpit seats. I remove the generator from the pole and store it inside for hurricane season.

- The wind generator guage displays the power as it is generated, but does not provide the amount generated over time, so it is difficult to assess the percentage of power it contributes. I plan to install some type of metering for this. The output is highly variable based on wind speed but is very useful when there is no solar output. The wind generator would keep the batteries topped up enough overnight so that I could run the 120v espresso machine off the inverter in the morning without using the generator. We would go weeks without running the generator, except to run the washing machine. As the winds died down in the spring, I would have to either wait a bit for the solar to do some recharging, or run the generator to make the morning coffee.

- For your circumstances, you may not need solar, but for full time cruising, I wouldn’t be without it. Our generator sprang a leak in a cooling pipe and was out of commission for a while and without solar we would have had no power, so it is a critical backup.

- Canvas wheel covers are probably a good idea, although I would still store the wheels below for hurricane season.
 
Jan 4, 2019
50
Hunter 50 Halifax & Martinique
With respect to the water manifold.
I think you are referring to the manifold under the waste bin in the galley.
There is another manifold under the floor just forward of the genset. It is where all 3 water tanks supply the intake to the water pump.
I’m the same way, the tanks self level through this manifold. In other words, if you fill one tank, all 3 will end up being filled.
I’m curious how your PO valved it so that he could selectively fill one tank. Perhaps you are thinking that the PO installed the manifold that was already installed by Hunter, and he simply tapped into the pipe between the manifold output, and the water filter input. That would make sense to me.
I did something a little different, but similar, on my boat.
I routed the stern dock water line so that it can actually fill the tanks by turning on a valve. So, I don’t need to take a hose to my deck fills any more.,Very convenient.
So, your water maker is 12v, not 120v. My understanding is that a large percentage are, in fact, 120 volt.
Obviously, it’s simpler, in many respects, to have a 12v system, but you need a good charging source; which you have.
How many hours does it take to fill all 3 tanks?
As I mentioned, "manifold" is a bit of an exaggeration. The water maker output line runs to the access area above the forward water tank on the port side. Small 1\4 inch fill hoses from each tank are also run to this area. It is simply a matter of diverting the water maker output to one of these 3 hoses, or to a bypass hose that I can put in a bucket to ensure there is a proper flow from the water maker.

The 12 volt water maker is nice because it runs from the batteries which can be charged by solar, wind, generator, or main engine, which provides a lot of redundancy. A 120v water maker can only be run from the generator, unless an inverter is used which would require a lot of power.

We would run the water make every 2 or 3 days for 2 or 3 hours to keep up with our normal usage. I would usually run it at noon while solar is at peak output and would still get the batteries back to 100%. The generator would only needed if there are a few cloudy days with no wind. It is nice not to have to be concerned with scrimping on water.

Total time to fill all tanks (two 72 gal and one 56 gal =200 US gallons) would take about 15 hours.
 
Jan 21, 2018
78
Hunter P42 Ft Lauderdale
Further to our earlier discussion on where to locate the solar charger:

The Victron I bought does not come with a battery temperature sensor. I suspect one may be available as an option, but the documentation is not clear. The user manual does point out that if the controller is located in a cooler environment than the batteries, it may overcharge them. Charge rate should diminish as temperature increases.
 

Zencra

.
Dec 19, 2019
74
Hunter 49 Melbourne
So, my big question is “why?”
I’m guessing your boat has the FP generator, which when run for about 1 hour a day will completely charge the batteries.
I looked at putting panels on my boat, but couldn’t justify it being on the Great Lakes.
Now, if your boat is in the Caribbean, etc., then that’s a different story.
I’ve only seen one other 49 with solar panels.
Don’t forget, that by lying them flat on top of the framework, you aren’t aiming them at the sun, (except at noon), and this greatly reduces efficiency.
So, I’d take a serious look at if the excercise is going to be efficient, and meet your power needs.
 

leo310

.
Dec 15, 2006
635
Catalina 310 44 Campbell River BC
Our location is Vancouver island and we use solar panels with no problems, we don't use shore power from March to November. When sailing we'll anchor for 3 weeks with no power problems, batteries are always charged . BTW we don't run the engine while at anchor so I can't see not having solar even on the great lakes as its free power.
 

Zencra

.
Dec 19, 2019
74
Hunter 49 Melbourne
Yes we're seeing around 4kw per day. Were away for around 8 years or more so running generator isn't something we want to do it's purely back up.
We fill up our diesel about once a year.