Now I`ve gone Solar...Almost

[DAVA390]

Omong the other treasures discovered in our (new) boat is an intact solar panel.
It is 12" square with some lead wire and 2 alligatr clips attached.Today at work I hooked up to the mechanic`s meter in the bright sun, reading 19 to 22 volts depending on how I face the sun. We are unable to read watts or amps with this meter.
It is ICP solution Model # SE -400 according to the sticker. I`ll be researching this more tonight at home. Wondering if this will recharge the WM Gel 86 Amp hr battery if the battery is saveable. I assume I will need some kind of regulator between panel and battery,right?

 

[justsomeguy]

Boy, are you about to be inundated with information!
The panel appears to be a little small for anything other than a maintenance charge, depending on your demand.
A PWM controller can be had quite cheaply.

 

[dziedzicmj]

guessing by the size, the panel is about 5W (i.e. it would provide about 0.4A current at 12V (not counting any losses)) . I would strongly suggest a controller (though, with such a small panel, it might not be required).

Marek

 

[DAVA390]

What is "PWM" contolller?

 

[justsomeguy]

Like I said, lotsa information a'comin' your way.

Pulse Width Modulation

And Maine Sail's got oodles of info in his forum, too. Good luck!

 

[DAVA390]

Thanks..gonna research batteries too, found out today mine is toast. You never run out of things to deal with, all part of the fun! Dave

 

[rgranger]

Yes you will need a controller. Go to eBay or Amazon. You can get one for $20 or less. They might even have them here on this site.

 

[Waiting for Saturday]

A solar panel that small would only replace power for something VERY tiny, like occasional radio use -- not for lights or electric motors of any kind.

 

[philwsailz]

What is your routine use of the boat that you intend to use the charger on? I have owned several of the ICP products over the years. If you sail mostly just on weekends, without extensive electronics, lighting or other loads, even that little 5 watt panel will top a battery back off over the course of a week after a weekend if your only draw is a radio/CD player. Heck, in full sun it will pretty much run that radio/CD player! It will not do much more than that though.....

I have used that panel without a charge controller, but solar is so cheap right now, there is no reason not to go find a controller to use with it.

 

[DAVA390]

Phil (and all) we anticipate light use(HA-HA,get it..) . Our pattern last 3 years is dailsailing,only done 2 nights overnight total. We might need running,steaming lights one night on a weekend or weekday dinner cruise. Current VHF is handheld, AM/FM is a small boombox. On the P18 we made do with a riding mower battery, trickle charged it 3-4 times last summer. I don`t have a problem leaving the small trickle charger on during the week ,we are drysailing both boats. I think I will get a controller though,will experiment with this. I did find out last nght that the gel battery in the boat is toast, will be looking at various deep cycle ones.