Solar installation

Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
Has anyone installed solar charging on a 2009 or newer Beneteau? Where did you make the connections for the solar charging controller into the charging system (main positive (fuse?) and negative bus)? Where were they located, and what do they look like? My wiring is just tight enough that I may need to disassemble everything just to be able to identify what I'm looking at... I thought maybe I'd ask for a little experienced advise before taking stuff apart.
 

Rick

.
Oct 5, 2004
1,095
Hunter 420 Passage San Diego
Hey So..
No I dont have your boat however I put solar 550W on my boat. I will just make this a simple as it kinda is. And I sure wish I had some pictures of mine but I dont.
1. I mounted the panels
2. I found where I wanted my controller(s) and mounted them.
3. I ran the wires from the panels to my controller and I fused the wires between the panels and the controller. I used fuses that I could turn on and off. Blue Seas. Alot like the one that is on your Windlass.
4. I ran wires from the controller directly to the positive terminal on the house bank. I fused them in between the two.
5. I installed a battery monitor. Victron 702 then. Balmar 200 now. I put the shunt in between the negative terminal off the batteries that goes to the ships ground.
6. I covered the panels, hooked up all the wires. Turned off all the switched fuses. Double checked my work.
7. Turned everything on and uncovered the panels.

Then I looked that the Oh Glorious 30 plus amps going into my batteries! Its not that hard. But not simple either. You can do it!

Cheers and hope this helps. One boat looks like another. Hull, sails, etc.
 

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Hey So..
No I dont have your boat however I put solar 550W on my boat. I will just make this a simple as it kinda is. And I sure wish I had some pictures of mine but I dont.
1. I mounted the panels
2. I found where I wanted my controller(s) and mounted them.
3. I ran the wires from the panels to my controller and I fused the wires between the panels and the controller. I used fuses that I could turn on and off. Blue Seas. Alot like the one that is on your Windlass.
4. I ran wires from the controller directly to the positive terminal on the house bank. I fused them in between the two.
5. I installed a battery monitor. Victron 702 then. Balmar 200 now. I put the shunt in between the negative terminal off the batteries that goes to the ships ground.
6. I covered the panels, hooked up all the wires. Turned off all the switched fuses. Double checked my work.
7. Turned everything on and uncovered the panels.

Then I looked that the Oh Glorious 30 plus amps going into my batteries! Its not that hard. But not simple either. You can do it!

Cheers and hope this helps. One boat looks like another. Hull, sails, etc.
Rick
Congratulations! This is an upgrade I will be working on soon. One question.... how many panels and how many controllers did you use? I spoke with one company (Renogy) and they recommend just one controller to handle the load... In my case I am looking at 3 panels and 400w. Then I speak with others and they use multiple controllers.

Thanks!

Greg
 
Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
Do you have the rotating battery on/off SPST switches like my 2006 has? One switch per battery?
 

Rick

.
Oct 5, 2004
1,095
Hunter 420 Passage San Diego
Hi NY. Solar is IMHO, the best upgrade you can do on a sailboat, along with upgraded batteries, if you anchor. I will include the pics, these are the only ones I have, but you can get the picture (so to speak). You can determine how many controllers you will need by keeping it simple and answering these questions. If all your panels are alike, and I mean the SAME, watts, voltage, etc, you can use one controller that can handle the max amps your panels can generate.. For example, my number one controller is a 30 amp MPPT Epever. I like this brand because it is has a USER function which allows you to set up for Lithium, a remote readout panel, and is great bang for the buck!. I have 4 100w flex panels. After I installed davits, I put a small panel on, which you see in the pic, but then upgraded to a 175W panel. This required another controller because of the difference. So its pretty simple if you dont make it complicated.

Edit. I dont believe your Perko switches will come into play with solar, unless your boat came with a solar Perko from the factory. Solar will bypass your boats electrical system completely. To make a simple installation, think of it this way. Panels create and pass to controller directly. Controller passes juice directly to house bank. No other wiring necessary. Unless you want to be fancy, its just that simple. Fuses included of course. They are your on/off switches.
I am no expert, just saying here is what I did after some research. The wrench turning is the easy part!fisheye solar.jpgback deck.jpg
 
Last edited:
May 17, 2004
5,026
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
Has anyone installed solar charging on a 2009 or newer Beneteau? Where did you make the connections for the solar charging controller into the charging system (main positive (fuse?) and negative bus)? Where were they located, and what do they look like? My wiring is just tight enough that I may need to disassemble everything just to be able to identify what I'm looking at... I thought maybe I'd ask for a little experienced advise before taking stuff apart.
I’ve traced the wires in the aft cabin enough to have some comfort with which ones are which. They are super tightly packed so it’s not easy. There are probably a few differences between boats of similar vintages too. Our dealer expected some of our charging wires to be set up differently than what they actually were when we traced them.

Ours does not really have any busses, just the switches (2 red and one black). I would probably just put the charge controller into the house bank connection as the shore power, which is the top terminal (battery side) on the house bank switch.
 
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Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
Do you have the rotating battery on/off SPST switches like my 2006 has? One switch per battery?
Yes, typical Beneteau three switch configuration. I thought that I knew what the bus bars and the main fuse looked like, but apparently not.
 
May 17, 2004
5,026
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
Yes, typical Beneteau three switch configuration. I thought that I knew what the bus bars and the main fuse looked like, but apparently not.
Our 2014 model has a 100A fuse down below the switches inside the cabinet. It’s very well hidden behind the cables. As far as I can tell it’s on the cable that comes from the output side of the house switch. I haven’t found any fuses between the battery and switches. The output side of the house switch and ground switch seem to have all the loads stacked, with no other bus bars.
 
Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
... They are super tightly packed so it’s not easy...
I hope your 37 has more room than my 34. But, that's exactly why I'm asking. The switches are just below the hanging locker in the aft berth. There's a narrow flip-up access which allows access to the back off the switches. Add in a heater duct/hose in the same space, and it's really tight. This is attached low in that compartment, looks like two negative battery cables attached to it... the phone pic gave me a better look at it than I can get in person.
Neg Bus - 1.jpeg
 
Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
I haven’t found any fuses between the battery and switches. The output side of the house switch and ground switch seem to have all the loads stacked, with no other bus bars.
I know there's a lot of stacking. I'll check on that. I have a start battery near the switch bank, where the shore power charger is located, and two house batteries below the steps and in front of the engine.

I found a schematic on the Victron web site with a similar configuration (it isn't boat brand specific). It shows the solar charge controller "out" attached at a bus bar on both the positive and negative sides. I thought that if I could find something similar that it might keep things as simple as possible.

I certainly can run the controller "out" cables directly to the house batteries, I was a little bit worried that this might be bypassing some electrical system safeguards, and I don't want my work to end up in some article's "FAIL" photo gallery. I also certainly don't want to end up with something which compromises safety, or damages other components.
 
May 17, 2004
5,026
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
I hope your 37 has more room than my 34. But, that's exactly why I'm asking. The switches are just below the hanging locker in the aft berth. There's a narrow flip-up access which allows access to the back off the switches. Add in a heater duct/hose in the same space, and it's really tight. This is attached low in that compartment, looks like two negative battery cables attached to it... the phone pic gave me a better look at it than I can get in person.
View attachment 181063
Sounds pretty much exactly the same design as ours, except we have room further outboard so the heat duct isn’t as in the way.

The device you’re seeing with the two ground cables and two thinner gauge wires is the shunt for the amp meter on the DC panel.

This is what the fuse looks like -
E71ECD53-A2D3-4652-B0BA-44CD60F1AFBD.png



With safety cover removed -

59A082B2-259F-4254-AD47-EA55C636E340.png



And this is where it is, where my hand is reaching -
764291C7-6A7F-4874-9560-B1E51B2228B2.png
 
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May 17, 2004
5,026
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
I know there's a lot of stacking. I'll check on that. I have a start battery near the switch bank, where the shore power charger is located, and two house batteries below the steps and in front of the engine.

I found a schematic on the Victron web site with a similar configuration (it isn't boat brand specific). It shows the solar charge controller "out" attached at a bus bar on both the positive and negative sides. I thought that if I could find something similar that it might keep things as simple as possible.

I certainly can run the controller "out" cables directly to the house batteries, I was a little bit worried that this might be bypassing some electrical system safeguards, and I don't want my work to end up in some article's "FAIL" photo gallery. I also certainly don't want to end up with something which compromises safety, or damages other components.
Yeah, unfortunately I think the best you can do there is to treat the switch posts as the busses, assuming you still have room on the posts to stack another ring terminal on the posts and still get the nuts fully on. If not the more elegant solution is to add bus bars for the house bank. Between the house loads, bilge pump, charger, and solar controller there could be enough wires to make that worthwhile.

Either way, to your point about not being an internet Fail - You’ll definitely need overcurrent protection on the wire between the battery and solar controller. For the shore charger Beneteau achieves that with fuses on each charge wire, closer to the switch than the charger. You could do the same to fuse the solar wires. The lack of overcurrent protection between the battery terminals and the switches is something you could probably address at the same time, probably by adding terminal fuses to the batteries.
 
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Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
I'm getting ready to hook up my first solar panel... drum roll, holding my breath...

At first, I'm just going to hook up a single panel to see if it works. If that goes well, then I'll connect both of them and try them out on a midweek cruise next week. What I am doing is;
  • Two SunPower 110W semi-flexible solar panels (will connect one for first test, then connect two in parallel).
  • Connected to a Victron MPPT 100/50 controller (could be a 100/30?)
  • 30A circuit breaker on the positive cable between the controller and the battery connection
    • There will be another 30A circuit breaker to serve as a disconnect between the panels and the controller, but I don't have that part yet.
  • I was thinking that, for my test, I'd just turn the panel upside down before connecting the MC4 connector to the power cable, but I could cover the panel instead.
  • Should I leave the 30A breaker tripped at first and check for voltage at the controller before resetting the breaker?
I'm reviewing the manuals for the controller and the panels. I'm a little concerned that the SunPower instructions say that the don't recommend wiring the panels in parallel because of the amount of current that parallel wiring can generate (saying, "DC currents may be greater than 12 amps in high illumination conditions"). Is that just a CYA disclaimer?

Any words of advise? Recommendations? Jumping up down, waving, shouting "Don't do it!"?

One thing that I just thought of, did I read somewhere that cables should be the same length? I wasn't thinking about that earlier, and my positive and negative cables between the controller and the battery terminals are not the same (one is about 2'+, the other about a foot shorter). I need to make a quick hardware run before I do anything. Turns out that I didn't have any screws to use to mount the controller and the c/b to the panels where they're going to be.
 
Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
It's ALIVE! Or, at least I didn't blow anything up, or set it on fire! :clap:

Going to try things out with bungees and temporary layouts this week, while I'm waiting for another circuit breaker. But, I'm pleased that I made it this far!
Solar - 1.jpegSolar - 2.jpeg
 

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
So pardon my ignorance but how do you size a breaker / fuse. Say for simplicity you have 350 watts solar; 2 - 175 watt panels in parallel and a single 40 amp controller.

Thanks
 
Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
@NYSail, I am NOT going to be able to offer an education as to how to calculate proper capacity for a breaker or fuse... my ignorance is at least equal to that which you are requesting pardon for... I just did a couple of searches and queries on the parts that I was ordering.
  • Included in the components for the 220 watt kit that I purchased is a 30 amp circuit breaker.
  • Checking the specs for the same kit, it lists "Series Fuse Rating" of 15A, per 110W panel.
  • Connecting the two panels in parallel means that the voltage remains the same, but the current for the two panels is cumulative (additive?).
  • The included 30A breaker is shown on a wiring diagram from the charge controller manufacturer as being located between the controller and the batteries.
  • That same diagram shows an "Isolator" between the solar panels and the charge controller.
  • I intend to install another 30A breaker between the solar panels and the charge controller to use as an "isolator" (on/off switch) so that I don't somehow accidentally nuke the charge controller while connecting or disconnecting the panels. Also, to specifically choose whether I am charging my batteries via shore power and the AC charger, or the solar charge controller.
The breaker included in the solar kit is fairly utilitarian in appearance (it's installed 'out of sight'), the additional breaker will (hopefully) match an existing accessory circuit breaker and also fit in an adjacent factory installed trim plate. When the solar panels are not in use, the visible "Solar" breaker will be "Off". The visible circuit breaker will only be turned "On" when the solar panels are in place, properly connected, and needed.

Not sure if this answers your question, but I hope so.
 
Nov 21, 2007
631
Beneteau Oceanis 34 Kingston, WA
Not only is it ALIVE, but it worked fabulously over the last four days! Yeah, I know, just replacing a couple of neglected G27 factory installed, dual purpose, pseudo deep cycle house batteries with a couple of G31's which fit the into the existing battery boxes should do wonders on its own. But, it was just awesome to have all the power (and more) that we needed this week!

Still, just temporary on the location of the solar panels. I attached them on the coach roof with bungees. But even in a cloudy Jun-ly-tober week, just prior to the official arrival of summer in the PNW on the fifth of July, we had fully charged batteries on two of the three days that we were moored in the south sound this week. On the third day we had more persistent clouds, and I had navigation components powered on for a considerable time monitoring tides and poking around with a couple of chart plotter features.

Solar Temp - 1.jpeg
 

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,048
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Thanks... did some reading and got the fuses / breaker. Looking forward to getting hooked up!
 
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Jul 1, 2020
14
Beneteau 361 Lancaster, VA
I have a 04 Beneteau 361 and I am getting ready to install a solar system as well. Have an arch installed for the 440 watts of panels to mount.
I am adding some more battery capacity. The space where the house batteries live in front of the engine just wont work. I have looked and am having trouble finiding a spot close that the three group 31 batteries can go. I am thinking about putting them in the sail locker, forward against the bulkhead.
I am interested to know if anyone else has moved batteries there.

Also, I read where apperently Rick wired the connection from the controler directly to the battery switch and SoSound wired directly to the house battery terminal. Either works for me, but no one is talking about an ACR. Are you guys just letting the solar controller, the alternator regulator and the shore power charger sort it out amoung themselves when you are motoring or connected to shore power?

is it necessary to have an ACR if you just go down and isolate the start battery after you shut down the engine?

I really dont want to change the switch configuaration if its not necesary.
 
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