Solar once again and another question

[c_witch]

Hiee all,

Ok so what do those of you using solar have to say about Kyocera panels? I am looking again at solar for keeping the batteries charged. I'm inclined to go with the Kyocera 185 watt panel.
On to controllers. After looking on the net I've decided that an MPPT controller is the way to go. The one catching my interest is the BlueSky 2000E. What do you have to say about that?

Final question. I bought a new fuse/switch panel for our boat, nothing fancy as its a small boat and uses an outboard with minimal charging capability. Anyhow the panel was wires thusly:
RED awg 16 wire from supply to push button breaker and then jumped from first breaker to last ie suppling power to all. From breaker out side feeds to rocker swith in side. Now the problem being is that from the out side of switch the wire is now black. So do I connect the HOT wires of my circuits to this and then connect the negative wire to the negative or what?

My setup is thus. I bring my battery cables to a 1 2 battery switch. From there the 1 2 or both are fed to a bus. From the bus I feed the 'individual' breakers on this new panel. I also have a negative bus to which the battery cables are connected ie negative cables. I had figured on connecting all sub circuit black leads to this bus. I had also figured on using a third bus to feed the output from the switches to and then connecting the sub circuits to the opposing side. This is really nothing more then a terminal block with 10 terminals ie screws on each side of a strap.


Happy sailing,
Brina

 

[Tim R.]

I have 2 - 130w Kycera panels with a Sunsaver mppt controller. The system works great to keep the freezer/refrig cold plus what lighting we use at night. By the end of each day, I am usually back to about 98% of our 520ah house bank.

 

[Ron McCoy]

The Kyocera is one of the few makers of solar panels with a warranty covering use in a marine environment. That's important as your panel will be on the boat for a long time and you want them to last. I've had the Kyocera 130 watt panel on our H386 for over 5 years and it's as good as new. I use a Xantrex C35 controller as I thought at the time I might wish to add additional panels which the C35 could handle. I don't have anything on the Blue Sky 2000 controller, but I hear good things about them. Just ensure it can handle the load you intend to put on it. As for proper wiring, it's hard to tell where to connect the wiriing as each boat has it's own issues. I'd recommend you find a local pro who can do the final connections. Best wishes. You'll like the freedom a panel gives to your batteries. They're always happy, because they're always full!

 

[cbsailor]

We have 2 Kyocera KCM85 85 watt panels, the Bluesky 2512 mppt controller and remote display servicing 4 Trojan 605 batteries. We installed the Trojans 3 years ago while cruising FL. We kept them serviced with the engine generator and a Honda 2000. Although the setup worked fine it seemed we were spending a fair amount of time baby sitting the charging process. Two years ago while cruising FL once again, we installed the solar system and have almost eliminated the Honda's use. As Ron said, the batteries stay "happy". This setup keeps up with our demand which includes refrigeration, lighting, stereo, computers, radio, and the most important Admirals TV.
BTW we got great sales help and service from eMarine Systems in Ft. Lauderdale. http://www.emarineinc.com/

 

[Maine Sail]

Kyocera panels are some of the best you can buy but a 185 watt panel on a 22 footer is a helicopter landing pad. I would try and find a way to reduce consumption and go with an 85 watt or so, perhaps a 130 but even that is big on a 22 footer. You could easily ditch the laptop and get HH plotting GPS and that would save you about 4.8 amps vs. the 5 amps.

Blue Sky controllers are excellent. You also may consider the 1524iX controller from Blue Sky as it is both a 12v and 24v capable controller. That panel is right up against the voltage limits of the 2000E so you may want to call Blue Sky and get their thoughts. Their tech support is excellent..

Can you draw for us the projected wiring diagram? I was having trouble following the description. Your wiring sounds quite undersized..