Solar panel install O'day 28

[tcwaltz]

First let me say I have the great fortune of having a father-in-law that can weld, do AC work and generally fabricate most of what I can come up with. With that said this is the upgrade to my original solar panel install. My first panel was 135w kyeosera 12v panel. It was 39x24 and sat in the same place.
After some testing I decided I wanted more power to handle charging the kids potable devices and the like. The panel shown is a Sharp 230W panel @ 24v. I have that connected to a BZ 250w MPPT charge controller. The charge controller will step the 24v down 12v doubling my charging amps. So far it's been amazing. My house bank is composed of 4 Trojan T-105 6v batteries. I'm normally at float by 10am right now. The panel is big. It's 66"x 39". I have about 10" coming back over the top of the Bimini. The big advantage to that location is added shade and protection from rain, as well as it not getting shaded by the mast. Do far it's been working great. My kyeosrra was a bit more efficient in low light but not enough to matter. Panel was $288 at solarblvd.com. Plus $106 for the charge controller. $100 bux to ship. I have converted all my lighting on board to led that we built or converted ourselves do other than refrigeration my power consumption is low. Overall I'm very happy. I do have a link 20 to install to replace my link 10. The charge contrast also has a seperate circuit for a trickle charger for the engine battery. I'm not using that. Because I have a path finder installed. All the support brackets are custom built and welded but could easily be made with the screw together type

 

[TENACITY CS36T]

Nice job!

 

[Panta Rei]

Ok so you've got me thinking.... since my boat is 50 feet from a stainless fabricating shop, this might be the right time to add solar. A few questions..

The boat came with a wind generator. Replace or make solar an addition?

Snow load.This may be a question for others as Niceville likely gets little snow. Possibly hinge the panel for vertical winter storage???

Forward attachment. I can't see where you attached it. fortunately ,these O'days all seem to have a lot in common. My 39 has the same aft rail system. Your support system does not look like a lot of work.

239w Does that mean watts? Have you verified this output? That's impressive! I too converted all lighting to LED. Lights are now insignificant. I'm not clear on your refrigeration, does the panel fully support it on a sunny day? At 236 Watts there should be lots of capacity. I'm looking at a unit that draws 60 when the compressor is running.

Nice job on the install. Looks great.

 

[tcwaltz]

Yes 230 watts. It's fully supports my refrigeration unit. My father-in-law has 4 135w panels on his boat and two 800 watt wind generators. He has 8
T-105s. The charge controllers work independently because they detect the voltage in the batteries. Once they top off solar goes into float and wind generators shut off. He's got a 44 CSY. His panels on the side can swing down. Just today I was discussing changing my panel bracket from angle aluminum to tube stainless. Then I could use a sliding jaw clamp to be able to adjust the panel. They always work best facing the sun. But flat is a good compromise. Even tilting a few inches to the sun at the end of the day can add mor charging time.

 

[tcwaltz]

Posting images of the hinged jaw clamps. Front of the panel attaches to the Bimini. It was pretty solid but to take the side to side play out of it we installed an angle brace. This could be a strap but I opted for tubing. When I added the brace I was able to remove the Bimini straps which freed up some space

 

[willardj]

Look good. I was thinking about doing the same thing to my boat.

 

[Panta Rei]

TCWALTZ, Thanks for the info on the solar. At first glance I was puzzled by all the power you and certainly your father in law was putting on the your boats. Just a bit of research on hard and soft shading and the effect of deviation from solar south explained in all.
I'm thinking fixed solar is not for me. I may look at a few small roll up panels and continue my reliance on my wind generator plus fossil fuel burning diesel engine and propane generator. There sure are many ways of addressing a boats power needs.
Your post opened my eyes.

 

[tcwaltz]

Given the location of the panel and the fact that the cost of solar is coming down. Having a fixed panel is worth it. The problem with roll up panels is that they are expensive and not very efficient. I get virtually no shading on my panel at all. Plus you need to assume that you'll achieve 6hrs of peak charging a day. Part of why I opted to go 24v was to achieve more charging amps with less sun on my panel. Is your wind generator noisy inside the boat? We have a damper solution that eliminates between 50 and 75% of the vibration noise transferred to the hill by a wind generator. My opinion on power is that more options you have the better. Just be sure to use Mppt charge controllers to get the most out of it.

 

[Panta Rei]

Given the location of the panel and the fact that the cost of solar is coming down. Having a fixed panel is worth it. The problem with roll up panels is that they are expensive and not very efficient. I get virtually no shading on my panel at all. Plus you need to assume that you'll achieve 6hrs of peak charging a day. Part of why I opted to go 24v was to achieve more charging amps with less sun on my panel. Is your wind generator noisy inside the boat? We have a damper solution that eliminates between 50 and 75% of the vibration noise transferred to the hill by a wind generator. My opinion on power is that more options you have the better. Just be sure to use Mppt charge controllers to get the most out of it.

I'll be getting the wind generator fired up in the next week or so. I''ve never seen (or heard) it run.

You've got me thinking of alternatives but I think I need to see what my demands are before I start adding things I may not need. I'll let you know soon about the vibration. Thanks!

 

[tcwaltz]

So I was up the mast changing out my sheaves and decided to take a picture looking down on the boat. Gives you a good idea of "sun view" on the panel.

Performance has been very good. Batteries were in float at 10am this morning. Yesterday I had 11.7 amps going into the batteries from solar. Right now I'm in float and the solar is running refrigeration, radio and the water without using anything out of the batteries.