Solar Panel or Mounting- which first?

robertsapp · Mar 8, 2012

Here's a 125 watt panel that is flexible and only weighs five pounds. It doesn't need a mount because you can order it with zippers attached and just zip it to the top of your bimini or dodger. It can also be ordered with grommets if you'd rather tie or bungie it in place.

http://www.solbian.eu/index.php/en/cp-125.html

HeeledOver · Mar 8, 2012

What's one of those run? Anyone have any experience with them?

Bill Roosa · Mar 9, 2012

The haphazard application of buy and fit and HOPE that it works usually results in an unhappy sailor.
The batteries, loads, and production means all have to be considered as a system on almost all sailboats. The exception being small boats with very limited electrical loads of an intermittent nature and large boats with an overabundance of production. The rest of us simply:

Do not have the space to field a solar array that exceeds our loads.
Do not wish to run an engine or genset the required amount of time to keep the batts charged.
Do not wish to live without the electrical devices that make sailing "fun and enjoyable".

As such, we live in an over loaded under productive environment where storage is used to get us to the next shore power fix.

There is a spreadsheet in the downloads section that can assist in your understanding of your loads and help with some basic sizing of the storage and production means.

If you are thinking of 130 watts to supply the batts and some loads note that you lose about 10% when you charge and 10% when you draw the juice out so that 130 immediately drops to 105 watts if you use the batteries to drive the loads. If you drive the loads directly like running the reefer only during the day, or when the wind is blowing hard enough if you have a wind generator, then you can get by with smaller electrical producing devices. Most of us can’t or are unwilling to do that however.

That 105 watts is actually only 7.3 amps max. Unless you are aiming the panels in an active way you are probably only going to see that once or twice a year when the boat happens to be heeled the correct amount to present the panels at 90 degrees to the sun and the sun is actually out. All the rest of the time you will see less, lots less. The common practice is to factor all this stuff (angle, hours of sunshine, % of time it is actually sunny in your location…..) and develop a planning factor called “effective hours of sunlight per day” That number is usually between 3-5 hours. This would lead an engineer to expect (7.3*3= 22 to 7.3*5=36.5) 22 to 36.5 AH added to the “available production”

Without knowing your loads you can’t say a thing about how great that is though. If all you are wanting to do is keep the batts topped off while in storage, your golden. Take a cruise and turn on the reefer and your still going to need to run the engine to charge the batteries pretty regularly.

So figure out your loads and then start looking for some combinations of wind, solar, engine running and shore power that fit your type of sailing.
If you need some help PM me.

robertsapp · Mar 9, 2012

What's is gonna cost to manufacture a fixed mount for rigid panels? I really think this is the breakthrough that makes solar really practical on a boat. I even saw a picture where they had applied a flexible panel to a mainsail cover. Gee, maybe I should become a dealer...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD4AxqkPwhE

This is just one brand btw, there are other companies making similar products.

robertsapp · Mar 9, 2012

Well I suspect like any new technology, wait six months and they'll be twice as good for half the price. We don't have a solar system yet, and I've been eyeing the solarstik setup for a while now, but I suspect when we finally do add a system, this will be the way we go. Whenever we have a tropical storm or God forbid a hurricane, we try to strip the boat of all its canvas - sails, bimini, dodger, etc. I really really like the idea of just unzipping the solar panels, rollling them up, and tucking them down below.

Bill Roosa · Mar 9, 2012

I saw the demo at the Pentagon. The price had three zeros before the decimal
course you could reverse engineer the concept. It is just a pole. Not really rocket science. the stik is nice and shinny or the Pentagon Brass. they will not even consider buying it unless it is shinny.
I think you could build your own out of wood and fiberglass

Benny17441 · Mar 9, 2012

I think solar panels are the optimum choice for maintaining batteries charged on an unattended boat at a mooring but to rely on them to supply adequate power for a vessel at anchor or underway will be likely dissapointing or too costly a proposition.

seadaddler · May 30, 2012

If

If you do alot of cruise and anchor out away from shore power and have ref and other 12 volt devices solar is the way to go and while out cruising here in Florida all around we see more and more solar panels all the time.
Other sailors tell me they put 1 or 2 panels depending on the load they have on the boat and some just love 1 big panel keeping the ref well supplied with 12 volt and running the engine less.
I am at the first stage of building the frame above my bimini for 2 panels like maybe 200 watts each and do have a Gen but do 3 or 4 weeks at a time and long weekend trips with mostly on the hook and love to run the Gen less.
When we go sailing I need to make sure my wife is having fun with all the bells and whistles for her be confortable with a Ref/freezer microwave and a droid and computer and if need be run Gen for the AC which here in Fl is a must,a happy woman on a boat means lots of sailing to me,what ever it takes for her to go boating more I will do it.
We are retired and get to go sailing alot here in Fl.
Nick

Ron McCoy · Jun 4, 2012

Take all the above advice and adapt it to your situation. Check out my solar panel installation in the Hunter Owner Modifications menu above for the 386 model. You can easily fabricate a SS tubing support system for the panel over your bimini with a little creativity and imagination. The Kyocera is a very dependable panel and warranted specifically for use in a marine environment. Buy a good charger controller (about $125) and properly size the wiring. Under sail while cruising, the panel (130 watt) can power the refrig/freezer, the electronics and the autopilot. At anchor and at the marina the panel does a remarkable job of replenishing the batteries by maintaining a float charge of 13.25 volts. My start battery that I just replaced was 9 years old! I rarely use my shore power cables too.

RonRelyea · Jun 5, 2012

Flexible Solar Panel Price Reductions Coming??

I saw this article a few months ago .... seems to me that once this slicing method gets more widespread implementation in the industry, the prices should dip???

http://www.digitaltrends.com/green-...n-solar-cells-threaten-fossil-fuel-dominance/

Solar Panel or Mounting- which first?

Jared1048

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robertsapp

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HeeledOver

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Jared1048

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Bill Roosa

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robertsapp

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Jared1048

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robertsapp

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Jared1048

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Bill Roosa

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Benny17441

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Jared1048

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seadaddler

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Ron McCoy

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RonRelyea

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