Solar Panels - Any Recommendations?

[Sean]

Okay Guise,Since this technology is kind of a changing one and it's getting better every year, I thought I should pick your brain regarding the most practical, functional, solar panels that you have used regularly. Pluses and minuses of one manufacturer versus another. Or if you know of a dependable source with accurate reviews of solar products, that would be a great help too!!! I have a humble setup with two house batteries(no starter-pull start OB w/alternator). I'm getting ready to do a week trip and I'm thinking solar panels would be a nice luxury/convenience instead of a loud generator. I'm setting up some low draw power fans in the cabin and I also like to listen to my Miles Davis...and if I can, maybe a portable powered marine cooler(I know they draw a lot of power)...any recommendations, which one to buy, and who to buy them from? Anything to know about rigging them to my breakers or just run it staight to the battery(s)? Any conflicts with my OB alternator?Thanks,-Sean-Sean

 

[Ross]

solar panels on Ebay

http://motors.search.ebay.com/solar-panel_W0QQfromZR40

 

[KennyH]

Used the Seimens 43 watts for 15 years

I believe Seimens is the best brand. The ones I had before my boat was lost in hurricane Isabel where just mounted on the roof top of the boat with bungee cords. Never had a problem in even sever storms off Cape Hatteras. These where the hard kind which is suppose to generate more power. The 43 watts where the largest that where advertized as self regulating ie no need for diode or regulator. I had two which provided all my electric needs. However I never had refrigeration. That would take lots more power. Had two banks of batteries and ran one to each bank. I am suprised the price has not come down on these. If anything they are more expensive than they where in the 80's.

 

[Jentine]

Very simple technology

Solar power is simple to install and use. It is a set it and forget it installation for about 25 years. I have used solar on three boats for the last 14 years with no difficulties. The only problem you will encounter is where to mount the panel(s). The site should be free from shadows, somewhere where they won't be stepped on and generally out of the way.I run the entire boat including refrigeration with two house batteries charged by two 125w Kyocera panels. I have had them for several years with no maintenance or other intervention on my part.I got them from http://www.wholesalesolar.com/solar-panels.html They had the best price I could find.Jim

 

[Sean]

Good Info, thanks Guise

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! I didn't want to go and jump in half baked without some good sources.I checked the links that you all gave, again exactly what I was looking for. Rick, that's a great site with the FAQ's, should answer most my questions. It's nice to know it's not all that complicated. I guess like you say, the top brands are Shell(which used to be Siemens), and Kyocera. That bimini mount looks perfect, but I don't think my bimini is sturdy enough for two panels weighing 30-40lbs each..and besides, how do you drop your bimini? Do you have to dismantle the whole rig?Jim, do you link the two 125s together then run them to our bats(no charger needed, right)? Do you think I could get away with one? I mean these things are pricey...If I understand it correctly, the soft mounted ones seem more versatile, vs the hard mounts seem to really need a specific home, right? And when you say not shade tolerant, do you mean like the occasional tack of the head sail could stop the charge entirely ? Does that mean the soft ones keep charging but with less power?Ross, I did do an ebay search like you suggested, but I didn't feel comfortable going with something I didn't have any reference on. And google, well you know how that is, gets a lot of results but who knows which ones you can count on...so I thought get some grade-A advice from my fellow sailors.Sorry to hear about your boat KennyH. So you were getting by with 43 watts? Wow, so I'm really thinking a single 125 could get me far..., no?Thanks again for all the info!-Sean

 

[Ross]

You would have to be creative

to get the power that you want from the Ebay VW panels. I am not sure that for the 250 watts you want that those VW panels would be cheaper.

 

[Sean]

Kyocera KC125GT

This is the one I was thinking of..http://www.wholesalesolar.com/products.folder/module-folder/kyocera/KC125.html

 

[John]

Kyocera 70 watts x 2

I have a70watt pannal and it works great its mounted over the rear pulpit on bimmini brackets on the 1" tube The pannal is 25x35 I would mount a second 70watt pannal side by side for a total of 50 wide x 35 long but they tell me they dont have a maching size .The pannel sits above the bimmini and keeps the sun and rain off the driver if the bimmini is rolled .I have 2 32watt flex pannels on boom for extra power. I have a C30 and i thought a 56" long pannal was to long and my first thought was to mount the 70 watt pannal on the rear stay but the bimmini poles worked great.I stay on a mooring and use lots of power lights, radio,tv dvd,vcr,aouto helm ,refer is broke now but was fine when it was working .The 70watt pannal stays on the boat all winter to keep the batterys charged. John

 

[Stu Jackson]

Guise ???

The spelling police are obviously out of town...

 

[John Nantz]

Controller Choice is Important Too

Currently I'm running a Kycera KC130TM which is rated at 130W or 8 amps @ ~19V. Reason for this panel is they're good for cloudy and overcast conditions (our northwest kind of weather) and also line shadows.To this I connected the solar controller and chose a Blue Sky SB2000E. The reason for this choice, which is not the cheapest, is their patented solar boost technology. This controller takes the panel output and adjusts it to get the maximum power into the batteries.For example, on a cloudy day the panel might only put out, say, 8 volts. This is not enough to charge a 12V battery. What the controller does is take the 8 volts and the associated current and adjusts it to the battery charge voltage, say, 13.8v. The current at this voltage might be only 2 amps but, hey, it's better than 0.Another example, say on a bright day the panel is puting out 19v at a rated 8 amps. The controller will convert this to the battery charge voltage of 13.8V and around 10.5 amps. That's a nice increase over the 8 amps.The above two real-world examples are what I experienced recently.Today I had planned to cast off and go cruising for a few days but had to take care of something else. Since the refrigerator was left on and the panel deployed (it's a swing-up type on the pushpit but lined up with the life lines) I was gone all day and the refrigerator ran all day. Because it was a mostly sunny day I'm sure the batteries will be just fine when I look at them tomorrow.Horray for solar - couldn't do this with a generator.

 

[Bill Roosa]

If the solar are pricey try wind

There are also some wind generators that are "watt for the buck" a better deal than solar. But they make noise and need a controller and don't work at all in light/no wind situations like that snug little cove that is "just perfect" for anchoring. They charge all day/night while under sail (400 watts!) except for when sailing downhill in light winds.

 

[Chris]

For Stu Jackson

Guise is an acceptable form of Guys under certain conditions:Youse Guise (plural)Disguise (singular)Guiser (a whole in the ground from which liquids spew)Fall guise (either in autumnal clothing OR "I meant to do that" when stepping off the dock and falling in the water)Guise (ropes that hold something in place)Any one think of more?Good sailingChris

 

[Ross]

I like oil lamps and the

sound of the world around me. We have anchored out for three days straight and not used enough battery power to drop the voltage more than .5 volts.

 

[Rodney]

Controller

I have 2 80 watt Kyocera panels on my radar arch connected to the battery bank via a SB2000E controller. I can second John's recommendation for the solar boost or max power point technology. The Blue Sky controller really maximizes the solar panel output. I have been at anchor for 10 days without running the engine. Enough power to run refrigeration (cold beer), lights, stereo, and even my wife's blow dryer off the inverter occasionally. All without a sound. Solar is wonderful.

 

[Sean]

Blue Sky Charge Controller - John & Rodney

Rodney and John,Thanks for the idea of the Blue Sky charge controller. It definitely sounds like a good idea to maximize the efficiency of the solar panels.Bill, wind is intriguing. I'll definitely look into it too.So do the hard solar panels just stop charging entirely if I were to tack and the jib crosses over it causing a little shadow, versus the soft solar panels? Would this charge controller resolve that problem?Thanks,-Sean

 

[Rodney]

Shadows

Sean, The Blue Sky controller doesn't help other than maximizing output from the remaining panels when a panel is shadowed in my experience. The panel being shadowed drops its output a lot. The remaining unshadowed panels continue to produce power. You're correct in that the soft panels are much more tolerant to shadowing.

 

[Pat]

solar panels

The type of panel will dictate how much loss of power is caused by shade. The flexible ones loose the most, the Kyocera the least, (they now have a 130. The Blue Sky is the one if you are installing normally, and don't add to many panels. We started to set up useing one, but have switched to stringing the panels (3 of the 130's) to bring in 36 volts and then drop to 12 with the controller. So we have switched to industrial components rather than the Blue Sky 'cause we didn't want to be at or slightly above the rated range for the Blue Sky. We are setting up our two BIG batteries as separate banks. That will give us a 'day-off' for each of the banks to top-off before it comes back into use, and a redundant system if something goes wrong and we loose a battery. I know this is like a belt and a pair of suspenders at the same time, but we are going cruising and I hear there arn't a lot of spare parts & stuff in Mexico and beyond.The advice and ideas on here have been GREAT, but not complete. Chris must be kind of young, he forgot the application of "Guiser" is not just a whole in the ground, it's either an old guy mess'n around on boats, or when you are talking to "yousguise" who are going to do something, and you correctly say: "yous guiser going to ---"Pat

 

[John Nantz]

Different Shades of Grey

Rodney - in's that controller a kick? I think it's fantastic. Everytime I look at the readout it's pumping something into the batteries.With regard to shadows causing problems (1) I'd say there are different shades of grey, (2) PLUS, there are different kinds of crystals which respond to shadows differently. There are three crystal types: monocrystalline (Siemens), polycrystalline (Kyocera, Solarex, PowerValue), and Thin Film or amorphous types which tend to be put on the flexible panels. Of these types, the polycrystalline does the best in shadows.The Kyocera panel system seems to be the best at at dealing with shadows and overall grey conditions (like overcast or cloudy days). See "Solar Basics" for Kyocera's disucssion on shading: http://www.kyocerasolar.com/solar/modules.html This is an explaination of various scenerios and how output is affected. Also of interest is the Kyocera web site "Understanding Solar": http://www.kyocerasolar.com/solar/Shadow types: Okay, so, given a Kyocera panel which is already about as good as it gets for dealing with shadows, if the shadow is sharp and dark then that will have more affect than one that is, shall we say, kinda grey. A nearby object, say, a rail mounted VHF antenna next to the panel will have much more effect than if the same antenna was six or eight feet away. So, with shadows, it depends. The solution, since most likely one would be using panels when on the hook, is to have redundancy - more than one panel. Say one on port and one on starboard. This way if one is on the shady side the other, hopefully, is on the sunny side.The only downside to the Kyocera panel for me is the standard width which is 25.7" - wish it wasn't quite so wide.Wind Generators: I've got one of those too (Rutland) but currently it's not mounted. Noise-wise I don't think it's bad - just some light wirring or maybe swishing as the wind angle changes but definitely better than ANY generator. The mast noise depends on the installation. My first installation - a real temporary one, caused noise to be transmitted/telegraphed down into the boat but the revised mount on the stern rail is basically silent. You hardly hear anything.Wind complements solar - it's nice to have both. When the weather is nasty and there is a dark overcast the wind generator fills in the power gap. Same at night. With the long summer days in the northern latitudes, solar will work well. In a couple months as the days shorten and fall starts to bring storm systems then wind will become more important.Boat manufacturers need to have more lineal-feet of pushpit rails so we can have a place to hang all our stuff!

 

[MKing]

For Chris

Wise Guise - Chris & company (somewhere North of the Mason-Dixon line) Have a great weekend yall !!!

 

[Stu Jackson]

Thanks, Chris

Very good explanation.As far as solar goes, these days, it's great to be able to find ANY panels, since they're are in great demand.Get a panel of the size and type you need from these posts, put a controller on it and go for it.You have, of course, done an energy budget, right?All the best,Stu