Solar panels as air foils re silly question perhaps.

[c_witch]

Hiee all,

While I may not get to launch this year the boat is nearly completed now. I am once again looking at the solar panel issue for charging our dual house bank. We have chosen to go with 2 150 ah batteries. All lighting is now LED for running,anchoring and cabin. Bilge pump draw of 5 amps when running its an Atwood 1100 gph and mercerator which draws 15 amps when running but will empty our tiny msd tank in a minute or less so total run time on that expected to be 3 minutes to empty and flush twice with clean water. Electronic nav is via a laptop running opencpn which draws 5 amps while the screen is active ie ON. The radio and compass both drawing less then an amp in standby and lighting.
Ok I will be going with a Kyocera 185 watt panel. It will be mounted on the stern pulpit railing.
The panel is about 60 inches long and 30 inches wide and slightly less then 2 inches deep. It will be mounted such that the long axis spans the transom and out to each side. The question being has anyone with a smaller boat 22 to 24 with this arrangement had any adverse handling due to the panel and its location and tilt angle?

Happy sailing,
Brina

 

[Kermit]

The question being has anyone with a smaller boat 22 to 24 with this arrangement had any adverse handling due to the panel and its location and tilt angle?

You'll look way cool at stoplights!

Anonymous

 

[Kermit]

Had time to think while cleaning the pool...

You could also get some of those cool hydraullic lifters so you can bounce up and down while waiting at the start line in your next regatta. Oh, and add some cool lights under your hull. You know, the green or purple fluorescent lights you see so often. A boom box would really add to the overall ambiance. Now if you could just find some spinning wheel covers...

Still anonymous

 

[Ron20324]

Yes, that panel can cause you grief. At an angle, it will almost double as a mizzen sail and push you around in following winds. Better to make it adjustable. I recently added solar, but went with two panels so if one dies, I have another one working. Sumner should chime in here...

 

[Sumner]

Yes, that panel can cause you grief. At an angle, it will almost double as a mizzen sail and push you around in following winds. Better to make it adjustable. I recently added solar, but went with two panels so if one dies, I have another one working. Sumner should chime in here...

Ok a couple of thoughts, but do your research. I agree with the above about multiple panels. We ran into a piling in Florida the last trip and took out a panel . We still had two others, a 40 and 60 to get by on until a new 80 arrived after a couple days. We have/had 180 watts...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/outside-33.html

...on the boat and after the above incident are now replacing the new 80 we got with a 100 for a total of 200 watts and I'm re-positioning them so they don't hang over the side as much.

The 80 along with 5 others is going on the Endeavour for a total there of 480 watts and none will overhang hopefully. All of the panels on the Mac are horizontal and we haven't noticed any adverse problems going down the highway or on the water dealing with wind, but the panel support structure is pretty strong. We also haven't noticed a difference on anchor, but that would be hard to tell unless we had two boats exactly the same with the same wind conditions. I'm building a mount that will hold 4 80 watt panels above the Bimini on the Endeavour and 2 more above the dinghy davits off the stern. I've given some consideration to mounting the back two in a manner that they could rotate fore/aft to some degree, but might just forget that as I wonder how much I would actually mess with them to maximize their output.

On the subject of output I did a google search for the panel you might be using and didn't find one of 185 watts that was the dimensions you quoted, so probably didn't find it. The ones I did find from that manufacture that were 185 watts were 23-24 volts...

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/products.folder/module-folder/kyocera/KD185GX-LPU.html

... If that is correct and is the voltage of the one you are thinking of getting I'd research charge controllers and from what I know I would not recommend a PWM charge controller as you would loose a lot of power from that panel. Read the following....

http://windsun.com/ChargeControls/ChargeCont.htm

..I/they recommend a MPPT charge controller....

http://windsun.com/ChargeControls/ChargeCont.htm

The MPPT controllers are not cheap, but we decide on one for the Mac and will use one on the Endeavour since we are limited on space for panels, so want to maximize the output of the ones we have.

We have bought our panels and controllers and digital...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/inside-25.html

...volt and amp meters from....

http://www.solarblvd.com/Solar-Pane...60-Watt-12-Volt-Solar-Panel/product_info.html

...and they have good pricing and good service and got a panel at a great price right off to us while we were in Florida and had the mishap there.

Good luck and you will love the solar,

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links

 

[c_witch]

Sumner panel reply

Hiee Sumner,

The web site I have looked at is altestore.com. They may be worth your while having a look at as the prices seem to be very good. It seems my memory is not so great lol as the dimensions were more like length of 52 inches width of 39 inches and thickness of 1.8 inches. The Kyocera panels have been rated for marine usage also. This particular panel outputs at 16 volts which is why we would be using the MPPT controller ie to gain extra amperage. We simply do not have room aboard our boat for more then one panel. I will be mounting in such a way as to allow for tilting of the panel fore and aft. The controller I intend to use is the BlueSky 2000E which is a MPPT type.

Thanks for the link about digital volt and amp meters as I have been looking for them and not been able to find anything useful either locally or online.

Happy sailing,
Brina

 

[Sumner]

The panel is called a 16 volt, but if you look down the page....

http://www.altestore.com/store/Solar-Panels/Kyocera-KD185GX-LPU-185W-16V-Solar-Panel/p9046/

...further you will see that it is actually more, 23.6 at max power. The panels that are called 12 volt panels are usually around 17-18 volts max power. You should be fine with the MPPT controller, but I'd talk to them to make sure.

I looked at their panels and the 185 is a good price, but for a lot of other sizes I think Solar Blvd has better prices. The panels we bought are their in-house panels and so far I'm happy with how they have held up both on fresh water and about 3 months out on salt water. They do advertise them for boating.

I was recommending the possibility of multiple panels, such as the 60 watt I posted, sized so that they would fit in the same space as the 185. Still the single panel will be nice.

You will like that controller. We like the Blue Sky MPPT controller we are using on the Mac and are buying a larger one to use on the array on the Endeavour. I noticed that altestore.com had the MPPT controller we need to buy for $10 less than Solar Blvd, but the shipping was about $18 more. Still a wash, so I'd just deal with who seems to give the best service. Right now I"m happy with Solar Blvd, but if that would change then I'd look at altestore.com

Sum

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Our MacGregor S Pages

Mac-Venture Links