solar ?????

[piedpiperIII]

I know this has probably been covered before but here goes. I want to charge my battery without bringing it home. I have no power at the dock. I was thinking about the charging coil for my engine but I don't run it enough to keep the battery up. Only other thing I can think of is solar charger. Do you use one ? What kind and what amps? I have found one for about $60. that puts out "I think it said" 4.5 amps. My little charger,at home, trickle charges my battery at 2.5 amps over nite just fine. Any thoughts would be great thanks. Alan

 

[DeepBlueSeas]

Hi Alan,

Not sure how much this helps, but I was cruising up and down docks at the lake yesterday looking at all the C22s to see how they were rigged and noticed one had a solar panel laying on the starboard seat in the cockpit. Looked like a small panel similar to ones I have seen at Cabela's and other stores. It appeared that he had a connector that allowed him to disconnect and stow it when he was sailing. For maintaining a single deep cell battery, I would think that would be plenty if you are not seriously running it down when you are out.

Dennis

 

[piedpiperIII]

Dennis, this is what I am leaning toward, My battery goes down mostly from radio and CD playing. It just gets to be a pain to bring the battery home and my slip is the farthest from the parking lot. I di use a small dolly to transport but I just get sick of pulling the batt. and putting it back in. I am looking at a solar charger that "tractor supply" sells for $59.95 Alan

 

[jwrandall]

I know this has probably been covered before but here goes. I want to charge my battery without bringing it home. I have no power at the dock. I was thinking about the charging coil for my engine but I don't run it enough to keep the battery up. Only other thing I can think of is solar charger. Do you use one ? What kind and what amps? I have found one for about $60. that puts out "I think it said" 4.5 amps. My little charger,at home, trickle charges my battery at 2.5 amps over nite just fine. Any thoughts would be great thanks. Alan

I would be very careful about the numbers you mentioned. My guess is that for $60 it is a 5 Watt solar panel. I have one. It will not charge your battery but instead be a trickle charge to keep an already charged battery up. I keep mine on my starter battery.

For my house battery, I use a 75 Watt solar panel which provides about 6 Amps and in full sun keeps up with my electronic use. Of course when I'm away it fully charges the battery. I paid about $180 on eBay.

Very important that you use a charge controller so as to not over-charge the battery, about $30. It allows charging at a certain voltage and stops charging at a higher one. The exact numbers escape me now. The 5 Watt one mentioned above does not need a control.

 

[Aldo]

Pied Piper: As RW wrote, you are not going to find a 4.5 amp solar panel for $60. I use a cheap solar panel, approximately 1 foot by 14 inches that I bought at Harbor Freight, to keep my boat's Size 27 battery charged. It has a whole week to put back in what I take out on Saturday and Sunday. I do use an autopilot which is probably the biggest draw at approximately 1/4 amp. Anyhow, this little solar panel does do the job, and the only time I recharge my battery with a charger is when we are sailing for a week or two, sailing every day. I do have the output from the solar panel going through a charge controller, but it is small enough that I probably don't have to. It should be noted that your battery will last much longer if you have it on a solar panel and it doesn't get drawn as low as it would get if you charge it and draw it down deeply. If you do some research on this you will find that it is not recommended to draw a battery below 1/2 down, and there are voltages associated with this, but I don't have them here.

I used to use a bigger solar panel, but my son took it to use on his C-22. It can put out about 4 amps, I believe from some measurements that I took, but you can see that it is a serious panel. (I just like to show that photo. We were sailing into into St. Mary's Maryland at the time.) He mounted the panel on top of his Bimini top.

I do recommend a solar panel like the one that I bought at Harbor Freight. It is item # 41144, and is currently selling for $49.99, but I think that I paid less for mine. I did put little feet under it that I made from rope, (after the plastic ones melted). I keep mine on the cockpit floor, under the tiller during the week, and put it into the compartment behind the fuel tank when we are sailing. It is very convenient. There were times I took my battery home to charge it, but I haven't done that in years.

Aldo

 

[Paco T]

Hello,
I have one of this:
http://www.ul-solar.com/Solar_Panel_10_watt_12_volt_p/stp010p-r.htm
you can get them on ebay or through their website. I Don't have a charge controller with it. Check the water on your battery periodically in case it boils out. It is a lot cheaper than the one from harbor freight and much better quality. oh and I forgot it is 10W instead of 5W.
They shipped the panel fast.
Here is link for the ebay store:
http://cgi.ebay.com/10-WATT-10W-SOLAR-PANEL-12-VOLT-UL-SOLAR-/130417336961?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0

If you decide to get a controller get it from this guys:
http://www.solarblvd.com/Charge-Con...,-12V-Pwm-Charge-Controller/product_info.html
I also have a 40W panel that I use for weekend trips with a charge controller of course.
Cheers!

 

[Aldo]

Paco T.: That does look like a nice one

Paco T. That does look like a nice one, and with higher output. I'd get one of them instead of my Harbor Freight one, but they kind of stick it to you on shipping. Aldo

 

[piedpiperIII]

I did go and buy the solar charger from tractor supply, it is very similar to harbor freight, and does put out 5 watts and says it will charge not just maintain. For 60 bucks I thought it would be fine. I only use my battery for the radio and very few times comming it after dark for the lites. My home battery charger puts out 6 watts on high and I use it on low which is 2.5 watts and charges my battery over nite. Alan

 

[KJH]

I have been using a Sunforce 50022 5 watt trickle charger on my C-22 for about three years. It has an overcharge protection and has worked great for me! I mounted it to a wood frame, put Ihooks on the four corners and bungee it to the companionway hatch when we are off the boat. When we are sailing, I keep it in its box and store it securely in the forward port compartment.

Paid $47.99 from Amazon in 2007.

 

[CaptDon01]

Here are some pictures of a cheap solar trickle charger I made to keep the battery topped off between outtings. I also used it to top off the battery when moored for several days at Catalina Island. It will put out 20+ volts on a sunny day, but the output is only mA's, so there is no worry about boiling out a battery.

The pictures were from our Capri-18, but we use a similar charger on our MK-II also.

Don

 

[piedpiperIII]

Don, awesome Idea, I was thinking of where to put my panel. Mine is larger than yours shown but the mounting should be the same, for now I lay mine on the cockpit seat. My marina is video protected so if someone can steal it without being seen than my hats off. Alan

 

[csmcg]

For what it's worth... I mounted a 5w panel to the top of my outboard. It stays out of the way and is always connected (via a charge controller). It does a good job of keeping the batteries topped off.

The batteries don't get heavy use but they do run an led anchor light at night that I rigged through a light sensing switch.

 

[radioguy]

Hello,
I have one of this:
http://www.ul-solar.com/Solar_Panel_10_watt_12_volt_p/stp010p-r.htm
you can get them on ebay or through their website. I Don't have a charge controller with it. Check the water on your battery periodically in case it boils out. It is a lot cheaper than the one from harbor freight and much better quality. oh and I forgot it is 10W instead of 5W.
They shipped the panel fast.
Here is link for the ebay store:
http://cgi.ebay.com/10-WATT-10W-SOLAR-PANEL-12-VOLT-UL-SOLAR-/130417336961?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0

If you decide to get a controller get it from this guys:
http://www.solarblvd.com/Charge-Con...,-12V-Pwm-Charge-Controller/product_info.html
I also have a 40W panel that I use for weekend trips with a charge controller of course.
Cheers!

PacoT, thanks for all the links. Do you mind showing and telling how you hooked the solar panel onto your rails?

I had found these really nice mounts:

http://www.drbinnovators.com/index.php?rn=380&action=show_detail

And I had thought about using a through deck connector right at the base of the solar panel, to make a really nice looking install. But I'd worry that the additional connectors would lead to loss of power...

 

[radioguy]

Question: Is there a gauge I can get to show that my solar panels are currently producing power? I was thinking one of those momentary volt meters? Just something to help ensure that the solar panel is placed optimally.

 

[Ken]

volt meter

While I am not a big fan of wally world they do have a cool volt meter that a friend turned me onto. It plugs into a lighter receptacle and has a digital read out. Say around twenty bucks

 

[Paco T]

Hello,
I use the same voltmeter, if the solar panel is charging it will read over 13V up to 14V under no load. You can use the meter to optimize position on your solar panel.
As to the mounts on mine, I salvaged the tube mounts from old piece of equipment and the aluminum got it at a local hardware store.
You can also use SS hardware for biminis.
http://www.marinepartdepot.com/new316ststra2.html
this website has a bimini hardware section, free shipping. you can also look for them on ebay for good deals!.
As far as the connector goes, I used a battery connector to split the cable going from the panel to the controller. I feed the cable through the vent. The connector sits inside the boat to keep it from getting wet. I also place a bit of dielectric grease on the pins. You can get the grease at the auto store. It is used for spark plug connections.

 

[Paco T]

Pictures

Here are the pictures

 

[radioguy]

Hey guys!

For some reason I'm not too keen on mounting a solar panel off the stern rails. I may end up going that way, but I'd like to explore other options first.

I have two ideas and would like your input.

1. Mounting the solar panel on top of the fore hatch. A 5 watt panel would fit there very well, and it would get plenty of sun when the boat is docked. My questions would be: A. How to get the power cable into the boat interior (a cable clam perhaps?), and B. If the panel would get smashed every time you opened the hatch (I need to go test this out.)

2. I saw this on a boat at our local yacht club. They mounted a 5 watt panel on the starboard bulkhead. Forgive my terminology, it's the outside part of the bulkhead that separates the cockpit from the cabin. It fit very well. It would be fine for charging if that part of your boat faces the sun enough. My worries would be damaging it because that's also where my main halyard rests.

Thank you
RG

 

[Ken]

I think you will find the reason everyone mounts the panels aft is because that's where they receive the most sun. Shading the panel kills it's charging ability. Of course when in a slip your chosen spot would work great.

One could fab up one of the pole systems being sold fairly easily, or pony up the $$$ which would allow following of the sun.


Have you thought of having two disconnects?

 

[sinnettc]

Solar definitely works, especially if you get a big enough panel. We have a Sunsei 1500 kit (or older equivalent) that I paid a couple hundred bucks for 2 years ago (http://www.sunsei.com/SE-1500-Starter). It's rail mounted aft.

We just spent 7 days in the San Juan Islands and this panel more than met our needs. In addition to the chartplotter/depthsounder we charged 2 cell phones, 2 netbooks, one of the vhf radios, and my waterproof camera 3 times. I should mention that all of our lights, except the deck light and the v-berth light, have been converted to LED. The only time I was slightly worried was the first time I charged one of the netbooks - the draw was more than I expected but once it was charged the panel charged things back up quickly.