Solar panels

D

dutch123

New member
Anyone mount a solar panel setup on their 22 cruiser that they care to tell us about? I'm looking at putting a panel on either side of the handrail on the cabin and being limited for space 40 watts output Is about max for the size of panel I would like to use, is it worth the hasle and expense?
 
Another location to consider if you have a radar arch is to mount it horizontally on and above the arch using four legs of equal length. I plan to move mine to that position soon. It will actually be floating above the radar dome and is a 30watt polycrystaline panel running through a Sunguard 4.5amp charge controller to our house bank or dinghy battery. It really make a difference for anchoring or charging while moored to a bouy and basically offsets our use of the fridge in moderate temps. It is worth the effort of you have off-grid charging needs or anchoring habits and a fondness for power. I would consider the battery or battery bank size in choosing the size of your panel and consider something over 20 watts for sure. Much less than 20 will have a hard time with anything more than a maintenance charging task and if you have a group 27, 85 AH battery or larger, that is discharged down to 60% and you put a 5-10 watt panel on it, the panel will not push enough power to effectively re-charge the battery. I would generally consider anything less than 15watts to be a charge maintainer and panels of 30+ to be capable of recharging batteries typical of our boats.

Figure roughly 5 watts per 100AH of battery capacity for floating/maintenance purposes only. And work up from there...

There is enough "equipment" load on our boat that our 30 watt panel can not quite maintain all 370AH on board unless if I leave the house switch on and let those little loads add up coupled with cloudy weather. So switching off the house loads is required for a safe charging/maintenance margin at 12+watts per 100AH to be maintained.
 
If one built a rigid cockpit cover (rather than canvas), the entire cover could be available for farming solar panels.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
TomCat_3_06_005.sized.jpg

An old pic of the solar panels on Discovery. There are now 6 panels, for a total of 90 watts. Dedicated to the Norcold Refer. and a Waeco Freezer. Charges 3 group 27 wet cell batteries.

Brent
 
Thanks for the info, looks like I have some planing to do before I spend any money. Ideally I would like to build a tilt mount to get optimum sun exposure. Looks like it's going to be a winter project.
 
We have one 20W panel dedicated to the two group 24 house batteries. It has worked flawlessly until I checked yesterday and found both batteries completely discharged. On checking the panel lost all power somewhere in between the sunforce 7W controller and the batteries and shows an odd reading on my digital voltmeter. I contacted the manufacturer today and will keep you up to date.
 
More spam - this time courtesy of the get solar for less website domain owned by
roy gavra
2549 Maitland crossing way
apt 11207
Orlando, Florida 32810
United States
 
An update on the problems with our 20W panel. Haven't heard a word from the MFR (HQRP) but with a little more research the problem appears to be in the controller. The panel has been putting out expected voltage/amperage for the last several days but the voltage drops to the weird (1) figure off to the left on my digital voltmeter as soon as I measure beyond the controller. I'll contact the controller MFR (Sunforce) today.
 
Yet another update :roll: I checked the panel output a moment ago, just the panel, not through the controller, and it shows 16-19V for a few seconds and then drops to what looks like a 1 two decimal points to the left of zero. I'm stumped and will continue trying to get the MFR. It looks like the controller may be OK. :amgry
 
If you're just looking for battery maintenance/trickle charging, what's the most wattage solar panel you can have for a given ah battery without a voltage regulator?
 
You need to get in touch with the "Molly J" as Andy has mounted solar panels on his 25" CD. He can give you all the details needed. Good luck, Doug
 
Texas could be the first place where most of the people using the solar panel after new jersy. My cousin sister living in there just got this 1000watt solar panel for heating and electricity purpose and now she is managing to save around 45% of bill and gas..
 
georgesymond121":3jtonxk3 said:
Texas could be the first place where most of the people using the solar panel after new jersy. My cousin sister living in there just got this 1000watt solar panel for heating and electricity purpose and now she is managing to save around 45% of bill and gas..
Click to expand...

SPAM and my WOT Web of Trust blocks this site as having a poor reputation.
 
Back
Top