Any experience with the new high capacity 400W plus solar panels?

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by Zil

Do solar panels still work for those that don't believe science.

I'm sure it will operate for those. Even if they believe in global warming and a mountain of fictitious data. So even science fiction believers who are weather alarmists will benefit from using solar power on their boats. :-)

[model 10]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

I'm sure it will operate for those. Even if they believe in global warming and a mountain of fictitious data. So even science fiction believers who are weather alarmists will benefit from using solar power on their boats. :-)

They will have no choice. With rising sea levels extensive coastal flooding power plants will overheat and blow up. Extensive brownouts inland. Global warming too.

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by Guy

They will have no choice. With rising sea levels extensive coastal flooding power plants will overheat and blow up. Extensive brownouts inland. Global warming too.

Guy, I can't agree more. The best solution to global warming is to go boating and go green. Seems like a good sailboat with solar panels is the best refuge for the impending climate (hot or cold) doom that is going to strike us.

Now that I'm convinced on using the high capacity new panels that are a little larger than the less powerful alternatives I am now looking at the best as far as aesthetics for the boat regarding mounting options.

It bothers me no end that after buying a sailboat, catamaran to be more specific, and spending 100's of thousands one is left with the choice for mounting the panels on scaffolding that looks more at home on an offshore fishing runabout than on an expensive sailing craft. Don't get me wrong. Im not attacking the look of sport fishing boats. They are built to purpose. Its just that stainless steel scaffolding just doesn't look as attractive as it should on a designer sailboat.

What is surprising is that good and attractive looking design options are just not available. I would have thought since solar is now dare I say, a must have add on that the sailboat design teams don't come up with an attractive after market product. Let alone something that is well designed into their newer boats.

Lagoon is my boat of choice for good or bad. They have factory options now for solar to be added at the factory. But goodness gracious. What they offer as a solar solution is 5 year old panel technology thrown onto the back of the top of the cabin roof. Wouldn't you thing that they would put some design effort into creating a cabin roof extension that has built in max power wattage newest panel technology. My goodness if they exercised a little brain power they could have a product that would beat their competitors. Oh well. I suppose business these days isn't driven by obtaining competitive advantage through design as a way to increase market share. It is only companies like Apple that now how to do that.

[alctel]

Originally Posted by GoingWalkabout

Scientists are now saying we are entering a global cooling period becaus ed of the decrease in sun activity.

No they ain't. The sun is going through the start of a cycle where there is a decrease, on average, of solar energy. The overall temperature trend is still up.

I work with a bunch of climate scientists and we are utterly screwed, the timeframe depends on when the major feedback loops start kicking off. It could be 5 years, it could be 50, could be 100.

In solar panel stuff, those who made a hard bimini out of them, did you put canvas underneath? I'd be worried about damp and mold growing there

[model 10]

Originally Posted by Going Walkabout

What is surprising is that good and attractive looking design options are just not available. I would have thought since solar is now dare I say, a must have add on that the sailboat design teams don't come up with an attractive after market product. Let alone something that is well designed into their newer boats.
.

Have you seen those single accessory towers? They are sweet looking. I could see you having 2, one on each hull. They are made from a tapered AL pole/mast and look freestanding. The panel/s would mount on arms that adjust. I see them at boat shows. Somebody around here must have a name?

[GoingWalkabout]

Originally Posted by Guy

Have you seen those single accessory towers? They are sweet looking. I could see you having 2, one on each hull. They are made from a tapered AL pole/mast and look freestanding. The panel/s would mount on arms that adjust. I see them at boat shows. Somebody around here must have a name?

Thanks Guy. Hope someone can come up with a name or link.

Regards,
Chaya

[GoingWalkabout]

Looks like I'm getting close to my solution. I found an arch fabricator that will do custom designs. I'm going to hand draw some concepts and then give them to a paid by the hour product designer. I know it will cost a bit but for me it will be worth having a cool industrial designer (maybe a wiz kid who's worked on Italian car design - I'm not jocking) to come up with a 2 or 3 concepts that I will be able to choose from. I'm already getting pretty excited about how cool this is going to look. Hopefully will be a huge style improvement on the stern of the Lagoon cat.

http://www.trammarches.com There are others out there.

[Oceanflyer]

Hi there. My first action here ever and I am not sure if anyone will read it, as the post seems a bit old already. However I am upgrading my Solar system on Lagoon 440. Old installation included 10 panels all over the place and 7 of them are flexible ones. All dead after 2 years. 3 rigid Solara Glasspanels above the Davits, but too weak and also couple of years old already.

My plan is to install only 2 or 3 new generation strong panels above the Davits now. SunPower has very nice MAXEON 3 with 400 Watt. Inquired today about it, but they say warranty is void immediately when installed on a mobile rig. So 25 years warranty is only good for domestic installation... At least in Europe it seems. Or do I miss something? Any ideas someone ? I really like what I see with SunPower

[billknny]

Little or no warranty is typical for rigid panels sold into the mobile market. The manufacturer understands that they have very little control over the installation's quality and design, and an awful lot can go wrong.

Exhibit One: Your flexible panels. Even the crappiest panels last longer than 2 years. What went wrong???

[GordMay]

Greetings and belated welcome aboard the CF, Oceanflyer.

[Oceanflyer]

Thank you for your message �� I understand the manufacturers worries, but zero warranty is very little.

@Flexible Panels: I don’t Even know the make, but first the surface started to become kind of blind. Not dark anymore but faded. Some started to produce bubbles underneath and some even showed water �� behind the plastic coating.
The kill some though was maintenance guys not taking care and dropping things and even tools onto them. Of course, you see the damage only much later and not immediately �� So not all damage is manufacturing problem, but at least some of them should still work. Last years testing was very unsatisfactory and I disconnected the whole assembly. I figure they were cheap ones and didn’t even like to being walked on.

[Nahbrown]

Originally Posted by Oceanflyer

Hi there. My first action here ever and I am not sure if anyone will read it, as the post seems a bit old already. However I am upgrading my Solar system on Lagoon 440. Old installation included 10 panels all over the place and 7 of them are flexible ones. All dead after 2 years. 3 rigid Solara Glasspanels above the Davits, but too weak and also couple of years old already.

My plan is to install only 2 or 3 new generation strong panels above the Davits now. SunPower has very nice MAXEON 3 with 400 Watt. Inquired today about it, but they say warranty is void immediately when installed on a mobile rig. So 25 years warranty is only good for domestic installation... At least in Europe it seems. Or do I miss something? Any ideas someone ? I really like what I see with SunPower

Did you come up with anything new? I have a 2005 L440 and want to add a couple strong panels.

[2020]

Originally Posted by Zil

Do solar panels still work for those that don't believe science.

yes it does, but not in metric. They only work in the United States customary units. Modern American solar panel outputs are measured in Watt-the's.

[chrisr]

imho the key to solar is
(a) use a good brand. cheap is not cheap if it doesn't last
(b) use whatever size panels you need to do to fill the maximum space you have available. to me it's clear that 5 x 150w panels will output more than 2 x 300w panels. no rocket science involved. mix n match panel size to fill the area

cheers,

[socaldmax]

Keep in mind that you must have different solar controllers for different sized panels. The 150 watt panels should be connected to one solar controller, while the 300 watt panels are connected to a different controller. Also, you can never exceed the max. input PV voltage and that's based on the Voc.

Since most solar panels do not produce the same power that they did under STC, a good rule of thumb is they will produce 75% to 80% of rated watts. Due to this, it's quite common for people to put on more panels than the controller is rated for. The general rule of thumb is 300w will need a 20A controller, so if you use a 327w or 345w Sunpower panel, you'll get a lot closer to 20A than the 16 or 17A that a 300w panel will provide in real world conditions.

Sunpower panels are very high quality and generally produce more power, closer to their rated power, than other brands. They will also produce more power than others when partially shaded due to their design. There are a number of YT videos proving it.

What I would suggest is instead of buying brand new Sunpower 400 or 425w panels, see if you can find some of the used Sunpower 327 or 345w panels. There's a distributor in Phoenix, AZ who sells used 327w panels for about $100 ea. They still produce full power since they're just a few yrs old. No, they don't come with a warranty, but they test them all before shipping and the new SP panels don't have a warranty if used on a boat, so buying new ones for top dollar seems like a big waste of money. I've bought 40 of the used panels and shipping was a flat rate, regardless the number of panels. All of the panels put out rated power or within a couple of watts.

The distributor is Santan Solar, if you do a Google search, you'll see that they're still selling them for $100 ea. Since I bought 40, shipping was only $200, IIRC. That's only $5 per panel.