Mahe 36: Solar Panels and Associated Systems

[lstyles]

Sounds good. I plan on ditching the old batteries and starting fresh with a new set when I change them out. Hope to get up to about 500 Amps. I dont have the charger on my boat so I cant adequately charge the calcium batteries with just engine alone. How do you anticipate adding three more batteries below the others?
Sorry for all the questions but you are the forum guinea pig when it comes to mods!
Lori

[Cotemar]

Lori

I plan on adding a marine plywood shelf or two just below the autopilot shelf in the port engine compartment.
Their is room there and I want to keep the 4/0 battery cables from the three new batteries very short to connect to the existing 3 house batteries.

Mark

[Edmund]

Mark

I would worry a bit about the extra weight on your port stern. My boat has the std 3 port batteries set up, but I need to have full fueltank to balance the boat. If not, the port stern is always a bit lower than the starboard stern. An extra 150-200 kg on the port side stern would make things even worse, at least on my boat.

Do anyone know where FP put the optional extra 300 Ah?

[Cotemar]

Edmund,

My boat is just the opposite of yours riding a bit low on the Stb. side.

With the fuel tank and dingy engine on the Stb. side.

By adding 3 more batteries to my port engine room she will ride perfectly even.

You would never put extra batteries to far from the original three as this would make your power cables very large.

Mark

[phillw]

Hi Mark,

Looks like a good setup and i will keep the info you have provided for future use by me. Just one query though. I just went to the Sunpower website and read the warranty and noticed that the warranty of the panels is void if in Sunpowers opinion the panels have come into direct contact with salt water. I am in the process of building a boat and plan to fit solar panels. My question is, do any solar panel manufacturers offer warranties for marine use or do cruisers just have to live with the fact that no manufacturers will provide warranties in our environment?

Phil

[Cotemar]

Phil

Solar panels last for 25 years. No companies do marine environment life testing, because it’s to expensive and the market is very small, so they do not warranty for this use.

The Sunpower panels must be pretty good if the World's Largest Solar Powered Boat the Global Voyage Slated for 2011 uses 38,000 of them.
They use Sun Power photovoltaic cells harvesting sunlight at about 22 percent efficiency.

World's Largest Solar Powered Boat Unveiled, Global Voyage Slated for 2011

Mark

[bootini]

Hello Mark,

Congratulations for your solar panels. They seem very good. If it is possible can you add some pictures about your wiring system from panels to the charger and especially connecting the charger to the batteries. Our battery banks are not very easy to access.

Thank You

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by Wayward Wind

Jef, the modifications were made by our local FP distributors, EC Marine, here in Australia. They came up with the concept, which I really liked and went along with.
JC, I have attached a broader view of the solid SS rail. It is really useful as it holds the BBQ and solar panels. I can attach my rod holder(s) to it. Also, it seems to provide greater safety astern in that we are holding on to a solid ss rail.

Cheers!

John

How do you find accessing the tender on the davits with this arangement?

TwT

[Kipper]

Here's three Kyocera 185W panels mounted.

Sadly it will be a few weeks before I can install the controller and wire everything up but I think this will keep me charged up, at least in the Bahamas.

[Cotemar]

Kipper

555 watts NICE, very NICE.

I have been using 460 watts all summer and it has worked so well that I brought my Honda 2000 generator home before the gas went bad.

You will love it.

Welcome to our Mahe club. I have not seen a post from you before.
Is your Mahe new ?

Mark

[Kipper]

Hi Cotemar,

I'm Hull number 56 so she's a 2007 / 2008 model.

Glad to hear 460W have kept you fully powered I was originally thinking of adding a couple of wind generators but every time I ran the numbers it looked like 555W would be more than enough at anchor and would be pretty close underway so I bought a couple of Kayaks instead

Time will tell I suppose but hopefully the solar panels will cover my needs and I keep thinking a towed generator might be a better solution for passages if I need more power.

I wish I could have sourced a couple of the new Sunpower 315W panels, they would have taken less space, lower overall weight and of course more power. But I couldn't find anyone who would sell me just the panels and they're very expensive panels.


Mike.

[thomwessels]

I put a wind gen on to augment the 4 51W panels. Works great at night!
We've got some older Kyocera 51W panels on our tri, and one got smashed by a mast falling on it (another post). Anyone know where I could find an older Kyocera 51 watt panel?
Thanx.
Thom Wessels
CROSSROADS
Horstman 39' trimaran

[anthony motley]

Hi Mark, About to install solar panels on davits, wondered if you would be prepared to send me the plans you used, we have a Lagoon 380 but would like to adapt your system using 2 x 220's

Thanking you in advance
s/v Lagoon 380 #533 (still working on the name)

[longislandsail]

Hi All,
Just got started on mounting my 2 sunpower 230 watt panels. I did the frame work install yesterday. Tryed to get the panels installed also but wind was blowing 45 kts. Got the frame work done by Mystic Stainless in Conn. Cost was $850.00. Because I am putting 2 panels on the davits I did not go with the adjustable frame like Mark did because of weight. I did install the frame at a 5 degree angle so water will not sit on the panel and the sun is never directly above. Install took about 3 1/2 hrs but went well and very strong. Will add more pics when panels are installed. Will also post pics when wiring is complete. I have a 400 amps house bank now and hope to go to 500 by launch. I am installing a stand alone freezer as well thats why I would like to have 500 amps battery.
Al

If any one has questions about the frame or install please let me know I will try to answer all.
Al

[longislandsail]

Hello All
Got the solar panels mounted on Sat. with the help of Mark. Went on with no problem and look really great. Can't wait to hook them up. Also installed the Blue Sky controller in its location on the port side eng. compartment. The pics below will show all. Also you can see where I installed the 4th battery. Mounting this way all my electrical runs will be minimum.