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thinwater · 25-10-2011, 13:20

Solar Consumer Reporting - Solar Failures

There's not a lot on the web on the subject... except about Solyndra's failure.

sck5 · 25-10-2011, 13:23

When I had mine installed I asked the guy who spends half his working life installing solar panels which were the best. He said the actual solar cells were pretty much the same on any of the major brands and that there were some differences in frames and junction boxes but not actually all that much as they really arent very complicated things. I ended up with some Sharp 80 watt panels and have been very! happy with them. So far they survived a season of cruising in the Caribbean and a passage back to Chesapeake Bay. I did follow the advice I got to get a no-messing-around solid mounting frame so they can't flex at all.
Cheap stainless fabricators in Rodney Bay! very happy with their work.

impi · 25-10-2011, 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by SV Demeter

I looked at Kyoceras and could not find them in a frame size I needed to work on my boat. Also the price was substantially higher than these UL solar panels. Im not going to bad mouth Kyoceras though as everyone on this board swears by them. I only wish I could have found 100 watt Kyoceras in a 40 x 26 frame. Wow 50 amps huh? What size panels are you running?

Yeah we also hoped to have smaller panels with big output. What was important to me was to have panels that lost minimal power when partly having a shadow cast on them !!!
Our panels are kyoceras 135 and we have 5 of them. The controller (bluesky) apparently makes a huge difference and we also wired them with good quality THICK cables.
Kent recommended we don't skimp on cost of cables and connections. Also ver important - we kept the cables as short as possible.

NorthPacific · 24-02-2012, 18:03

Just a word to the good. Some of these Chinese cheap types, actually produce quality stuff and since they depend on their export trade they stand behind their warrantee. The Net can make or break any company today.

The Big name brands produce good kit, and charge for the name, but be aware of the notion that asia only produce poor kit. The little machine you are using now was made in.............

I bought my panels after researching the company. I can wreck 2 and still be ahead of buying from West marine. My boat is not a Rolls but it gets me about alot.

Nicholson58 · 24-02-2012, 18:23

I found most panels we see at 11 to 12 % panel efficiency. I found one maker, Sanyo making HIT-220 (even larger in Europe) with panel efficiency of 18%. That gives a 220 watt rating to a panel 31 x 61 inches. Three just arrived today. I also bought Morningstar Tristar MPPT 45 amp charge controller rated very good in user friendliness (programming) and one of the lowest in parasitic losses. Morningstar Corporation » TriStar MPPT I had originally settled on Blue Sky but was a bit put-off by the complexity of the instructions. For my unit, I would need to set up pots with a VTVM meter. Yuck. In the end, the Morningstar was less than the Blue Sky - simple choice.

We will also add two battery monitors TM2025RV from Bogart Engineering, one for each bank.

Good advice I noticed above regarding LARGE conductors. Whatever they say, go way up. I followed this long and tedious series of postings (hours) but found a few gems I could use. https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/ Probably #6 or larger wire is a cheap performance enhancer for most systems.

NorthPacific · 24-02-2012, 18:55

Not sure if this is good specs or not.
http://www.ramsond.com/solar-panels/...heet-SP100.pdf

Company called Ramsond. May be useful for those on small budget. At $180? well what the hell!

SV Demeter · 27-02-2012, 08:47

Just an update on the UL Solar panels that I started this thread on. I finally installed (4) of the 100 watt panels on my boat on articulating mounts on my railing. The photos below show the panel set up but the railing wasnt finished. I have them wired in a series/parallel set up with the two on each side in series. Saturday was mostly sunny but with a few big clouds quickly moving through. In the bright sunlight with the panels up but not aimed at all I was seeing 25amps coming out of the Outback Flexmaxx 60 controller. Im very happy with these panels so far and they appear to be made well but time will tell. I paid $245 each for the panels from the maunfacturers website.

SV Demeter · 27-02-2012, 09:27

Here's a few more shots of the panels installed. Also one of the mounting arm that allows the panels to be tilted. Yes Nattie Boe was a key material in this effort.

Nicholson58 · 27-02-2012, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by SV Demeter

Here's a few more shots of the panels installed. Also one of the mounting arm that allows the panels to be tilted. Yes Nattie Boe was a key material in this effort.

WOW! that's great. What a HUGE open area you have to work with. I can't even figure where to put the dinghy. How does the amp feed look?

SV Demeter · 27-02-2012, 19:43

I'm not sure what you mean by the amp feed? I'm using an outback charge controller. It's their flexmax 60. The panels are wired in series on each side then paralleled together at the controller.

SV Demeter · 27-02-2012, 19:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by SV Demeter

I'm not sure what you mean by the amp feed? I'm using an outback charge controller. It's their flexmax 60. The panels are wired in series on each side then paralleled together at the controller.

Also there is a mizzen mast normally back there...

Nicholson58 · 28-02-2012, 16:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by SV Demeter

I'm not sure what you mean by the amp feed? I'm using an outback charge controller. It's their flexmax 60. The panels are wired in series on each side then paralleled together at the controller.

I was wondering what power you were generating?

SV Demeter · 28-02-2012, 16:10

So far without a tweaking or aiming of the panels I was getting 25amps output to the batteries. I haven't had a chance to use them over any length of time yet.