13 w folding solar panel - is this a waste of £89

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
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I have a 10w Maplins special screwed to the hatch garage on Alex, feeds into a Maplins regulator/controller/splitter thingy (£20). Two batts, one 85amp leisure and a 65amp car battery. Two years now and both batteries always charged, no probs. Alex has a 1GM10 though so alternator charging is good. Point is that Maplins stuff is cheap but in my experiance seems to work OK.
 
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I used exactly one of these and it lasted a couple of years. They are not completely watertight and the water eventually gets into the edges of the solar panels and into where the wires run, stopping it from working. It did work quite well over most of that time. I just left it propped at 45 degrees on the cockpit floor and ran the wire under the locker lid to the battery using crocodile clips when the boat was left.

I took it apart when it started to show signs of damage to see how it was put together and you could probably do that and squirt silicone sealer all round the frame edges when new to better seal it up.

I now use a 'proper' fully weatherproof 10W panel and a waterproof two pin connector to go through the bulkhead to wire it up so its removeable. It was not that much more expensive and has outlasted the fold up one. Its not as bulky either.
 
dylanwinter said:
I came across this

http://www.towsure.com/product/Fold_Up_Portable_Briefcase_Solar_Panel_13_Watt

is this a waste of time

I have the outboard charger which delivers 5 amps

I want something that I can leave in the cockpit when I am off the boat

I plan to have two car batteries on the boat

I usually sail three days every ywo weeks

anyone got any experience of these things

Dylan

PS just found similar in maplins for £49

http://www.maplin.co.uk/13w-solar-briefcase-99760[/SIZE]
Click to expand...


The answer to your question has to be as always to this type of question.

Calculate your total power consumption in amp-hours by multiplying the current, in amps, for every item by the number of hours it will typically be in use in say a 24 hour period.

Add them all together to get the total.

Size your battery bank so that it is at least double this . Double to ensure that you don't normally run the battery below half charged.

Now take the manufacturers figures for the solar panel and calculate from the "typical" output and the number of hours you will be able to deploy it usefully how much power, in amp hours, you will get in a day. If you get more than you use the system is a goer.

Personally I would, in fact have fitted a solar panel permanently. It is always working when ever there is enough light for it, whatever I am doing and whether or not I am on board.

I find the outboards contribution is best ignored. With experience and/or some measurements you will discover if your outboard makes any worthwhile contribution that can be taken into account, or just accepted as an ocassion small bonus.
 
On our previous boat (Hunter Delta) also outboard powered we had a 85ah battery and a 10W solar panel, I never bothered to connect up the outboard for its measly output to the battery. We successfully managed long weekends on board and 2 weeks away. The weeks away we used to charge up with a battery charger on average once a week from marina mains. Wesometimes borrowed a 30W flexible panel no extra charging required. Ran this configuration for 5 years and would recon it’s very similar to what you could do on your boat, simple and hassel free.
 
I have a 15w Maplin panel and Maplin regulator. Its left connect to the 95ah battery permenantly. Even with my use of interior lights (incandesant) VHF plotter and sounder I've bnot yet suffered a flat battery. Chec ked it last weekend with a volt meter and it read 13.6 volts after a nights use.
The panel I got hold of said it was waterproof and designed for permanet installation. Fairy pleased with the way its worked out. The panel sits behind the tiller on the stern locker lid, so its out of the way of feet. It is glass though, I woulld have prefered a flexble panel but couldn't afford the one I wanted at the time. But then being a "marine" item it was carrying a "marine" price tag at 3 times the Maplin panel. You pays your money etc.........
 
IMHO Maplins and Towshure you get what you pay for...

I would wait and see how you get on you could always buy similar to this as back up.

Or take a battery home to charge each time.
 
righto

think I am going to try one

I think I could bungee it under the forward hatch when I am not on the boat

should catch a fair amount of light there

and then fold it up and get it out of the way when I am in residence

D
 
I have one of the Maplins 13w ones.
I keep it under the spray hood so this must reduce its output somewhat.
Theoretically of course it will deliver a maximum of about 1 Amp when going full chat.
All I can confirm is that in average conditions I manged to blow the fuse of my cheapo multimeter. It can only manage 200ma , so I can confirm it was at least that.
My main power user is my waeco cf18 fridge. This uses 3A when running but only runs for about 10mins per hour. I keep it on a low setting. So I reckon in 6hrs it will use about 3AH or say 6AH per day (don't use it at night unless it's really hot)
I only have one 100AH battery.

Seems to manage OK , provided we get some sun!
 
Dylan,

I think that panel will be fine as a supplement when you're not on board - or not doing much - but you'll need at least one 30W panel, obviously the biggest and most of them you can possibly have, with filming in mind.

I'd reckon a 30W semi-flexible job about £250 from Seateach, and another £30ish for a regulator, then at least £100 for a battery monitor.
 
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