Solar advice

[Sailing newbie selsey]

Looking for recommendations for a solar panel kit, looking for around 50w semi flexible panel. Need it to keep my starter battery and house battery topped up while on a swing mooring. My starter battery is 85ah and my house battery is 105ah. I know I will need a controller with dual outputs to charge both batteries, does it need to be an mppt ?looking to do this a cheap as possible. Any recomrecommendations for suppliers please.

 

[Stemar]

I had a similar setup to what you want for years on my previous boat and had one of these controllers

EP Solar Duo-Battery Solar Charge Controller 12/24v 10A. £33.30

It isn't the most efficient money can buy, but it isn't a lot pf money, and it kept my batteries fully charged with 40w of panels.

If you want an MPPT dual battery controller, the only one I've come across is this one

30A Dual Battery 12v/24v MPPT charge Controller - EPever DuoRacer DR3210N-DDS - 100VOC PV - LCD Meter

I reckon it's a bit over the top for what you want, but I have one waiting to be installed on my new boat, along with 160w of panels.

One final thought. If you're installing solar, it makes sense to me to go for as much as you can comfortably fit on your boat; Panels are so cheap that I reckon space should be the limiting factor. It's a good feeling to be in a quiet anchorage, knowing that your panels are keeping up with your usage - even better if they can do it under sail. Rigid panels aren't as easy to fit, but tend to be more efficient and longer lasting than flexible ones

 

[PetiteFleur]

Look at Photonic Universe, they have a good selection of flexible panels and dual output controllers. Go for an etfe panel, some are stiffer than others but more expensive. Photonic Universe have a dual pwm controller to which you can vary the charge to each battery in 10% steps. Some dual controllers only give a trickle charge to the second battery. They give good service. For £154 you'll get a 60w etfe panel + dual battery controller. Fit as big a panel as you can fit.

 

[William_H]

The panel you buy should be entirely based on loation on the boat and mounting method. The bigger the better if you can accommodate it. MPPT are not so much more expensive than pulse width but I am not sure about dual output. I might be tempted to just charge the house battery and fit a schotke diode to to keep some charge to engine battery. ie about .3 volt less. I love my Victron 10A not expensive here at about 50 squid. ol'will

 

[ghostlymoron]

I've had several semi flex panels from Lensun which I got from eBay, no problems so far but I believe quality is rising and price falling. I use cheap eBay pwm controllers - £15 which haven't let me down yet although I'm not convinced they're PMW.