Solar or Wind

[maby]

How do you cope with a swinging mooring and solar? Surely, wherever you put the panels there is going to be quite a lot of the day when they are pointing in completely the wrong direction?

 

[NormanS]

Did you mean to say Solar?

Whoops! Yes of course I meant solar. Senior moment!

 

[NormanS]

How do you cope with a swinging mooring and solar? Surely, wherever you put the panels there is going to be quite a lot of the day when they are pointing in completely the wrong direction?

Mine is mounted almost flat on the coach roof, so never 100% efficient anyway. I don't get neurotic about it.

 

[Kelpie]

How do you cope with a swinging mooring and solar? Surely, wherever you put the panels there is going to be quite a lot of the day when they are pointing in completely the wrong direction?

On a swing mooring, all you need is to keep up with self discharge, so just mount the panel somewhere convenient and live with it. When cruising, you can manoeuvre the panel around to increase insolation (mine is bungeed to hooks on the coachroof, and I can readily remove it and prop it up with the boathook) to keep up with the obviously higher demand.

I had a friend whose head was nearly taken off by a poorly mounted wind turbine somewhere in the north sea, so I would tend to prefer solar myself...

 

[JumbleDuck]

How do you cope with a swinging mooring and solar? Surely, wherever you put the panels there is going to be quite a lot of the day when they are pointing in completely the wrong direction?

Mine point up. If they were more accurately oriented I could perhaps get away with fewer cells, or more toys, but I just covered the coachroof with as much as I could cram on and it all seems to work fine.

 

[jac]

Take a good look at the tech specs of individual wind gens if thinking seriously of this.

IIRC the 504 needs much more wind to start generating than the 913 which in turn needs more than the 914i. Compare that to the shelter in your mooring and the question will answer itself.

I found ( although i'm south coast based) that the likely wind speed would rarely be enough on the mooring to generate much and a 60W solar with MPPT controller was the route I went.

In some ways though it depends on your use. IF you make a lot of multi day passages then wind may be better - If there is insufficient wind to power the wind gen then you may be motoring and if you are reaching / beating then the apparent wind will help to power the wind gen.

If you spend a long time anchored somewhere in shelter from the prevailing wind then the wind gen may not often feel wind above it's minimum speed.

 

[Gerry]

Just came up in my inbox maybe of some use? http://www.sailingtoday.co.uk/gear/...torial Nov 2016&dm_i=6NM,4M5W5,E5S6GO,H64QU,1

 

[charles_reed]

I know this has been discussed in the past, but with technology changing so fast..perhaps worth a revisit.

If the boat (Moody 31) is kept on a summer mooring in W Scotland, what is the recommended power source for charging batteries at rest and running tiller pilot and nav equip, while underway.

I have 3 batteries, 2 110ah leisure, plus a start battery.

At the moment they are controlled by a 0 - 1 - 2 - 1+2 switch, which I will probably change out to the Blue Sea with auto charging diode. If I do that, the charging diode needs 13.2v to charge all the batteries, so pref would like to get that output from the charging source.

I was ideally looking at a Rutland 504, unless there's a better option.

You probably need both - though cost/kWH for solar is about 35% of that for wind generation. I've got 300+ watts of PV on my boat, which just meets liveaboard need. Your Rutland 504 is probably inadequate.

 

[NormanS]

On a swing mooring, all you need is to keep up with self discharge, so just mount the panel somewhere convenient and live with it. When cruising, you can manoeuvre the panel around to increase insolation (mine is bungeed to hooks on the coachroof, and I can readily remove it and prop it up with the boathook) to keep up with the obviously higher demand.

I had a friend whose head was nearly taken off by a poorly mounted wind turbine somewhere in the north sea, so I would tend to prefer solar myself...

I wouldn't condemn all wind generators just because someone somewhere did an unsafe installation.

 

[OldBawley]

We are full time liveboards ( on our own anchor ) and glad to have both wind and solar.
Wintering in Greece, had no sun for the last 4 days. Anyway, winter sun is very low and short.
Others would have to charge by generator, we have the two wind generators that provide all we need.
One of the windgen´s is a DIY big whopper ( 1,72m diameter ) that is able of providing power at low wind speeds.
If you have to buy : Solar (cheap ) and the biggest available windgen. ( expensive )