Solar panel on swinging mooring...thoughts

[ghostlymoron]

I'm not disputing the effect of pointing the panels towards the sun or of shading but merely suggesting that one can generate enough power by increasing the area of panel rather than fiddling with the angle of dangle every few hours. I understand that modern panels lose less from partial slight shading than older ones

Take a clamp meter next time maybe if you don't have a victron blue solar, then have a play and you'll see tilting solar towards the sun significantly increases power output. What some boats on youtube have doesn't actually change the laws of physics. Then your choice.

 

[Graham376]

I've cruised quite a bit but not been a full-time liveaboard.

There's a big difference. When we were UK mooring based and using the boat mainly at weekends plus a few weeks summer holiday cruising, we managed well with just a 25w panel to top the batteries up during the week. In common with most owners, on summer holiday cruises we were often in marinas so could plug in and of course the engine was running frequently.

We're still mooring based and like to anchor most of the time but boat use is very different. This summer, we've had temperatures down below of 36 degrees at times, with the fridge 24/7 drawing 7 amps, cooling fans, computers, TV etc. without having to (or being able to most of the time) use shore power. We're not full time liveaboards only using the boat full time for around 6/12 but, adding the time together for the last 12 years, have lived on board for 6 years and like to do it in more comfort than when just weekend sailing. Since fitting the larger panels (320w) last January, we haven't had to use the mains battery charger or generator even once.

I would suggest that anyone (particularly those heading for retirement) installing solar should be looking at their possible future use of the boat as it's cheaper in the long run to fit larger panels and controller now than uprate later. If gantry mounted, it's very easy to make them tilt fore and aft which will at times produce far better output.

 

[GHA]

I'm not disputing the effect of pointing the panels towards the sun or of shading but merely suggesting that one can generate enough power by increasing the area of panel rather than fiddling with the angle of dangle every few hours. I understand that modern panels lose less from partial slight shading than older ones

Often physically not an option for full time onboard - where you going to put them? , unattended boat out on a mooring not really a problem though, leave em flat.