Solar Panels

[petem]

Think you need to get an inverter for the tv !

Even I've got one of those .

 

[Hurricane]

Think you need to get an inverter for the tv !

Yep.
The saloon TV and all our entertainment kit runs off an inverter.
But the TV in the bedroom doesn't.
Never really used it before whilst at anchor but SWMBO wanted to catch up on Poldark and we had already gone to bed.

 

[Eren]

Inspiring from this thread, today I ordered 4x250W Austrian made DAS solar panels. I will connect them through Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50. I will have the panels placed on the bimini. I expect to have around 6 kWh per summer day from the set. I am not very sure about my boat's daily electric energy spenditure but I expect it to be around 8-9 kWh. I am very excited to see the results. I will share them once the system gets running.

 

[Bouba]

Can anybody tell me how hot the panels get in the hot part of a summers day in the SoF, especially roll up panels?

 

[Hurricane]

Inspiring from this thread, today I ordered 4x250W Austrian made DAS solar panels. I will connect them through Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50. I will have the panels placed on the bimini. I expect to have around 6 kWh per summer day from the set. I am not very sure about my boat's daily electric energy spenditure but I expect it to be around 8-9 kWh. I am very excited to see the results. I will share them once the system gets running.

Last summer, we were getting between 3.5 and 4 kwh per day for 4 x 150w (600w) panels so 6kwh isn't unreasonable to expect.
I used the Victron 150/35 which is smaller than the one you have chosen - the one you have selected seems ok to me.
Don't forget to get the Bluetooth dongle so that you can monitor how much is harvested.

Are you going to wire them in series (thats what I would do).
Just a design point - if you read the Victron Manuals, you will see that the voltage generated by the panels must be at least 5v more than the battery voltage before the Victron MPPT controller will start.
You need to check the panel voltage - mine are about 18v - so two panels in series would produce about 36v - the battery bank could be as much as 28/29v - 29 + 5v is too close to 36v for comfort so I put all my panels in series to get 72v which is well above the limit for the Victron controller to start.
Also, the higher voltage between the panels and the MPPT means smaller wires.

This is a useful page to calculate the wire sizes.
http://www.solar-wind.co.uk/cable-sizing-DC-cables.html
I "plugged in" an acceptable loss of 1% and the appropriate voltage and current to get the wire size.
Did this for both the wires between the panels and the MPPT and the wires between the MPPT and the batteries.
It seemed to work for me.

I also isolated/fused (using MCBs in fact) at several places - above the headlining (under the panels) - either side of the MPPT and just before the batteries.
Remember, these things are live all the time!!

Good luck
Please let us know how you get on - with pics if possible.

 

[Eren]

Frankly speaking, I made much use of the valuable info that you provided at this thread. Thanks a lot for that.

Open circuit voltage of the panels that I bought is 37 volts. I plan to connect two in series and then the other pair in parallel. So the voltage will be around 74 V. I checked for the cable thickness from the link that you have provided. It comes out to be 16 mm. I have to plan for circuit breakers now.

Last summer I was using generator for 7-8 hours everyday. It is noise, vibration, fuel consumption, etc. I didn't like it at all. With this system I dream to pass the day with 1-2 hours of generator use, or may be even less. I will place the panels on the bimini. As it is a very good place with straight up angle + no shadow, I expect for a quite high performance. Here, there is very good workmanship for panel installation on bimini:



So I will be waiting for the results now!