Velcro for solar panels?

[MarcJ]

Just about to glue some "industrial strength" velcro strips to my new 40W semi flexible solar panel. It is to go under the boom between the rails on the cabin roof.

Having gotten ready with the glue I've chickened out! Has anyone just used velcro to fix a solar panel, admittedly only a smallish one. I'm already thinking I better drill a hole in the rail to put a fail safe cord to it, "just in case". I don't really want to glue it directly to the roof as I may want to remove it when leaving the boat.

I'd intended to padlock it to something secure when we're not around.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cardo]

We have a 100w panel velcro'd onto our bimini. Though the velcro is top and bottom, so very secure.

I would imagine velcro would easily hold a panel onto the deck, as long as the velcro is properly secured to the deck.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Just about to glue some "industrial strength" velcro strips to my new 40W semi flexible solar panel. It is to go under the boom between the rails on the cabin roof.

I'm in the process of working out how to fit two solar panels to my boat; one to the hatch garage and one to the coachroof. Velcro is currently leading the field.

 

[Rigger Mortice]

Will velcro hold it firm when the wind pipes up or you are ploughing into some big seas?

 

[Cardo]

Will velcro hold it firm when the wind pipes up or you are ploughing into some big seas?

1" wide velcro, all around the panel will hold surprisingly well.

 

[MarcJ]

The velcro I've got is 2 inches across - I happen to have some Serious Stuff glue which I was going to use. As long as the glue holds I think it will be ok. Should be enough clearance to get a shackle through one corner as a fail safe.

Thanks for the comments so far - the glue is at the ready!

 

[DaveRo]

We have a flexible panel velcro'd to the bimini
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7544154@N07/5712394330/in/photostream/
It's tied on too. The velcro is 2" wide, stuck on the panel and sewn onto the bimini.
We remove it if we take the bimini down and it's quite hard to peel off.

 

[nigelmercier]

Will velcro hold it firm when the wind pipes up or you are ploughing into some big seas?

No, but this will: http://amzn.to/1eMrqS9

 

[bigwow]

No, but this will: http://amzn.to/1eMrqS9

+1
It's like Velcro on steroids!

 

[VicS]

Just about to glue some "industrial strength" velcro strips to my new 40W semi flexible solar panel. It is to go under the boom between the rails on the cabin roof.

Having gotten ready with the glue I've chickened out! Has anyone just used velcro to fix a solar panel, admittedly only a smallish one. I'm already thinking I better drill a hole in the rail to put a fail safe cord to it, "just in case". I don't really want to glue it directly to the roof as I may want to remove it when leaving the boat.

I'd intended to padlock it to something secure when we're not around.

Any thoughts?

I think you will actually have trouble removing a semiflexible panel. A flexible one might peel off but a semiflexible one if its like mine is not much more than a slightly bendable rigid panel.

FWIW my semiflexible panel is screwed down. Machine screws into tapped holes in the GRP ( to make installation easy) and nuts inside so that it cannot be removed ( nicked) without access to the inside

 

[KAM]

Any problem with water getting underneath and staying there.

 

[nigelmercier]

... http://amzn.to/1eMrqS9

+1 It's like Velcro on steroids!

And then some. At present it is holding up (all onto vertical bulkheads):
Four shore powered battery chargers, a large chart in a picture frame, and a Wi-Fi router.

 

[MarcJ]

Thanks Nigel,
Sods law dictated that I had just pressed the "confirm payment" button on some velcro just before I saw you original comment! So will see how I get on with that first.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Don't bother with the 'selfadhesive' velcro, it won't work! But an adhesive as mentioned should be ok. I tried the self adhesive velcro to fix the back cushions to the woodwork - it worked initially but then peeled off.

 

[nigelmercier]

Don't bother with the 'selfadhesive' velcro, it won't work! ...

The Heavy Duty Velcro isn't bad, OK for cushions and the like. However, it doesn't hold the item firmly, there is always several mm of sideways movement. As a result the item can get enough inertia to pull off. I once used it to try to fix a very small 4-port USB hub to the top of the chart table, but it was forever sliding about. I certainly wouldn't risk it for holding a PV panel.

 

[William_H]

Velcro can be very strong. Much depends on the area of velcro attachment. As said usually it is the adhesive that fails. Also as said security fromn theft may be a priority.
Mostly I would say yes it will be fine. good luck olewill

 

[Otter]

As an aside, photos show lots of shadow lines in that location, when they're on the panel they will reduce the actual charge to near zero.

 

[rob2]

There are many Velcro principle materials with varying strength of attachment. My friend attached a small microphone to his accordion with some "industrial strength" and we couldn't get the velcro to let go - at all! Broke the microphone before it would give... I doubt a semi-flexible panel would fare better!

Rob.

 

[JumbleDuck]

As an aside, photos show lots of shadow lines in that location, when they're on the panel they will reduce the actual charge to near zero.

I've been doing some experiments with one of the panels I'll be fitting soon, and it's not quite that bad. The individual cells are wired in series to get the volts and these series are then wired in parallel to get the amps.

A shadow in the "series" direction simply cuts back the current available, more-or-less proportionally. A substantial shadow in the "parallel" direction - across the panel rather than along it - does block the output, but only if it lies across all the cells in one row and blocks them all substantially. Overall, therefore, the panel can cope with thin shadows across it and with thick shadows along it. I wouldn't expect the shadows shown in the original post to cause much problem.