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Solar Panel Location

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britinusa
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Response Posted - 04/04/2008 : 20:54:37

Update:

Panel frame complete, with lifting telescopic pole.

I ended up buying a general purpose aluminum telescopic pole from West Marine. It has a butterfly bolt that sets the length.

Out of the box the butterfly bold would put a ding in the inner tube each time you secure the length, not nice. I filed a flat on the inside of the plastic coupling in which the butterfly bolt is threaded, then inserted a piece of plastic that seperates the bolt from the inner tube and eliminates the scuffing.

A bimini end fitting for each end of the tube, one glued in with 5200 the other (smaller tube) inserted under duress by heating the tube with a blow torch till it was hot enough to melt the plastic of the bimini fitting.

Right now the frame has a bead of black silicone on the surfaces that the solar panel mount on, it's to act as a bit of a shock absorber and stop any potential rattling.

Will set it all up Saturday.

Solar ..... it's FREE!!! (but you have to pay for it!)
Panel + controller $425, Frame $22, pole $42 nuts-n-bolts not sure, had most of them in my goody box.

Paul

Edited by - on

Steve Blackburn
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Response Posted - 04/06/2008 : 02:55:02

Sounds great, could I see pictures please?

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britinusa
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Response Posted - 04/07/2008 : 23:48:32

Looks like the pole is not the winner. The length required to rotate the panel from vertical pointing aft to vertical pointing fwd and the issue with the clamp on the lower part of the mast support pole is causing me grief. It looks like I'm going back to the articulated arm.

Today was the first day that the panel was in place (jury rigged the telecoping pole) and the sun showed up. The panel angle is pretty critical, 20degrees off nominal and the amps from the panel drop to not a lot, rotating the panel to face the sun instantly raises the amps to 1.6 and that was with the clouds from last nights storm still hanging around.

The regulator seems to work a treat. The digital display cycles through Battery V, Solar Amps, Load Amps every few seconds. Handy dandy way to view the individual loads- lamps, fan, vhf etc. We will be giving it a good work up this weekend. I'll make the new arms tomorrow. I have to be at home for the day, so might as well get some of the loading done for the weekend.

Paul

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OLarryR
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Response Posted - 04/08/2008 : 05:38:37

Paul,

Not sure if this is any help - maybe a swivel on the lower support bracket and utilizing a hose clamp(s) or a wire clamp (as shown w/rubber sleeve on upper support) on one or both ends will give enough movement in all directions. I used the telescopic tubes drilling holes thru the tubes for a positive lock. My concern with twisting locks is that it may possibly come loose in heavy winds, though, the twist locks on the poles I have seen in these postings seems certainly robust enough but perhaps then your mounting supports do not have the pivoting you need when setting the panel at an angle. When i used the telescopic poles, the mounts I have were with self-locking nuts, so they are not real tight and that combined with those plastic white support mounts I bought at West marine provides me enough pivoting for all angles.

Edited by - OLarryR on 04/08/2008 05:42:13

britinusa
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Response Posted - 04/09/2008 : 06:09:42

Thanks Larry.

The project is ready for sea trials!
For now I have kept the telescopic pole. I mounted the lower end to the mast support outer pole using a pice of angle and velcro. Certainly strong enough for seatrials.

The panel has been in place for a couple of days now and the batteries are fully charged. However, there is a basic weakness in my design

and that is when th boat is on the trailer. The mast casts a total shadow over the panel which sits directly beneath the masthead when the mast is in it's cradle. Bummer!

So after all this work I may completely redesign the mounting assembly.

Because we keep the bimini up all the time, Larry's method would not work for us as the bimini shades that area a good part of the time, the stationary mount that Frank has suffers the same issue for us. The RAM mount is certainly the simplest of methods and has the required rotation range, but the panel almost has to be located higher than the mast when down and above the bimini.

The panel is amazingly lightweight, so I may look at mounting it on the Bimini Tubing but am open to ideas.

Paul

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Steve Blackburn
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1091 Posts

Response Posted - 04/09/2008 : 17:11:10

Paul, you gave me a good laugh when mentioning the mast casting a shadow on the solar panel as a design flaw. Isn't it absolutely amazing how we go to lengths to design something only to find out that we have overseen an incredibly simple thing? Note that I'm laughing WITH YOU because it happens to me also (and all of us early adopters and modders I'm sure).

Sorry for the crude drawing but why not mount is to the side of your mast support instead of behind it?

Black: Support mast
Green: Telescopic arm
Red: Solar Panel
Blue: Pivot.

View is facing aft.

This way you could lift it up or down (using the telescopic arm), and turn it forwards or aft using the pivot. I'm not quite sure how I would do this but in principle I believe it could be done.

Edited by - Steve Blackburn on 04/09/2008 17:13:10

britinusa
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Response Posted - 04/16/2008 : 07:05:30

Report on sea trial.

Everything worked very well. Maximum solar output was 1.6amps but that was plenty until we turned on the TV/DVD or stereo (hungry little critters!)
Managing the panel orientation was very easy, but the top pole had a tendency to be rotated by the wind, so I ended up using a line from the sides of the Bimini wrapped 3 times around the top telescoping pole, the friction allowed easy management but was a pain as it made raising/lowering the panel difficult.

Figured the solution to that: I'll use my dremel to cut some semicircular indents into the top of the lower pole and then the pin can rest in the indent.

Figured out the solution to the mast shadow issue - add a second panel and mount them both on extended cross beams so that one will be on each side of the lowered mast.

The regulator is excellent, the display switches between Battery level(v), Solar output(amps), and load(amps) A set of LEDs show the battery charge status and another the 'charging' status.

Only mistake in the construction was the length from the mast crutch bolt to the cross beams. It's a about 1/16" too short so the panel wont raise to face fwd. I'll use the dremel to grind off the tip of the top aft corners of the mast crutch.

Now for a pet peeve... why do manufacturers put metal wing bolts into plastic nuts? Price! ok, but they always fail as the threads in the plastic are so easy to strip. I'm being really careful when adjusting the telescoping tube so as not to strip the thread in the adjuster mechanism. If he threads were square engineered instead of the typical 45degree thread pattern it would be stronger even if the nut were plastic.

end of peeve.

Paul

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britinusa
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Response Posted - 09/28/2008 : 16:05:44

Update.
We have not had the boat out since July

, Ike et.al. cancelled trips we had planned.

So today I was pleasently suprised! The batteries are showing 14v at the controller even with the solar panel obscured by the mast shadow.

Still have not reworked the panel support mounts, but the idea of mounting the panel on the side of the pole seems the way to go. And it still leaves me the option to add a 2nd panel on the other side.

Looking forward to Columbus Day weekend, 4 night trip to Key Largo.

Paul

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Voyager
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Response Posted - 09/28/2008 : 17:00:15

Paul -- the solar panel looks great. What wattage do they provide?

Do you adjust for sun angle?

I assume you try to make the local noon sun angle approx 90 degrees depending on month or season.

For example, during June, I layed my panels on the cockpit seats and got about 22 degrees off perendicular. Cosine 22 is still 93%. Now that its Sept, the sun angle at noon has increased to 42 degrees (here in CT). Proportion is 74%. In another month, before I pull the boat, sun angle could be more than 50 degrees. That's about 60-65% loss.

I checked it with my ammeter, and the loss seems to follow the cosine of the sun angle and it is significant. In FL, you don't have as low a sun angle as CT, but you could still have some loss from Nov - Feb.

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britinusa
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Response Posted - 09/29/2008 : 05:45:09

Bruce, it's a 24W panel. I leave the panel hinged up at about 45 degrees all the time, making no adjustments while the boat is alongside the house.

When on the water, yes, I adjust the panel so that it is perp to the sun when chance occurs or if needed. ie. from 10 till noon, the panel is flat. Later in the day I aim it at the sun if we are on a pretty constant course. At dawn and in the evening, we're probably at anchor or in a slip, so I direct the panel sunwards about every hour.

Paul

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Steve Blackburn
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Response Posted - 09/29/2008 : 14:13:23

Hey Paul. Did you post pictures of this?

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