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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Good Deal on Solar Battery Charger?

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MartinJW
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USA
241 Posts

Initially Posted - 05/24/2008 : 03:41:23

I know that there are other threads regarding solar power and/or solar battery re-charging systems, but I just came upon a deal and I wanted to share.

We would like a small solar panel to help keep the battery charged when we anchor for a couple of days and don't use the outboard (which has an alternator). I've been scared off because of the poor reviews of products available at West Marine. However, it looks like the new Sunsei / ICP 400mA / 6W [corrected 5/24/08] panel is "new and improved", AND Defender.com has a great price, I think. (search Defender.com for item #201096) They're selling the weatherproof SE-400 AND a mounting bracket for only $99.99.

I've ordered one, and I'll report back later this summer to let everyone know how it's working.

The Defender.com link to this product is:

http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-|328|49497|852986&id=982753

(I can't seem to get the URL link feature to work, so you'll simply have to cut and paste this into your browser. Sorry.)

Martin

C25/250 Int'l Ass'n Member
2008 C-250 WK #973
"Bluebell"
Lake Tahoe, CA/NV

Edited by - MartinJW on 05/24/2008 14:19:06

britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 06:22:37

[url="http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|49497|852986&id=982753"]click here[/url]

Nice find but it's 6watts.

Paul

Edited by - britinusa on 05/24/2008 06:23:50

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 15:14:52

Yeah, the 6W is a problem even so some here will say it's enough. 6W is .5 amps at peak conditions. I have an 18W (1.2 amps) and is ok to recharge the batteries while we are away on the weekdays. I think I paid about $130 and it came with the charge controller (Costco).

Edited by - Steve Blackburn on 05/24/2008 15:17:08

MartinJW
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USA
241 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 15:28:47

This won't be our primary battery re-charging system. We also have a Honda 9.9 outboard with the "big" alternator. Honda claims:

High Output Charging
The BF9.9 provides 2 Amps at 1000 RPM and an amazing 12 amps at only 3000 RPM...

We do a fair amount of motoring, so I'm thinking that the outboard will do a pretty good job of keeping the battery topped off.

Also, we have almost no electronics on the boat (only the Raymarine Tri-Data), so the only big thing we need electrical power for is the lights at night. We're hoping that the little 400mA/6W solar panel will re-charge the battery (here in sunny California) during the days we're not sailing to make up for the few nights each week we'd use the lights.

As a back-up to all these systems, I think I'm going to install a second battery with an isolation switch.

Why the compulsion for electrical power over-kill? It's a safety issue. My wife can't start a rope-pull outboard or drop an outboard down (bad back), so our outboard has electric start and power-tilt. If there's an emergency, she would probably have to start the outboard engine, so we absolutely, gotta have battery power.

Martin

Edited by - MartinJW on 05/24/2008 15:30:57

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 15:38:01

Martin we also have the Honda 9.9 with the alternator specs you mentioned. However we don't motor much. We have 2 batteries already but don't consumer much electricity. If you motor lots then I guess you'll do just fine with the 6W.

Edited by - on

MartinJW
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USA
241 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 16:16:06

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Steve Blackburn
 Martin we also have the Honda 9.9 with the alternator specs you mentioned. However we don't motor much. We have 2 batteries already but don't consumer much electricity. If you motor lots then I guess you'll do just fine with the 6W.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thanks for the information, Steve.

Do you find that you still need to recharge your batteries at home, or does the 18W system recharge them sufficiently for your needs? Before you had a solar re-charging system, do you recall how often you would need to re-charge the batteries?

What do you have on your boat that runs off the batteries?

We're pretty sunny here on Lake Tahoe, so I'm hoping that the solar panel will run more hours and at a greater efficiency/output than a typical situation. Also, since we really only run lights at night a few days each week, I'm thinking that 6W/400mA will be sufficient.

My wife likes sailing, but she really likes simply anchoring somewhere beautiful to relax and swim on/around the boat. When the wind is unfavorable, we tend to motor to wherever we want to hang out. I suspect that we motor maybe 25% of the time we're going anywhere on the boat. Also, we motor in/out of our harbor for 15-30 minutes each time we sail, so this should add to the battery re-charge time.

Thanks again for the information.

Martin

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3467 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 18:12:54

I have a 20 Watt Kyocera solar panel, motor little (in and out of marina) and have 2 batteries. So far, going on 2 years and have never recharged the batteries other than what the outboard and panel put out.

Edited by - on

GaryB
Master Marine Consultant

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4304 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 19:15:50

Larry,

Where did you get the clamps that hold your panel to the rail? Those are nice and sturdy.

Edited by - on

SCnewbie
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166 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 20:12:50

Martin,
I have the panel you are looking at. I paid $100 for the panel alone. If you buy it and decide you don't like the mount, let me know. I will buy it from you. We don't run much electrical other than the stereo a few hours a week. My boat sits on the mooring so solar and the motor are the only choices for me.

Edited by - on

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3467 Posts

Response Posted - 05/24/2008 : 23:40:56

Gary,
I have seen them on one or two website marine sources but easiest was to get it at the local West Marine store. Believe they still sell it and should be in their catalog.

Edited by - on

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 05/25/2008 : 01:48:33

Martin, I have not had the chance of using much electricity so it's difficult to answer. We now have a slip and will sleep in the boat at least 1 night a week. Pretty much I run my ST-60, engine starter, run a radio on an inverter (real waste of power).

Calgary is very sunny. My batteries are always topped off with my 18W panel. It really depends on your power consumption. You have to think European Engineering VS American Engineering in terms of efficiency. European designs tend to use less power whereas the American solution is typically to provide more power. So natuarly for us North Americans we tend to look for bigger solar panels before making our electrical consumption as efficient as we can. Changing your light bulbs to LED is a good start, also whenever installing a new electrical unit make sure it doesn't draw many amps.

I made many calculations according to the number of AMP hours my 2 batteries provide and recharge time. My conclusion was that a 15W panel is the smallest one should consider. Association members here use 15-20-30 and even 50W solar panels. A few use 5W and say it keeps their single battery topped off but I don't think they use much power if any.

Understand that with an 80 amp hour battery you would need 160 sun hours to fully recharge it with a 5W (0.5 amps) panel. Even if you could get 12 hours per day at full efficiency this would require about 2 weeks. Using the same propotionate calcuation with an 18W this bring down the time to 5.5 days just right for a weekender like me.

Now it's only $30 more to go with the 18W rather than the 6W you consider. However an 18W panel is much bigger and you must figure out how to mount it somewhere. Again search the forum for multiple solutions for mounting these.

Edited by - Steve Blackburn on 05/25/2008 01:53:21

OLarryR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3467 Posts

Response Posted - 05/25/2008 : 08:50:04

STeve makes good points regarding power consumption and giving that some thought when doing improvement projects or adding loads to your boat.

A stereo is obviously going to add considerable to the battery load. I do not use a stereo often but when I do, I have a mini-boom box that runs off separate "C" or "D" cells - So I use rechargeables in it and recharge them at home - So that is one less addl load on my boat batteries.

The primary load on my batteries would be the navigation and anchor lights. Something like a 1 1/2 years ago I changed out the anchor light for a USCG LED fixture. The difference in amp load is about 4X less amp load or greater - THe OGM LED light not only uses far less amperage (.15-.2Amps vs std bulb .87Amps) but the OGM has a photo-diode in it that automatically shuts it off when the sun comes up, further minimizing battery drain (if you are a late sleeper).

Cabin lights to LEDs also saves considerably on battery load especially if you keep all the lights on...but selection of proper LEDs is important for cabin lighting as brightness and spread of the light is not standardized and some may be disappointed with LED substitutes unless right ones found...and the Mfrs keep coming out with better LED replacements in all different sizes and configurations. Sometimes a mfr will have many little LEDs or one super LED energized by micro-circuitry - Very hard to evaluate cabin replacment lighting but all choices will definitley cut way down on battery load.

If you normally do not stay overnight on the boat...then battery load significantly reduced. If you have AC service for transient stays at marinas then installing a battery charger permanently hooked up to your AC circuit is a great improvement project for handling the cabin lights, etc and at same time recharge the batteries for extended use of the lights, etc.

In regards to solar panels - Remember that if you are using flooded batteries, they still have to be checked every so often for adding water to them. Generally, if a 5 watt panel is used for one battery, then a controller is not needed. But larger wattage panels require controllers or they potentially can cook the water out of the batteries. With the use of a controller, then battery checks for adding water is identical to the periodic checks you would do if you had no panel.

Edited by - OLarryR on 05/25/2008 08:59:32

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
5378 Posts

Response Posted - 05/27/2008 : 22:01:55

I've mentioned this a few times, but I was so delighted, I'll mention it again. I went onto amazon and located an 18W Sunforce solar panel with a 7A regulator for about $130 and ordered a second panel without the regulator for a few dollars less, and I've installed them.

My main power draw is my laptop, that I use when I'm doing emails out on the boat, the XM radio and the lights.

Right now I still use incandescent lamps for the cabin lights, but I'm coming up with a plan, which I will outline in another thread.

The solar panels work great, they stow under the cockpit area when not in use and the battery has never been happier.

Edited by - on

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