tryhard Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Hi all, I am looking for a little guidance on the subject of solar charging... As background, I have recently purchased a boat & it is on a swing mooring. the main bilge pump is connected to the house batteries which are 2 x 85 AH in parallel (170AH total) I want to ensure that the charge to these batteries, is maintained as well as I can manage, whilst the boat sits on the mooring. can anyone give me some guidance as to what sort of system I need (i.e 120 watt panel or 10 watt panel)? Of course I am currently googling away to see if I can get guidance, but thought someone here may be able to offer help. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishop Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 Id be interested to know what you find out as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunc333 Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 they work great .the advice i can give is anything over 10 watt panel needs a controller which can cost the same as the panel itself .so up to you a small panel 5w to 10w dosnt need controller and it has to have a no reverse diode inline to stop reverse when the sun goes down which most panels have fitted as is and i find the 10 watt panel working great on my boat with no controller regards dunc 333 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smasher Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 (edited) A guy I know owns a solar power company, based in Newcastle, but give them a ring and get their advice. They're good & honest people. There's a lot of cheap chinese junk out there so you wanna make sure you buy quality as well as the right size for your boat. https://www.solaronline.com.au/ I bought a Roc Solid 120W portable panel for camping trips in my 4WD (dual batteries - 100ah deep cycle and an ordinary for cranking) and I can run my fridge and LED lights off the deep cycle indefinitely (as long as it's not 100% overcast). http://www.roc-solidsolar.com.au/portable-solar-panels.php You'll probably also want to look into getting a spinny thing that stops birds crapping all over it while its moored. Edited July 22, 2017 by Smasher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tryhard Posted July 23, 2017 Author Share Posted July 23, 2017 Thanks everyone, after much reading on the interweb I determined that as I was not trying to recharge my batteries from 50% or less or run appliances a smaller panel would be ample for my needs. I went to a well known chandlery retailer & purchased a 40w panel with shottkey Diode & a controller. I believe that this will be sufficient to keep my 'house' batteries topped up even if the bilge pump needs to run occasionally. I am yet to install it, so time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now