Comments on: Solar panels, a year in review

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:22:14 +0000

@Phil: The solar panel mounts are custom. The idea came from Len Engst of Warana. The panels themselves are clamped onto varnished marine plywood. The marine plywood has swivel mounts screwed into it. The mounts we put on a stainless tube before it was welded into our stanchions and push-pit. This was all rather inexpensive (perhaps $300?) but it took a long time to find the welder.

By: phil

phil — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:23:10 +0000

where did you get the swivel mount for your panels from?

By: dad ensslen

dad ensslen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:14:06 +0000

thanks and thanks

what type of solar panel? what brand? marine type everything? marine electrical fittings? square meters/footage total?

i keep hearing rumors that the chinese have made small wind turbines, the idea being they would be cheap, less intrusive, and you can add and add. whirlybirds on roofs that extract warm air from attics are whispering to be converted to wind turbines. they always face into the wind, need no commutators as a permanent magnet could be mounted centrally.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:35:17 +0000

Wind power is the cheapest form of electricity. However, wind power installations are frequently impractical, as we have discussed here in the past. Small wind generators for boats are many times more expensive that large land-based wind power. You can buy a 2KW wind generator for your home for the same price I would pay for a 150W generator for my boat.

Towed generators have preposterously low output. Like 20W at 4 knots peaking at 100W at 8 knots. A small solar panel will produce more energy at lower cost, particularly for boats that rarely make 7 knots under sail. Scream’s hull speed is 8 knots but we typically have less than 10 knots of wind and average less than 4 knots, at which speed there is essentially no output from a towed generator.

We have six 12 Volt AGM batteries in parallel, for 1260 amp hours at 12 volts.

By: dad

dad — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:05:43 +0000

can you recommend a type and brand of solar panel?

thanks

how long do you think they will stand up to equatorial marine life?

what type and how many batteries do you charge? what is the voltage of your system?

By: dad

dad — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:43:53 +0000

thanks

yet to me you kept saying wind is more cost effective

the real answer still seems to be wind, solar and a submersible trolling generator combined