[Rhodes22-list] Solar Controller

[Mike Riter]

Well, kinda. It didn't occur to me to take photos of it while I was setting
it all up, but I'm attaching one where you can kinda see the solar panel on
the forward part of the bimini if you zoom way in. The setup was pretty
simple. The solar panel has grommets in all four corners so I used short
bungee cords to secure it to the support poles of the bimini. I made a
custom 10 gauge cable that runs from the panel, down the forward/ starboard
side of the bimini pole and plugs into a watertite plug mounted in the
starboard cockpit seat back. From there I ran another 10 gauge set of wires
through the bilge and up into the battery box which sits amid ships in
front of the v-berth.

To store the solar panel I made a mesh hammock in the v-berth. The solar
panel slides into it and is out of the way until it's needed. It takes less
than 5 minutes to strap to the bimini and plug in.

We were planning to be at sea and anchored for 10 days. Between the lights,
water pump, phones, ipad, and nav equipment I was worried the solar
wouldn't be able to keep up. I was pretty happy when the solar controller
went from bulk charge to float by noon each day. The MPPT controller is so
much more efficient than the PWM. I did find the panel worked better on the
back part of the bimini so the sail wouldn't shade it as much. Peter's set
up on the arch is much better.

I just looked it up and the panel is 110 watts not 125 like I had
originally posted. The one I purchased is made by Sunpower and has the
Maxeon cells.

Michael Riter
SV EmmaB



On Tue, Jun 8, 2021 at 9:02 PM S/V Lark <Colealexander at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I hadn’t realized how far flexible cells had come.     Do you have pictures
> of your Bimini mount?
>
> Alex
>
>
>
> -----
> Alex Cole
> S/V Lark
> --
> Sent from: http://rhodes-22.1065344.n5.nabble.com/
>
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