Solar panel

Andy Moore · 31 October 2007, 22:09

I am thinking of getting a removable solar panel to trickle charge the battery.

Has anyone got one or can recommend a marinised one?

wavelength · 31 October 2007, 22:43

p64 PBO issue491 november 2007 has a half page article on "sleeping batteries" and charging by solar panel-might be of interest.

Andy Moore · 31 October 2007, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by wavelength

p64 PBO issue491 november 2007 has a half page article on "sleeping batteries" and charging by solar panel-might be of interest.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

I have just bought one of these:

http://www.tantronics.co.uk/acatalog...lar_se400.html

Rodan · 01 November 2007, 00:03

just pick up the one maplins do, cheap and very effective. 3 years trouble free.

MikeCC · 01 November 2007, 20:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodan

just pick up the one maplins do, cheap and very effective. 3 years trouble free.

The small Maplin one is on offer at the moment - £9.99

codprawn · 01 November 2007, 20:45

I just bought one because it seemed like a bargain - don't know why though as I don't use the bigger 5W one I bought last year.

Far better would be a Forgen wind turbine on the A frame. That is the vertical type which is less efficient but far more usable than the normal kind. The advantage of wind power is that when you need the current for pumping water from your bilges the rain is usually accompanied by plenty of wind - especially at night.

Of course the only time a solar panel is of any use is in hot weather when you don't really need all the power!!!

Trouble is the Forgen is over £300 - anyone know of any used ones???

http://www.seateach.com/Forgen.asp

Andy Moore · 01 November 2007, 20:46

Do you think a 6W solar panel with power a Rule 500LPH pump?

Andy Moore · 01 November 2007, 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Of course the only time a solar panel is of any use is in hot weather when you don't really need all the power!!!

Trouble is the Forgen is over £300 - anyone know of any used ones???

I think I am right in saying that today's panels will work okay in simple daylight and the lower the temparture of the actual panel itself, the better they work.

Just what I have read.....

codprawn · 01 November 2007, 20:58

No chance - but if you have a cover over your boat it will be fine. Failing that it will be better than nothing. It all depends on how much water you need to pump. My boat has a huge deck area and no cover - we also happen to live in the wettest city in the UK. In 1 day my boat can collect 1,000L - that's a massive amount. Of course when it's that king of weather there is no sun at all.

codprawn · 01 November 2007, 21:09

To give you an idea of how weak our winter sun is here is a piccy of the solar panels on Tesco's roof - today they were generating 300W - yes that's right - about 3p per hour!!! Just look at the surface area. They are 110m long by 10m wide - that's 1,100 sq metres. That's about the same as having 12,000 of yours on there - for 300W!!!

Of course they had a huge grant to install them..........

Tim M · 01 November 2007, 21:29

If its that bad shorepower would be a better bet than a solar pannel.

Poly · 01 November 2007, 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

In 1 day my boat can collect 1,000L - that's a massive amount.

Cod,

Your boat must have plan view area of around 15 m^2 so you would need to get a daily rainfall of 66mm to collect 1000L. Although that amount of rain can fall in one exceptional day, that sounds more like 2 weeks than 1 day. It certainly would not be normal to get that much rain constantly for a whole week at once.

Limey Linda · 01 November 2007, 21:52

I am sure Codders is correct. He never exagerates.

codprawn · 01 November 2007, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polwart

Cod,

Your boat must have plan view area of around 15 m^2 so you would need to get a daily rainfall of 66mm to collect 1000L. Although that amount of rain can fall in one exceptional day, that sounds more like 2 weeks than 1 day. It certainly would not be normal to get that much rain constantly for a whole week at once.

It really can be that bad down here. I didn't say it was every day but we do get a hell of a lot. I know it will collect that much because I have taken the battery home to charge and come back the following day after typical heavy rain and it's taken almost 1hr to pump out.

I once worked it out that Wales gets enough rain to provdie for the whole population of the World!!!

codprawn · 01 November 2007, 21:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Limey Linda

I am sure Codders is correct. He never exagerates.

Anyway you live in one of the few places where Solar Power makes a little bit of sense - more than here anyway!!!

MikeCC · 01 November 2007, 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Of course the only time a solar panel is of any use is in hot weather when you don't really need all the power!!!

Errr . . battery top-up? Fridge? Radio?

Poly · 01 November 2007, 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

It really can be that bad down here. I didn't say it was every day but we do get a hell of a lot. I know it will collect that much because I have taken the battery home to charge and come back the following day after typical heavy rain and it's taken almost 1hr to pump out.

I once worked it out that Wales gets enough rain to provdie for the whole population of the World!!!

So you are using the quoted pump rate of your pump to work out how many litres rain there was? mmm... not sure that I would trust the pump manufacturer to quite that extent!

The point I was trying to make was 1000L will be the extreeme rather than the rule.

If your pump takes 1 hour to drain this and draws 6A then your implication is each day you need to put 6Ah of juice back in the battery. In reality the way the weather works you might have two days of high rain fall, two days of moderate rainfall (maybe 1/4 the demand) and then say three much drier days. So in a pretty bad week you might draw 15 Ah rather than over 40 if every day was actually super wet.

codprawn · 01 November 2007, 23:05

Yes I agree with your figures - the 1000l is not every day thank God!!! As to the output of the pump as it's a 500gph that's 1875L an hour so my 1000 is not that far off - there is very little head on my pump.

I would say I drain about 20amps a week in bad weather - at the same time the solar panel was giving me about 3amps a week so it did help but only a small amount - I was more concerned about it being blown away!!!

Rogue Wave · 02 November 2007, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

- I was blown away!!!

Pete7 · 02 November 2007, 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

Dreadful, why does anyone live there

the Sudan would be more hospitable