Solar panel for b38 hatch garage

[singlefish]

b38 2003 , thinking of fitting solar panel to hatch garage , sure many other have done , what size dimesion wise have folks used , where bought in uk , voltage regulator used Fitting advice , dont want to reinvent wheel . And this is definately where i want to put it , no gantrys frames etc anywhere else,


Many thanks in anticipation .

[MarkTheBike]

...thinking of fitting solar panel to hatch garage...

...Many thanks in anticipation...

+1, please.

[Lazy Pelican]

It's not the answer you want, but Solar Panels on the garage hatch will be fairly ineffective. Any shading, even the shadow cast by standing or running rigging will massively reduce their efficiency. I know from experience.
We have friends who took a better option than you're proposing and mounted panels on the pushpit side guard rails- it's an OK solution but they have now had a gantry built.
My advice is do it properly and do it once and get a gantry built. And use an MPPT controller.

John

[tiger79]

It's not the answer you want, but Solar Panels on the garage hatch will be fairly ineffective. Any shading, even the shadow cast by standing or running rigging will massively reduce their efficiency. I know from experience.

It might not be an ideal place, but it's convenient and large enough to fit a sensible panel.  I've been wondering about one, fitted on the hatch garage of my Cruiser 37.  The space available is about 75 x 65cm, easily enough for at least a 40W panel.  Even with a bit of shadow from standing rigging, that would surely add a few Ah every day?

[singlefish]

Tiger my thougts exactly , i dont want gantries , dont care wether there are shadows or inefficiencies hence my wording in initial post , just hoped i could find a like minded soul who has allready done this , im not looking to run anything with it , just trickle and top up during times im not using boat , infrequent as they may be

[DT]

Hi Lazy Pelican

I fitted a 80 watt flexable panel 920mm by 530 on my B34 . I just used silicon to attach it to deck rather than screw it down . I will have to see that goes.
It produces about 65 watts due to shading but like you its just for topping up batteries. I have a blue sky energy charge controller managing it, very happy with that. Good after sales service/warranty and relatively easy to use.

If you want I can post a few pics on Sat ?

[Lazy Pelican]

We cruise for several months at a time and will sometimes anchor for 2 or 3 days.
We started with a 60w flexible panel siliconed to the deck in front of the mast- it helped but the batteries still got run down.
We added 2 x 90 panels on a gantry and during the summer this meets all our power requirements.

John

[singlefish]

Dt , think you answered my question rather than lazy piguin s advice , piccys would be good , sounds exactly what i want to do , what panel did you use , deck pentration and wiring rout to batteries ??

[fyndi]

I would also like to install solar panel(s) to my B36. Could you please add pictures of your installations, panels, wiring etc., it would be very helpful. Thanks!