• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Simple solar installation on my E26-2

Alan Gomes

Sustaining Partner
I decided to cobble together an inexpensive solar installation for my E26-2. I went with a 100W solar panel recommended by my friend Neil (who occasionally posts here as "Parrothead").

This is the panel I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017OMTAV6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here's the controller: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IMIBM3G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I splurged and purchased this meter so I could monitor what the panel is doing rather than simply taking it on faith that it is working: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SW1N844/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I gave it a test on Friday morning and it seems to be doing everything it is supposed to. I'm heading over to Avalon (Catalina Island) tomorrow and will be there for a week, so this will be the acid test. I have LED lights in the cabin so the draw from those is negligible. The biggest draw is my laptop, which I use throughout the day, since I typically go to Catalina to work on my writing projects. After about 3 days of heavy laptop use I start to see the need to run my engine to keep the house battery from discharging too deeply. My hope is that this panel will eliminate the need for that.

For ideal efficiency I'd have the panel on an articulating mount that I could aim for best performance throughout the day. But my approach here is to just mount it on the sea hood and get whatever I get. When I'm under way I will just store the panel in the quarter berth and then set it up once I'm on the mooring or at anchor. I believe it will give me adequate performance even with this very simple but less than ideal mounting; I guess we'll find out. I'll report back.

I need to make some custom bungees for attaching it to the hand rails. In the attached photo I just used some off the shelf bungees to secure it.

(Also, I now have a short cable that connects the meter to the controller. The meter ships with a really long cable in case you wanted to mount the meter far from the controller.)

IMG_20190328_173528784_HDR.jpgIMG_20190328_173511938.jpg
 

Alan Gomes

Sustaining Partner
Hi, Roger.

I came back last Monday, which was the day before the gale blew through. I was there exactly one week.

I had the solar hooked up for a total of 5.5 days. (I hooked it up after arriving early in the afternoon and did not run it at all on the day I sailed back.) It kept up with my power demands nicely. During that time it restored 150Ah into my batteries (divided 90% into my house bank and 10% for my starting battery). I had a few exceedingly cloudy days (including rain) during this period, so this is far from a best case scenario.

My main loads were a laptop (which I ran throughout the day, since this was one of my typical working trips) and a CPAP machine, which I ran through my inverter at night. I also kept my wifi hotspot and cell phone charged up. My interior lighting is LED so the power draw on those is very small.

I'm very happy with how it worked out for me. This is a pretty simple and low cost installation, so I'm glad that it meets my needs. While I was at the Island I made some custom-length bungees for attaching the panel to the hand rails. I can set it up and take it down in a few minutes. If my boat had a dodger then I'd mount the panel on top of it. But I don't, so mounting it on the sea hood is the best because it remains relatively out of the way. I leave it below when I'm under way.

Alan
 
Top