Solar on a Boat - Real World Lessons | Ep. 106

In this video, we share our real world lessons learned from multiple years of sailing with solar panels as our primary source of power. This is an update to our ‘Tips For Cruising with Solar’ video. We install flexible solar panels on our bimini, hook them up with solar charge controllers to our house battery bank, and adjust location and quantity of solar panels to improve their output. Follow along as we share valuable insights on what works for solar onboard the modern cruising sailboat.
Do check out our blog site as well - www.lifefourpointzero.com. We periodically post written stories and pictures of our sailing adventures on our blog.
You'll also find us on Instagram at: / lifefourpointzero
And Twitter at: / life4point0
Chapters:
0:00 Getting Started with Solar on a Sailboat
1:05 Flexible Solar and Supporting the Bimini
4:39 Separate Solar Controllers Per Panel
6:40 Bimini Attachment Options
8:48 Monitoring Solar Output
12:42 Wiring
13:27 Location Options
15:33 Quality and Lifespan
Music credits:
Morning Hike by Lindsey Abraham
Broken Water (Instrumental Version) by Craig Reever
Image credits:
www.tenor.com

[@LarryR4927]

Thank you! This is the best, big picture, sailboat solar, video that I have seen. It is concise, well organized, and backed by years of real world experience.

[@LifeFourPointZero]

So happy you found it helpful!!

[@captrandy3307]

While researching solar/bimini attachment, I came across your video. Thanks and Well Done!

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Glad you liked it. There are a lot of benefits of having solar on your boat. Good luck!

[@Cptnbond]

This was an exciting episode. Thanks for sharing your real-world experiences. Cheers.

[@LifeFourPointZero]

You're very welcome Sgt-Bond!

[@windonwater3895]

Great video - lots of good food for thought. Thank You!!

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Our pleasure!

[@chrisnegele6875]

Thanks Tom I was curious why you went with flexible and no solar arch and now I know the pros and cons of each solution.

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Glad you liked it Chris!

[@sailingsvlokahi9607]

Hey Tom ! Great, informative videos on your electrical power plant generation and monitoring systems. I'm about to embark on a similar project on my 440 and will be referring back to your videos many times, I'm sure. I have a number of questions that others would probably like to hear answers to, hence why I'm posting here. 1) Why didn't you mount the panels on the bimini further aft to better avoid boom shadow? 2) Where did you install the 2 additional house batteries? Looks like the space between the two aft cabins behind the Vetus exhaust waterlock. 3) What are the three device mounted below the Victron color touch screen? Cheers !

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Hello Curt! Glad you liked the video. With a full-sized bimini, there is a lot of space for solar up there and you'll be pleased with the extra amperage. To answer your questions. 1) There wasn't much room on the bimini aft of the boom because of the twin backstays and our bimini at the time (we've replaced it with new fabric now) also had a large vinyl window to inspect mainsail trim in that space. On our new bimini though, I have put one Sunpower 110w panel transverse in the space between the backstays. You'll see the new layout in the video. For the rest of the panels that go fore/aft, I didn't want to move them any further aft because they would lay across one of the bimini bows. We still have a gap below the boom so the reality is shading effect is not that noticeable. The alternative was a stern arch and we didn't want to go to this trouble and expense. 2) Yes you are correct, the two extra batteries are centerline, behind the waterlift exhaust and the prop shaft 3) the three instruments below the Victron color display are digital thermostats for our 2 fridges and 1 freezer. I am working on a video that describes their installation. They are really helpful to have onboard, to precisely control temperatures and easily change it. Hope this helps!

[@sailingsvlokahi9607]

@@LifeFourPointZero Thanks Tom !! I'll DM you with any other questions.

[@RaulMartinez-ln8zq]

Tom, great video! I was surprised about the real output of the flexible panels. 60% (in average I assume) is a huge piece of information when designing the solar panels system. I'm new in boating, actually I don't have a boat yet (still looking) and this information is something to keep in mind for sure. Thanks!

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Glad you found it helpful. Yes, it was a bit of a surprise to us as well ... we knew it would be less than 100% but hoped it would be a bit more. Still, they are light and have held up quite well in a pretty tough environment!

[@DavidBurnett1]

Thank you. Nice idea to have a separate sheet of canvas on the bimini for the panel array. As to separate controllers for each panel, if the panels are wired in parallel, and assuming each panel has blocking diodes built in, then shading of one panel will not affect the output of the others. Having said that, I decided to go for a separate controller (Victron Smart 100-50) per pair of (parallel wired) panels, to enable better monitoring of performance. As to the service life of semi-flexible panels, we have three small ones on aluminium sheet substrate that were installed in 2014. Just back on our boat now, and after 8 years in the Med, they are still working fine. I suspect the aluminium backing exposed fully to the air is one factor, and wired in parallel from what I understand, runs them cooler too - still experimenting on that factor. Thank you again for a well-considered, and informative video.

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Thanks for the comments David. So nice to hear you are starting your ninth year with your semi-flex panels! We are just back to the boat for the start of our 6th summer and 3 of our panels worked through the winter to keep our batteries charged and we will shortly be hooking up the additional panels with our fingers crossed!

[@DavidBurnett1]

@@LifeFourPointZero where are you at the moment - still in the Med? We are in Tivat, Montenegro

[@brambleton100]

Very helpful! do you happen to have a link to the acrylic cover for your thermal fuses?

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Yes it is this one...www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015QGECG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. But it took a little modification to get it to fit as it wasn't quite wide enough. When I later added more breakers, I put them closer together so the cover would fit better. Good luck!

[@steveschulte4561]

@@LifeFourPointZero thank you - my wife and i love your channel and want to follow on your path

[@AnimationsMaschine]

Very helpful video. I looked at it several times during my solar planning to get a variety of information. But I still have one question. Do you leave the solar panels and also the bimini installed all year round? More specifically asked about wind and storms. Do you turn down the solar and bimini when the wind reaches a certain level? What were your strongest wind speeds? Thank you!

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Glad you liked it and great questions. Yes we leave the bimini and it’s solar panels up all season long. We also value the shade and rain protection it offers. We have been in gusts of about 40 knots, and plenty in the 30s. If we felt like we might be exposed to higher winds we would take it down. Hope that helps.

[@AnimationsMaschine]

Thank you very much for your feedback! That is very helpful!!!

[@windy1973]

Do you have wind-generator in your yacht? As I know, the efficiency of wind-generator is better than solar panel. Solar panels are sufficient for electricity in the boat without wind-generator? As I told you before, I ordered the same yacht (JN 440) and I’m gonna add options. welcome any comments for our circumnavigation preperation.

[@LifeFourPointZero]

We do not currently have wind generation and we have done fine so far but the greater cloud cover in Scandinavia is a challenge. We may need to supplement but we love the passive nature of solar with no real mechanical parts. We have a freezer and a small drink fridge in addition to our regular fridge plus we are both regularly charging computers and all of the batteries associated with our multiple cameras and this past summer was the only time we even got close to a need to run our engine to help charge.

[@kirk9671]

I had rich solar cig panels and they all delaminated in a year. I am about ready to buy 1100$ per 200 watt semi flexible walk on panels from custom marine products. This this the only walk on panel I know of. For my solar arch I have more choices. I am choosing between Renogy 200 wat for 300 vs the 1100. The custom marine products is using a name brand sun power cell. Would you go cheap and disposable or expensive? The sun power cells get more power from a smaller space and I am tempted to get the expensive cells just to have a slightly smaller solar arch. Which would you buy?

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Hi Kirk. It is unclear if you are looking for walk on (e.g. installed on the deck) panels or panels for your solar arch, which are too very different beasts, but in general I would say that we have been very happy with our SunPower branded (not just the cells) flexible panels that we have zippered to our bimini. Very well built. There are a lot of poor quality flexible panels out there so better to go with strong name brands. For our previous solar arch, we stuck with name brand rigid panels (Kyocera), but there are now a plethora of options thanks to the huge growth in residential solar. I did a ground mounted solar array recently with Q Cells and another with REC panels with costs in the $200-300 range. A solar arch with name brand rigid panels is a great way to go on a boat if you have the room for an arch. Good luck!

[@mrstevenrowe]

more i learn on solar ..more and more likely am not use them at first all thinking using ,,for cost and fact all panels it still take 8 hours to charge all batters up .panels die easy ..BUT buy $450 carry around compact little diesel Cummins- 2500 W generator ,that fit any place and only shown on other cruisers on youtube take only 2-3 cups in 1 1/2 hours of diesel will do same charging ,, as been saying 10 years ,dealing with Power plants ,,solar and wind .we're .just not their ,,we have years to go ,,

[@johnnyjrotten59]

You did this the expensive way

[@LifeFourPointZero]

Ok