Comments on: Ev Henry Point, Sucia Island

By: Kevin McLaughlin

Kevin McLaughlin — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:51:00 +0000

In reply to Laura Domela. Best idea for keeping solar panels out of shadows: install array on dinghy top and tow behind boat

By: Laura Domela

Laura Domela — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 18:39:00 +0000

In reply to Kevin McLaughlin. And by "hard" you must mean "impossible" :) Just get rid of those pesky sails!

By: Kevin McLaughlin

Kevin McLaughlin — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 18:10:00 +0000

In reply to Laura Domela. Great to hear how good the new solar charge system is working. Kyocera is certainly top quality. Shadows on a panel, even a small area, degrades output so greatly. That two controller setup is the deal. I am ponderinng how to place mine completely out of shade, hard to do on a sailboat.

By: Laura Domela

Laura Domela — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 17:54:00 +0000

In reply to Kevin McLaughlin.

The new panels are significantly outperforming the old ones. In practice, the old system would almost never deliver more than 10 amps in the best conditions. We’ve already seen peaks of almost 30 amps with the new system.

On one clear day, the new system delivered a total of about 110 amp hours. We never measured the old system, but that’s a pretty significant contribution. In the winter, running the heater most of the time, refrigerator, freezer, lighting, computers, etc., we use a little over 200Ah per day, so in that case, the new solar supplied a little more than half of our daily need. As the season gets later, this will improve. We won’t use as much electricity (not as much heat, light), and the solar will be producing more because the days will of course be longer.

I think we mentioned…we installed a separate MPPT controller for each panel. This allows us to monitor what the panels are doing separately and, keeps one panel that may be getting partial shade, from affecting the whole system. What we’ve learned from that is that the effect from partial shade is shocking. The mast on the boat casting a shadow over about two cells on a 60-cell panel reduces the output of that panel by about 90%! Given that the boat has a mast, there’s nowhere to put the panels that guarantees that one of them won’t be partially shaded some of the time. With the boat at anchor and constantly spinning, having two controllers (that can make the best of the situation) is a big deal.

By: Kevin McLaughlin

Kevin McLaughlin — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 08:24:00 +0000

Any news to report about the new solar charging system? Sure, first cruise being around the equinox not super ideal, but you can tell whether the new panels are outperforming the old.

By: Kevin McLaughlin

Kevin McLaughlin — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 23:03:00 +0000

In reply to Laura Domela. The luxury of choice

By: Laura Domela

Laura Domela — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 15:56:00 +0000

In reply to Kevin McLaughlin. Calm waters secret: watch the weather and go when it's calm. :)

By: Kevin McLaughlin

Kevin McLaughlin — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 05:09:00 +0000

What is your calm waters secret? Looks placid.

By: Laura Domela

Laura Domela — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:13:00 +0000

In reply to GMertl. Beautiful!! Thanks for sharing. :) We hadn't been to Watmough in a while...it was nice to be back!!

By: Laura Domela

Laura Domela — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:12:00 +0000

In reply to Robyn Dolan. Thanks so much, Robyn! Yes, the peacefulness of being on the water, anchored in some little cove, is unbeatable. Being somewhere beautiful in the RV comes close, but it doesn't rock you to sleep like the water does. :)