Thank you Mark !

The house bank and start battery should be completely separate. But you've had not 1 but 2 coincidences. On your boat, the state of the house bank seems to influence the start circuit. Before I did anything (like take the boat somewhere), I would label and test the entire start circuit. Maybe a previous owner made a "modification". 

It could also be 2 problems; you may have a problem in the ignition/starter circuit, the start stop solenoid, or something else. 

Sounds like a long weekend with a multimeter.
Good luck.

Tom and Kirstin
SM2K 422
SV L'ORIENT
Tahiti

The start battery was a bit over 12 Volt, I didn’t check it at the starter. Once I replaced the house bank everything worked fine, which I fine odd.

When you checked the voltage at the battery and starter, what was the reading ?

Tom and Kirstin

Okay, so recently I had a main bank failure, but what is disturbing is that the engine wouldn’t start. Confusing as I have a dedicated engine start battery, same for the generator. Has anyone experienced this, or have any idea why? Is there a way around this? I can’t imagine this happening in an anchorage, or at sea.

Thanks,

Mark Garver
SV It’s Good
SM #105

Hi Arno,
I know what you mean!   Anyone who needs to enter my boat without me present is always amused by the plethora of instructions I give them about entering.  Contractors look at you askance .. "do you think I don't know how to enter a boat?" lol

Personally, the only thing I don't like about the Amel system is that the door can free-fall all the way.  It would have been great to have some kind of piston in the design which supported the weight of the door, and either lowered it in a controlled way, or required a little downward pressure to open. As if our boats are not complex enough, right!

I think most people looking at your mechanism for the first time would find it obvious to operate, and probably not let the door drop.

Cheers
Dean
SV Stella A54-154

   

 

Hi folks,
Interesting that people comment about getting more output than their panel ratings.

All solar panels have the capability to produce more than their rated output.  This is not some some magic which belongs to particular brands of panel.
It is almost entirely the result of the energy delivered by the sun on the panel and the alignment angle of the panel to the sun.  (There are also second order losses due to wiring, power conversion and temperature) 

Panels are rated by all manufacturers according to standard test conditions with a reference insolation power of 1000W/sqm.  After production, the panels are subjected to exactly this level of insolation (artificially and accurately produced), directly on the face of the panel and the output power is measured. The panels are then sorted into groups depending upon how much power they produce.  This is why the manufacturers have a range of different panel power ratings, say 390W, 395W, 400W and 405W, on their top of the range products.  There is no difference in the production process, but there is a natural tolerance spread.  This way of grouping panels tends to be more common with newer panels at the highest end of performance. Its a competitive thing because they want to quote the highest performance/efficiency number to beat the competition, so will advertise heavily, for example, the 405W performance. It may be that only 1% of the produced panels reach this level, and so they are also very expensive.  As technology moves on, the manufacturers keep producing these panels, but after a while they are not at the bleeding edge of performance, and end up being rated with only one power, which is generally the minimum achieved in production. They will also move to sample testing only, which keeps the price competitive.

In the real world, the insolation level is not always 1000W/sqm and of course our panels are not perfectly aligned to the solar axis.  Sometimes the insolation from the sun is much more than 1000W/sqm and if our panels happen to be well aligned at that time then they will of course produce more than their rated power.  Unfortunately, most of the time they produce less !    

The highest levels of efficiency at the moment for commercially available panels is around 22-23%.  That means that a top performing panel of area 1sqm when subjected to a perfectly aligned reference insolation power of 1000W/sqm, will produce 220-230W. Beware of panels advertising more than 230W/sqm performance, they don't exist yet.

If you stick to a reputable manufacturer, you should receive an accurately calibrated product which produces less than rated output most of the time, but sometimes if you are in the right place and you align your panel properly, you might get 10, 20, 30% more than rated output.

I really need to get back to my boat!

Dean
SV Stella A54-154

  

Roy,

Congratulations!

It's about 59.5cm from the top of the toerail to the top of the lifeline.

--
Mark McGovern
SM #440 Cara
Deale, MD USA

My aft head holding tank riser has separated from the lower part of the copper fitting. So inflow to the holding tank enters at the bottom of the tank. Despite this, there is no leaking from the fitting.

I've read the various posts on fixes; replacing the fitting, mounting a smaller diameter pipe inside what remains of the original, etc.

One goal of the project would be to make it easier to maintain. If the idea is to have the black water enter at the top of the tank, I'm wondering if anyone has moved the inlet from the bottom of the tank to the upper side. This would have the benefit of allowing the hose to run outside of the tank and turn left, dramatically simplifying clearing clogs.

Anyway, I want to consider all possibilities before I open this can of worms.

Tom and Kirstin

Dave,

The photos of the blocks are on my phone so I'm answering for Denise.  We used some leftover 22mm (7/8") thick teak boards from making new passerelle steps to make the support blocks.  The gimble rods are quite a bit narrower for the OceanChef 3 than they were for the Eno so we had to double up boards on each side to make each blocks about 44mm (1.75") thick.  They are about 125mm wide by 80mm tall and they are epoxied together and through-bolted through the plywood on either side of the stove using four (4) 1/4-20 bolts.  The bolts on the forward and aft side are different lengths given that the aft side is just 10mm plywood but the forward side goes into the dry storage area so the bolts need to go through plywood, insulation (from hell), and plywood/fiberglass.  Note that the gimble rods are much lower on the OceanChef 3 so the mount will need to be much lower than it was for the Eno.  We also moved it about 20mm outboard.  The only real difficulty was drilling through the forward side plywood as the insulation just wrapped around the drill bit preventing the drill bit from completing the hole.  We ended up using a 1/4" wood screw to "grab" the insulation and pull it out of the hole so that we could clear a path for the drill bit to get through all the way.  In the end the mounts were quite strong and secure.  I could hold myself up on the blocks.  We used Minwax Polyshades Oil Based Stain and Polyurethane one-step in Natural Cherry color to finish them and it was a real close match to the Amel African Mahogany.  Certainly good enough for how much you see it.  Below are some pics.  Feel free to ask me any questions.





--
Mark McGovern
SM #440 Cara
Deale, MD USA

Herman
I would not put the panels in serie, shadow will reduce production significantly more than if you have them in serie. I have 4 Victron MPPT controllers, one for each Maxium 3 panel, one  for 2x180 w 36 v parallell panels on the rail, and one for 2x150 w 36 v semiflexible panels on my Bimini also in parallell.
Typical out put from the one on the rail a normal sunny day is 2000-2300wh, for the semiflexible only 700wh as much more shadow on the bimini, but also semiflexible panels have not the same performance as ridgid panels. total around or exceed 7000 wh/day.
Paul on SY Kerpa SM#259

Hi Denise,

I have a brand new OceanChef 3 sitting in my garage right now (along with my old Enos unit).  REAL interested in your installation as I am going to be prepping for it tomorrow.  Can you send a close up photo of the blocks or supports you used to attach the stove to the bulkheads on each side?
Thanks!
--
Dave Kurtz
SM2 #380
S/V Celtic Cross

Detroit, Michigan

We’re looking at the LG Neon and Sunpower panels as well, haven’t decided yet. But when looking at the voltage level of two panel in series we get to a serious (and costly) Victron MPPT controller. What did you select for the controllers? 

Herman
--
SY-Kolibri - SM #174

Eloi,

For what it is worth, I have older LG panels as well, and they have also run well above their rated output.  Ours were the first generation of the LG panels, and were rated at 315W and routinely output 375W each.

I am really curious, how you are going to fit three panels that are each 1046mm wide on your arch?  It seems to me that a width of over 3.1m will be a real hazard maneuvering around docks and pilings.

Bill Kinney
SM160, Harmonie
Hollywood, FL, USA

I just install 2 Maximo 3 panels, very pleased so fare.maxumum peek watt registered is 560w. Max for one day is 2600 wh. That is South Portugal in early May.
Paul on SY Kerpa SM 259

Hi all,
My name is Roy and I am Happy to write here for the first time. 
With the invaluable  help of Bill Rouse and after a long search I am the proud new owner of Joanna2  a SM # 442 currently in sicily.
It feels great to be part of the amel owners club and this amazing forum which already helped me a lot!
I feel like I know some of you guys already ;)
 As I am currently not onboard I need help with the exact height of the life rail for ordering a saftey life net.
Thanks in advance 
Roy zakheym 
Joanna2 SM 442 


 

Hi,