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Solar panels stainless steel mounted vs soft panels
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Ian Park
We have two on the rail also. Like Danny says they swivel easily to angle towards the sun with just the correct tension on the clamps. They have been secure through gale force winds. They are easy enough to unplug, un clamp and store in any threatening situation (never needed to so far).
I also fitted an extra flexible panel on the Bimini this year as we bought a portable cool box/freezer and that has performed well too. I don’t want the extra weight of an arch and solar panels so far back on my boat. Ian ‘Ocean Hobo’ SN 96 |
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Billy Newport
I had custom soliban flex panels made for my previous boat. The price per watt of the custom panels wasn't much different than stock sizes, just longer delivery time. I went overboard with this boat and had a separate mppt for each panel resulting in a lot of wiring, I'd do that different with strings if doing it again.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YZv6xncC821Rquqn8 |
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Pierre Blouin
Hi Danny, would you mind posting some pictures of your port side rail set-up, sounds very interesting.
thanks -Pierre SV Viva, SM374 Portland, OR |
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Hi Pierre. I will do that. If I cant find my photos I will take some new. Kind Regards Danny SM 299 Ocean Pearl On 05 September 2021 at 08:37 Pierre Blouin <blouinpdx@...> wrote: |
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Hi Pierre. See photos attached. You will see the wires are surface mounted entering under the lid of the big cockpit locker. I did it that way because I thought the rail mounting would be temporary. Both the rail mount and the surface wiring have been so successful I changed nothing Pleased to avoid drilling holes. As you can see the panels in.working position leave sufficient space to move past them.. Not being stayed they are quick and easy to swivel either way. If extreme weather threatened it would be a task of minutes to remove and stow them. In over 50,000 miles I have never had to contemplate this action. Kind Regards Danny SM 299 Ocean Pearl On 05 September 2021 at 08:37 Pierre Blouin <blouinpdx@...> wrote: 
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Danny, this is super cool and so well made. Where did you get the hardware to build the mounts, the sliders? Aluminum or SS? This is exactly what I was looking for.
-- John Bernard "JB" Duler San Francisco Meltem # 19, Western Med |
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Hi Pierre. See photos attached. You will see the wires are surface mounted entering under the lid of the big cockpit locker. I did it that way because I thought the rail mounting would be temporary. Both the rail mount and the surface wiring have been so successful I changed nothing Pleased to avoid drilling holes. As you can see the panels in.working position leave sufficient space to move past them.. Not being stayed they are quick and easy to swivel either way. If extreme weather threatened it would be a task of minutes to remove and stow them. In over 50,000 miles I have never had to contemplate this action. Kind Regards Danny SM 299 Ocean Pearl On 05 September 2021 at 08:37 Pierre Blouin <blouinpdx@...> wrote: |
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
---------- Original Message ----------
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
HI jB, i got the panels and everything else in the same place at the same time. Island Water World Sint Maarten. they carried everything custom made to mount them. In 2009 so they have stood the test of time. Kind Regards Danny SM 299 Ocean Pearl On 06 September 2021 at 10:46 JB Duler <jbduler@...> wrote: |
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Gregory Shea
JB,
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I have the same mounting system as Danny. You can buy them direct from the Swedish manufacturer NOA and they are available in the States but you will have to search around to find a retailer. There was one in St Pete, in Florida, but they did not stock
anything so I went direct to NOA.
They are top shelf stuff and they do all sorts of solar mountings, tables, radar masts etc.
Greg Shea
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Paul Stascavage
Like with everything on a boat, there are pros and cons to anything you do.
I was very glad that we took the advise of Bill R and others who said, “don’t make any changes for at least a year...” We wanted to add solar when we purchased our SM back in 2016 , but we waited over 2 years to implement the modification, and I am so glad we did,as the result was a set-up that we are completely happy with. It takes time to review what others have done, look at options, evaluate your needs, and determine what is important for you and your use of power and your use of the boat. For us, we really did not want to add an arch for a number of reasons. Semi-flex panels offered us the best solution for our needs. Initially, we added 680 watts using (4) 170 watt SunPower panels. We had awning tracks sewn into our new bimini, and bolt rope sewn onto the edges of the panels as we are not big fans of velcro or zippers. This set-up allows the panels to be easily slid into place and installed or removed in minutes. The initial wattage met with our daily power consumption, but it was not enough to make up for cloudy days or when our consumption rate increased for some reason. Last winter we added (2) 110 watt panels (also from SunPower) for a total of 900 watts on the bimini. We typically see between 3 to 4 kWh per day for all the panels depending on the amount of sun and any shading from the masts. Most days it is closer to 4 kWh. The 6 panels are divided into 2 sets of 3 panels in series with the 3 on the starboard side going to a Victron 100/15 MPPT controller and the 3 on the port side going to a separate but identical controller. I can’t say how these would compare to hard fixed panels, but for us they serve our needs and they are out of the way. Our daily consumption is approximately 120 amp hours on anchor, and the current set-up (no pun intended) has allowed us to only turn on Onan to run the 240 volt accessories. All the best, Paul Stascavage SM #466 - s/v Rita Kathryn Currently Exploring City Island, NY www.RitaKathryn.com     |
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Justin Maguire
Very nice installation
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On Sep 6, 2021, at 06:32, Paul Stascavage via groups.io <pstas2003@...> wrote:
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Paul, very well thought out and great power added. As you are aware, the solar arch we designed and built with Emek Marin in Turkey has been installed on over 100 SMs and 54s, but BeBe 387, was the first. If I had to do it over again today on a SM, I would do what you have done and saved money. I tend to lean toward Solbian as the supplier for ultra-thin flexible panels and really like all of the accessories and especially the custom panel fabrication that they offer. Bravo! Bill
Like with everything on a boat, there are pros and cons to anything you do. |
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Danny and Greg, thank you so much! I did not know anything about that Swedish company (I had seen their table).
Great find and a fantastic resource for me. -- John Bernard "JB" Duler San Francisco Meltem # 19, Western Med |
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Gregory Shea
JB,
If you buy the NOA brackets and tracks, let me know at gmshea@.... I modified the brackets to control both the friction on the slider and the tightness of the rotation (accreditation Graham Johnston Sharki 196 Zephyr). I can share the mods with you,
but you will need a bracket in front of you to understand them. Unfortunately, I'm flying home from Greece tomorrow and I don't have any photos.
Greg Shea
Sharki 133 Cap des iles
KIlada
From: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> on behalf of JB Duler <jbduler@...>
Sent: Monday, September 6, 2021 11:17 AM To: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io <main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io> Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] Solar panels stainless steel mounted vs soft panels Danny and Greg, thank you so much! I did not know anything about that Swedish company (I had seen their table).
Great find and a fantastic resource for me. -- John Bernard "JB" Duler San Francisco Meltem # 19, Western Med |
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Gregory Shea
JB, Danny,
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The Frenchman who installed my rail mounted panels had an interesting way of leading the wiring inside the boat.
You can see the waterproof gland in the gunwhale which he then led into the conduit in the corner of the hull to deck joint. From there he could take the wiring anywhere in the boat, very easily.
Interesting approach.
Greg Shea
Sharki 133 Cap des iles
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Hi JB. Glad to help Kind Regards Danny Ocean Pearl On 07 September 2021 at 03:17 JB Duler <jbduler@...> wrote: |
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Hi Greg, That was what I would have done had I gone internal but as I said I surface mounted "temporarily" and it was so satisfactory I left it as it was. I don't think anyone even notices the wires. Kind Regards Danny SM 299 Ocean Pearl On 07 September 2021 at 04:13 Gregory Shea <gmshea@...> wrote:
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Patrick McAneny
Danny, I want to add some more solar and while I never liked the idea of rail mounting ,I don't want to modify my bimini either. My problem is ,that most panels with decent output are approx . 40 + inches wide . From the rail down to the rub rail is only about 26 inches . I would then have over a foot inboard of the rail. How wide of a panel do you recommend ?
Thanks
Pat SM Shenanigans -----Original Message-----
From: Danny and Yvonne SIMMS <simms@...> To: main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io Sent: Mon, Sep 6, 2021 3:45 pm Subject: Re: [AmelYachtOwners] Solar panels stainless steel mounted vs soft panels Hi Greg, That was what I would have done had I gone internal but as I said I surface mounted "temporarily" and it was so satisfactory I left it as it was. I don't think anyone even notices the wires.
Kind Regards
Danny
SM 299
Ocean Pearl
On 07 September 2021 at 04:13 Gregory Shea <gmshea@...> wrote: |
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Danny and Yvonne SIMMS
Hi Pat, I will measure later on today. I set the swivels so the inboard portion gave me room to pass. This is about 1/3 in 2/3 out. It clears the rub rail when swiveled down. The room I had did set the size of panel, length as well.. As I have said before I wasn't trying to power a floating condo from solar only. I let you know later today about the measurement. Kind Regards Danny On 08 September 2021 at 03:51 "Patrick McAneny via groups.io" <sailw32@...> wrote: |
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