Solar Panel installation for 28te

[whwells]

Hey Members: My plans for the Northstar 2006 Albin 28te this is year is to put the boat on Lake Tahoe. The boat will hang on a buoy mooring for up to 3-4 weeks without
use. There is no power hook up and the batteries will only get recharged when the 315 Yanmar is operated.

With that back ground I want to install a single solar panel and controller. The Bass store
has a smaller unit with a controller for 100 amp or 150 amp. Only need enough sun power to keep the batteries up. If you have a better unit please let me know.

My QUESTION IS WHERE TO HOOK INTO THE POWER SYSTEM. Power will be off at the breaker panel accept for the automatic pumps. Is there way to wire in at the breaker panel
or should I go directly to a battery bank? If to the breaker panel has anyone done this
and can you tell me where you tied in. If you have any pictures contact me on my private
message for my email address/or post here. Thank you.

W. Howard Wells

[Norseman]

I installed a solar panel a while ago.
For details, see page 15 of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10612

Your wire the controller between the house bank and the panel.
75 watt should be plenty for keeping the batteries charged.
Make sure you get an MPPT solar controller.

[Ben423]

I agree with Norseman. Wire your solar panel directly to the battery. If you're using the solar panel to keep your battery charged, with no load on it such as the refrigerator, you can get by with a pretty small panel. I use a 50watt flexible panel. My '05 has the extended cabin top and the panel fits perfectly just aft of the arch.

[Wfmdfm]

If this is just a temporary thing for a few weeks I would consider one of the small 15 watt plugins. Set it on the dash board and plug it in the cigarette lighter. That will keep a small charge on the battery each day. Just a thought. I love my 160 watt flexible panel. I think solar is the way to go when on a mooring.

[Watto99]

Hi
When I decided to put solar in,to my 2005 Albin 28 TE ( the only one in Australia i think) I
put 4 panels on the roof
A total of 520 w in rectangular panels
It’ might seem a bit of over kill but. Solar panels are pretty cheap and the installation doesn’t cost that much more
Also when you look into solar you realise how only 10% of shade can render the whole panel useless - you can get that shade just from the radar etc- so having more panels guarantees a proper charge
Remember to put at least 1 cm gap between the panels amd the cabin top as panels efficiency drops when the panels gets too hot

[Wfmdfm]

I did a lot of research prior to installing my flexible solar panel on the roof. I didn’t find any loss of production because of excessive heat. They have been working now for 9 months issue free. I glued then right to the roof.

[Tree]

Just completed my install today. Pretty straight forward as I wanted that back up from shore power due to an incident last week that has cost me a battery. Shore power cut out and battery discharged over a couple of days since I leave on my DC for the refrigerator and a few other things. By the time I was able to get down to the boat - battery was at 7 volts. Suffice to say, house battery was done and I’m keeping an eye on the starting battery. So with that I decided to install a solar panel and charger as a back up.

I went with the Sunpower 110 watt panel, 5 metre solar extension lead and Victron Blue Solar Duo https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-cha ... er-lcd-usb so both banks are receiving a charge.

Overcast here today but still had 5 amps feeding in two 190ah batteries which should stop the total loss of volts in the long term!

I would’ve like to have done a better job of the cable on the roof but since it came watertight plugs, I chose to close it off in trunking.

Anyway £280 lighter for a battery and £300 lighter for a solar charger setup but that’s boats for you!