[C320-list] Solar panels and shading

[Graeme Clark]

Michael

I’m beginning to think I should just email you, before I post anything on the list - it would save time! :-)

So where do you fit it and is it a hard or flexile type. What controller do you have?

Our normal usage pattern means that we never run short of power due to use of lights etc as we run the engine enough just motoring into harbour or on and off the moorings to replensih that. What ‘kills’ us is the fridge! Also my eberspacher can be tempremental about starting if battery voltage isnt high, although it runs quite happily on a much lower voltage, once started.
So my thinking is to fit the largest I can in that space in front of the traveller and somehow thread the wires down to the battery bank.
Cheers
Graeme


> On 29 Jan 2018, at 11:26, Michael McCretton <michaelmccretton at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Graeme
> I have had a 30 watt flexible panel for about 4 years and it has been brilliant. Keeps the battery nicely topped up to about 13-13.5 volts. Shading even in the UK is not a problem. I never managed to trace the wiring that according to the manual is there for a solar panel.
> Michael
> Silvan II 1994 #302
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On 29 Jan 2018, at 10:22, Graeme Clark <cg at skyflyer.co.uk<mailto:cg at skyflyer.co.uk>> wrote:
> 
> I’m about to buy a solar panel to mount on the hatch garage cover, forward of the traveller. ( I don't have a bimini nor an arch so no other choice really).
> 
> I think it has to be the flexible type as I have noticed that occasionally the mainsheet block can drop forward onto this space, if the mainsheet goes slack, and I suspect that would soon crack a ‘hard’ panel.
> 
> At first glance the ‘garage’ has a large area but of course the forward corners of it are encroached by the halyards and other control lines and the rear by the traveller control lines.
> 
> I have read that even a small amount of shading can hugely reduce the amount of power from  panel - in other words 10% shading will give a 50-60% reduction in power, not a 10% reduction in power.
> 
> So I am considering a smaller panel that is completely unobstructed.
> 
> BUT someone else has said that the flexible panels are more tolerant to the shading problem, more like a 10% shading giving  a 20% reduction in power.
> 
> I’m confused -  do i go for the biggest panel I can fit or the biggest I can fit into an unshaded area?
> 
> Lots of conflicting advice about this on the internet, so i thought I’d ask if anyone on the list has this particular configuration and if so what your experience has been
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Graeme
> 
> #366, 1996, England
>