My solar panels are installed....except.....

[DeanS]

There's no sun today.

 

[oarfish]

Sun lasted for a whole hour or so after these were taken of my newly installed amorphous panels yesterday.

 

 

[DeanS]

I see you have 2 centre ropes....

I'm going to do that.....Im tired of swinging the same one to this side...then to that side....over the fire chimney

 

Nice panels.....

[Grace and Favour]

Sun lasted for a whole hour or so after these were taken of my newly installed amorphous panels yesterday.

Neat job, squire! ✔

[smileypete]

How is it today? The sun has got his hat on where I am...

 

What sort of batt voltage and charge current are you seeing?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited May 19, 2013 by smileypete

[Ex- Member]

Sun lasted for a whole hour or so after these were taken of my newly installed amorphous panels yesterday.

 

 

 

They do look good, I really wanted to go for that type,( i'm assuming that are flexi adhesive panels) they were just so expensive compared to alloy framed panels. If I upgrade panel capacity though, they are the way I'll probably go.

 

How much per watt are they now BTW

[oarfish]

They do look good, I really wanted to go for that type,( i'm assuming that are flexi adhesive panels) they were just so expensive compared to alloy framed panels. If I upgrade panel capacity though, they are the way I'll probably go.

 

How much per watt are they now BTW

 

They are Unisolar PVL-136 panels. the UK importers charge insane markups. Importing small numbers via ebay is still not cheap though, about £3 a watt.

[DeanS]

How is it today? The sun has got his hat on where I am...

 

What sort of batt voltage and charge current are you seeing?

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

Sun was out a bit today, and see-ing voltage of 13.5V and about 30Amps (50%)...thats in bright cloudy weather..not really clear skys ...all working really well....I stood watching the sun/shadow line moving towards my boat this morning...and the nearer it got, the higher the voltage on the display It's so nice knowing that for once my batteries are getting a nice looooonggggg charge..........

[smileypete]

Sounds good! I s'pose on a very overcast day you could do a morning engine/genny run and guesstimate enough charge to give things a good head start.

 

As long as the batts get a nice long charge at 14.4V at least every say 7 days then not being able to fully charge each day shouldn't be too much of a problem, as long as the batts don't get depleted too much.

 

What controller did you go for in the end BTW, 2x30A Tracer MPPT or a 60A?

 

ETA Something worth doing is check the screw terminals on the contoller are still tight after a few days and then every now and then, sometimes they can loosen off especially if the wire has fine strands.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited May 19, 2013 by smileypete

[Taslim]

Sounds good! I s'pose on a very overcast day you could do a morning engine/genny run and guesstimate enough charge to give things a good head start.

 

As long as the batts get a nice long charge at 14.4V at least every say 7 days then not being able to fully charge each day shouldn't be too much of a problem, as long as the batts don't get depleted too much.

 

What controller did you go for in the end BTW, 2x30A Tracer MPPT or a 60A?

 

ETA Something worth doing is check the screw terminals on the contoller are still tight after a few days and then every now and then, sometimes they can loosen off especially if the wire has fine strands.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

A bit off topic but..Do you use bootlace ferules on the wires? The reason for asking is that I have found when inspecting new built kit that, even properly crimped, they will 'relax' within a day and will need tightening. We use calibrated torque controled drivers

[peterboat]

Hi dean welcome to the world of of nearly free energy and silence. I installed solar on my first boat and upgraded it onto this my present boat. After a while you stop looking at the meters (well I have) and just get on with not running engines/gennies. I have full traction batteries so I keep an eye on water levels in the batteries but other than that I just get on with living on my boat and not worrying about leccy bills. But always remember keep on cruising because their is nothing like 8 hours of boating to refresh those batteries cheers

 

 

Peter

[Grace and Favour]

A bit off topic but..Do you use bootlace ferules on the wires? The reason for asking is that I have found when inspecting new built kit that, even properly crimped, they will 'relax' within a day and will need tightening. We use calibrated torque controled drivers

I thought they were female taxi operatives.......

 

 

 

(Coat)

[MtB]

No, that's torque UNcontrolled drivers....

 

 

mtB

[AidanLincs]

Sun lasted for a whole hour or so after these were taken of my newly installed amorphous panels yesterday.

 

Mmm. Yes, very nice Oarfish. Are these the ones that are (at least theoretically) possible to walk on?

[smileypete]

A bit off topic but..Do you use bootlace ferules on the wires? The reason for asking is that I have found when inspecting new built kit that, even properly crimped, they will 'relax' within a day and will need tightening. We use calibrated torque controled drivers

 

Difficult to comment without knowing more about it, is this stuff you're making at work or buying in? In certain situations I do things up 'b*stard tight' with not-so-calibrated arm muscles, though doing that all the time would sometimes mangle things beyond recognition.

 

I think ferrules are OK for 13A plugs and stuff like that but some look a bit too flimsy for bigger cable sizes so maybe not ideal. As well as ferrules there's also pin/blade crimps in the usual red/blue/yellow sizes up to 6mm, there's even tubular pin crimps up to 70mm but they're very pricey in small numbers, like, ouch!

 

So in a DIY situation where terminating big fine stranded wires in normal screw terminals I'd even consider cutting a tubular butt terminal in half and using it as a ferryle. But some screw terminals have 'wire protectors' and so don't need ferrules so much.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited May 21, 2013 by smileypete

[oarfish]

Mmm. Yes, very nice Oarfish. Are these the ones that are (at least theoretically) possible to walk on?

 

Yes, they are soft and flexible. Will match the exact curve of the roof. They are much less efficient by area than mono / poly crystalline though.