Solar power: underpowered?

[Tony Custard]

Hi all

 

Quite new to the world of boating. Owned our boat for about 3 months, and have gone through the bad battery bank, blown investor (through attempting a microwave) water tank gunk, and clean, still gunk - upgrading to some kind of bladder shortly. 

I've fitted my own eBay bought flat panel solar (monocrystal) they are rated at 150watt a piece, so I bought 2 and bought a half decent 40amp MPPS charge generator. But, it only gives me read-out for how many amps it's putting in, which apparently is about 0.3 to 0.5. 

Does that sound right for the low light and shitty rain? (based in Adlington).

Thanks

 

[David Mack]

The remote meter attached to my Tracer solar controller shows both the voltage and current being put out by the panel, and the voltage and current into the battery. At this time of year output will be negligible, so it is not surprising you are only getting 0.3-0.5 A into the battery. Not really useful, but it will be enough to make up for the self discharge of the batteries.

Edited December 27, 2019 by David Mack

[Tony Custard]

Cheers David. Just wanted to make sure I'd not just bought some black stickers on a plastic board rather than a solar panel. 

I look forward to brighter, longer days.

Thanks

 

[peterboat]

I have 4.6kw of solar and its not doing much either I am afraid, I have bought a 600 watt VAWT to supplement it, have yet to mount it but I am working on the basis that in winter it might not be sunny but it is windy

[Jen-in-Wellies]

If only there was a way of directly generating electricity from drizzle! Ideal for those many winter days where there is no sunshine and little wind, like today, and yesterday and forecast for tomorrow. A dam and a turbine for hydroelectric sufficient to power a boat is going to be a bit too big.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Tony Custard]

Jen, you beat me to it. I've not had that much wind, but plenty of rain and drizzle. I am thinking of creating some kind of water collection for the water tank! That's a definite. 

 

[peterboat]

16 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

If only there was a way of directly generating electricity from drizzle! Ideal for those many winter days where there is no sunshine and little wind, like today, and yesterday and forecast for tomorrow. A dam and a turbine for hydroelectric sufficient to power a boat is going to be a bit too big.

You could attach one to the pump that keeps the pounds level Jen ? trouble it that aint reliable either...................................

[dor]

You won’t get much in drizzle, but currently (ha ha) I’m getting just over two amps around midday from 2x100 W panels through a MPPT controller with a reasonably clear sky. Panels are mounted flat, so probably only getting half the available energy. 

 There is a slim chance you may get a bit of sunshine before April so try then.

[Boater Sam]

Have you unwrapped the panels and put them outside?

Try angling them at the sun if you can see it, should make a difference if they are working.

Shine a torch on them?

[Jess--]

for a pair of 150w panels you are getting pretty much what I would expect at this time of year.

the 140w panel we had would produce 0.1A - 0.2A at 14V over winter, in summer we would expect our 140w panel to be producing around 9A (although it rarely got to this because the batteries were almost always close to fully charged)

with your 300w of solar I would expect somewhere around 20A in the summer (assuming your batteries are in a state where they will accept that rate of charge)