Solar panels and controlers....

[Allure2sail]

Hi All:
I recently upgraded my two 10 watt flexable solar panels to a pair of 20 watt flexable panels. One is for the windless battery mounted under the vberth and the second is for the two main batteries. Also purchased a new controller for the main battery bank (two group 27's) that switches back and forth to the battery that needs the charge the most. I use to have to do it manually with a 3 way switch. The other battery (a group 31) has a standard single battery controller (a Sunforce) and has always worked fine. The two panels lay flat and are secured onto the cabin roof. Now for the question...I am interested in hearing what other people have for solar setups, size, wattage and location)? I use my panels as strictly battery maintainers  since I do not have a frig. AC or microwave. My galley lights are LED conversions.
Thanks in advance
Bruce
S/V Allure
Swansea, MA

[Shawn]

Bruce,

On my Sabre I have a 100w panel on the aft rail. That feeds a Morningstar SunSaver. The SunSaver is wired to my house battery bank as is the alternator output. I also have a reserve battery. I use an Xantrex Echo Charger between the main bank and the reserve battery to keep the reserve battery topped up. When the main bank is receiving a charging voltage the Xantrex acts as an intelligent charger that will divert up to 10 amps to charge the reserve battery, if needed. If there is no charging voltage on the main bank nothing is sent to the reserve battery.

You might consider the Echo charger in your setup. That way you could use all 40w of solar on your main bank and use the Echo charger to handle recharging your windlass battery. This would give you more solar on the main bank (and essentially more on the windlass battery) as well as having your alternator helping to recharge your windlass if the engine is running. Because the Echo Charger won't sent more than 10amps to the secondary battery your wiring to the windlass battery won't need to be huge.

If your main bank is two paralleled group 27s why is your main charger switching between the two?

Shawn

[Allure2sail]

Hi Shawn:
The two group 27's under the stairs are not in a parallel setup. I have a selector switch for number 1 or 2 or both. The windless battery up front is not tied into the house batteries. It is a stand alone setup and is only for the windless. Last year I had a 10 watt flex panel with a Sunforce controller on it and it kept it fully charged. Then again the windless is not used a lot. I usually grab a mooring or slip when cruising. When I do anchor it is worth every dollar I paid for it. I've got a 22 pound Delta and 125 of chain that I use. I can tell you that I do sleep pretty good when on the hook LOL. I wanted more solar power because of my cruising plans for this season (if the snow ever melts). When starting and running under power I always leave the battery switch on both. The new two battery controller for the house batteries saves me the trouble of checking the voltage on each battery and switching to it. More snow falling.....!!!
Bruce

[Steady1]

Hey, Bruce!

You may remember seeing our set-up when we were up at Dutch Harbor.  We have a pair of Group 24 Optima deep-cycle AGMs.  There's a 125 Solbian semi-flexible panel on the aft port of the Bimini.  The cable leads down the Bimini frame, into the coaming, through the engine room and into the battery box.  There's a Genasun controller as recommended by Coastal Climate, the Solbian dealer in Annapolis.  This charges just the "house" battery for lights, radio, stereo, FrigoBoat cooler in the icebox, cabin fan and charging lap-tops, phones, etc.  This set-up does well, allowing us to stay at anchor / on a mooring for several days without running the engine or plugging in to re-charge the battery.  Not inexpensive but it's proved to be well worth it.

From sunny Florida, fair winds,

Bill

[Shawn]

Ok, your two batteries are like mine just that you are calling them both house and I am calling mine house ( A battery) and reserve is the B.

Instead of the dual charger you have (or leaving on both which can overcharge one battery) I use the echo charger to keep B topped up and just always run on A.

You could still use the echo charger in your setup. Just write both solar panels into your main charger to maximize solar charging to A and B and use the echo charge to keep the windlass battery ( essentially C) charged. The combined panels would give you faster recharging for pretty much everything and the echo charger would mean your engine would also recharge your windlass battery too.

Some use more than one echo charger if they have more than 2 banks.

Shawn

[Allure2sail]

Hi Guys:
I think I might reuse the small switch that use to let me choose which house battery I wanted to send the old single solar panel charge to. If I put that switch up front in the wiring for charging the windless battery, when that battery is fully charged I could flip the switch and send the current from that panel to the input on the dual battery controller so that both panels would be feeding the house batteries (as I call them). Those two batteries are the same brand, size and age so I'm not really worried about leaving the main battery switch on both when motoring. To be able to redirect the output from the other solar panel up front gives me a little more flexability.
Bruce

[Allure2sail]

Hey, Bruce!

You may remember seeing our set-up when we were up at Dutch Harbor.  We have a pair of Group 24 Optima deep-cycle AGMs.  There's a 125 Solbian semi-flexible panel on the aft port of the Bimini.  The cable leads down the Bimini frame, into the coaming, through the engine room and into the battery box.  There's a Genasun controller as recommended by Coastal Climate, the Solbian dealer in Annapolis.  This charges just the "house" battery for lights, radio, stereo, FrigoBoat cooler in the icebox, cabin fan and charging lap-tops, phones, etc.  This set-up does well, allowing us to stay at anchor / on a mooring for several days without running the engine or plugging in to re-charge the battery.  Not inexpensive but it's proved to be well worth it.

From sunny Florida, fair winds,

Bill

Hi Bill, Looks like your back in your home port. I thought you were from the Carolina's. Nasty winter up here, but managing okay.
Bruce
S/V Allure
Swansea, MA

[Steady1]

Bruce - we've spent so much time in Fort Myers, it's begun to feel like "home port," but no, we expect to head east from here tomorrow; the port o' call remains Hallieford, VA. Meantime, the Solbian works great down here! Much better than in Maine in the fog!