where to buy? what price? what kind? material? attachement? watts?
amps?

Any info , ???

What country?
How rich?
Who cares.
Who cares.
Permanent or occasional?
What for, eg fridge , lights and every day use or topping up during the week
after a weekends use?
Alec


"Benning Wentworth" wrote in message
news:1s9Vg.12$Ye.10@trndny04...
where to buy? what price? what kind? material? attachement? watts?
amps?

Any info , ???

On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:23:41 GMT, "Benning Wentworth"
wrote:

where to buy? what price? what kind? material? attachement? watts?
amps?

Any info , ???


And you plan to use the panel for what purpose?

Mika





----------------------------------------------------
Haluatko lähettää postia? Vaihda osoitteen
eka (vai oliko se toka?) numero vitonen numeroksi
kahdeksan...
----------------------------------------------------

I started out ... a trickle charge for my batteries. Then I looked on the
internet and many solar sites recommended a solar panel in the
80 watt scale. These sites said that the trickle charge panels like the
ones West has are pretty useless.

And so ... rather than put something on the boat that is more look that
effective ,,

I will hopefully be able to get enough power out of the panel to run lights,
and a couple of other items.

=============
"Mika" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:23:41 GMT, "Benning Wentworth"
wrote:

where to buy? what price? what kind? material? attachement? watts?
amps?

Any info , ???


And you plan to use the panel for what purpose?

Mika





----------------------------------------------------
Haluatko lähettää postia? Vaihda osoitteen
eka (vai oliko se toka?) numero vitonen numeroksi
kahdeksan...
----------------------------------------------------

Benning Wentworth inscribed in red ink for all to know:
I started out ... a trickle charge for my batteries. Then I looked on the
internet and many solar sites recommended a solar panel in the
80 watt scale. These sites said that the trickle charge panels like the
ones West has are pretty useless.

And so ... rather than put something on the boat that is more look that
effective ,,

I will hopefully be able to get enough power out of the panel to run lights,
and a couple of other items.

Mika-

You need to do a little research and planning. If you can answer these
two questions:

How many amps do my lights draw?
How many hours each day will I run my lights?

then you are making progress towards sizing a solar panel. I do not
know if you are 12V or 24V, so I will assume 12V because that is what my
systems are. Suppose you have 2 lights that draw 3 amps each, and you
expect to run them from 18:00 - 22:00 every night. Then you will be
comsuming 2 * 3 amps * 4 hours * 12 volts = 288 watt-hours each day.

To keep your battery from running down, you need to be able to put 288
watt-hours back into it each day. If you have an 80 watt panel, then
first you must de-rate it a little, to (others will give better figures,
but assume) say 85% because it never operates in the absolutely ideal
lab conditions at which panels are rated. So, your panel is
realistically a 80 * 0.85 = 68 watt panel, and will produce 68
watt-hours for each hour that it is in full, unshadowed, bright,
overhead sunlight. To get your 288 watt-hours, you would need about 4.2
hours. But the sun is not overhead 4 hours each day. My rule of thumb
is to derate the panel by another 50% to account for the rising/setting
sun effect. So, your 80 watt nominal panel would need about 8 hours to
replenish the power used by your lights. On cloudy or rainy days, or
when the days are short like in northern lattitude winters, your battery
would run down eventually, because each day you take more out of it to
run the lights than you put back the next day with the solar panel.

Does that help?

bob

RW Salnick wrote in news:eg428g$3le$1
@gnus01.u.washington.edu:

your battery
would run down eventually, because each day you take more out of it to
run the lights than you put back the next day with the solar panel.


Wouldn't, in that case, it be more correct to say, "your battery would
sulfate eventually"?.....

It's not nice to ever leave them in a partially-discharged state over time,
which would be FAR more expensive than cranking the engine to recharge,
properly, then let the panel top them off slowly during the day.....



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

RW ,, that was excellent. I am printing your posting.. I will use it as I
look for panels on ebay, etc.

====================


"RW Salnick" wrote in message
...
Benning Wentworth inscribed in red ink for all to know:
I started out ... a trickle charge for my batteries. Then I looked on
the internet and many solar sites recommended a solar panel in the
80 watt scale. These sites said that the trickle charge panels like the
ones West has are pretty useless.

And so ... rather than put something on the boat that is more look that
effective ,,

I will hopefully be able to get enough power out of the panel to run
lights, and a couple of other items.

Mika-

You need to do a little research and planning. If you can answer these
two questions:

How many amps do my lights draw?
How many hours each day will I run my lights?

then you are making progress towards sizing a solar panel. I do not know
if you are 12V or 24V, so I will assume 12V because that is what my
systems are. Suppose you have 2 lights that draw 3 amps each, and you
expect to run them from 18:00 - 22:00 every night. Then you will be
comsuming 2 * 3 amps * 4 hours * 12 volts = 288 watt-hours each day.

To keep your battery from running down, you need to be able to put 288
watt-hours back into it each day. If you have an 80 watt panel, then
first you must de-rate it a little, to (others will give better figures,
but assume) say 85% because it never operates in the absolutely ideal lab
conditions at which panels are rated. So, your panel is realistically a
80 * 0.85 = 68 watt panel, and will produce 68 watt-hours for each hour
that it is in full, unshadowed, bright, overhead sunlight. To get your
288 watt-hours, you would need about 4.2 hours. But the sun is not
overhead 4 hours each day. My rule of thumb is to derate the panel by
another 50% to account for the rising/setting sun effect. So, your 80
watt nominal panel would need about 8 hours to replenish the power used by
your lights. On cloudy or rainy days, or when the days are short like in
northern lattitude winters, your battery would run down eventually,
because each day you take more out of it to run the lights than you put
back the next day with the solar panel.

Does that help?

bob

RW ,,, I am researching my amp draw, found some good sites and I am
printing out material.

I also found a couple of pictures of sailboats with the panels attached.
The 80 watt panels are BIG.

I don't want a huge panel hanging off the stern rail ..

I wonder ?? If I can find two smaller panels ( seems like ebay has a couple
... probably sailors not satisfied with the amount of
power they are getting ). ... can one panel be connected to another panel
and then run through a regulator and then to the battery?

Or, does each panel go Panel/Regulator/battery?

It looks like the small panels are more likely to be listed on ebay.

It did find something interesting ....... a portable panel. It folds up.
When not needed, put it in a case and store it.

====
"RW Salnick" wrote in message
...
Benning Wentworth inscribed in red ink for all to know:
I started out ... a trickle charge for my batteries. Then I looked on
the internet and many solar sites recommended a solar panel in the
80 watt scale. These sites said that the trickle charge panels like the
ones West has are pretty useless.

And so ... rather than put something on the boat that is more look that
effective ,,

I will hopefully be able to get enough power out of the panel to run
lights, and a couple of other items.

Mika-

You need to do a little research and planning. If you can answer these
two questions:

How many amps do my lights draw?
How many hours each day will I run my lights?

then you are making progress towards sizing a solar panel. I do not know
if you are 12V or 24V, so I will assume 12V because that is what my
systems are. Suppose you have 2 lights that draw 3 amps each, and you
expect to run them from 18:00 - 22:00 every night. Then you will be
comsuming 2 * 3 amps * 4 hours * 12 volts = 288 watt-hours each day.

To keep your battery from running down, you need to be able to put 288
watt-hours back into it each day. If you have an 80 watt panel, then
first you must de-rate it a little, to (others will give better figures,
but assume) say 85% because it never operates in the absolutely ideal lab
conditions at which panels are rated. So, your panel is realistically a
80 * 0.85 = 68 watt panel, and will produce 68 watt-hours for each hour
that it is in full, unshadowed, bright, overhead sunlight. To get your
288 watt-hours, you would need about 4.2 hours. But the sun is not
overhead 4 hours each day. My rule of thumb is to derate the panel by
another 50% to account for the rising/setting sun effect. So, your 80
watt nominal panel would need about 8 hours to replenish the power used by
your lights. On cloudy or rainy days, or when the days are short like in
northern lattitude winters, your battery would run down eventually,
because each day you take more out of it to run the lights than you put
back the next day with the solar panel.

Does that help?

bob

Panels can be run in parallel. I have three 50 watt panels run
through one regulator. BTW, the key to solar panels is to have a lot
of area. My three on a good day probably don't add much more than 40
Amp-hours. One problem is they are on my hardtop where usually one is
shaded by the boom. If I was really serious, I would add a pair of 80
watt panels on my davit system.

Smaller panels don't do a lot, although if your boat stays unattended
on a mooring, a panel can be handy for keeping a battery charged. I
used a flexible panel, maybe about 20 watts, for this for a while. If
the output of a panel is low, like only an Amp or two, it doesn't need
a regulator.


Benning Wentworth wrote:
RW ,,, I am researching my amp draw, found some good sites and I am
printing out material.

I also found a couple of pictures of sailboats with the panels attached.
The 80 watt panels are BIG.

I don't want a huge panel hanging off the stern rail ..

I wonder ?? If I can find two smaller panels ( seems like ebay has a couple
.. probably sailors not satisfied with the amount of
power they are getting ). ... can one panel be connected to another panel
and then run through a regulator and then to the battery?

Or, does each panel go Panel/Regulator/battery?

It looks like the small panels are more likely to be listed on ebay.

It did find something interesting ....... a portable panel. It folds up.
When not needed, put it in a case and store it.

"Benning Wentworth" wrote in message
news:elAVg.212$lj2.121@trndny01...
RW ,,, I am researching my amp draw, found some good sites and I am
printing out material.

I also found a couple of pictures of sailboats with the panels attached.
The 80 watt panels are BIG.

I don't want a huge panel hanging off the stern rail ..

I wonder ?? If I can find two smaller panels ( seems like ebay has a
couple .. probably sailors not satisfied with the amount of
power they are getting ). ... can one panel be connected to another
panel and then run through a regulator and then to the battery?

Or, does each panel go Panel/Regulator/battery?

It looks like the small panels are more likely to be listed on ebay.

It did find something interesting ....... a portable panel. It folds up.
When not needed, put it in a case and store it.

UniSolar USF-32 panels are flexible, multi-layer and can be walked upon
without damaging them. 2 or 3 installed on your coachroof, bimini, dodger or
wherever they'll fit will go a long way to keeping your batteries up to
snuff. Probably won't completely fill your needs, if you like electricity,
but they are very worthwhile and user-friendly.