Solar Power for batteries

[Nehalennia]

Todd, why not just mount it to your radar ar........uh nevermind.

Bastard......(J/K)

Not sure that any panel will help keep the fridge running at night! I think you mean to keep them at full power to have them ready for night. It may look trifling, but you don't have to solid mount them. Carry one in your bilge, or cabin and plug it in. I have a 15W that I use during the winter when I work on the boat(yes, I work on it during the winter) to keep the batts up. You could plug it in and lay it on the windshield vertically.

Sorry my post was a typo, I was trying to say run the fridge during the day and then draw from the batts at night. Somehow I jumped my thought forward.

 

[wileecoyote]

I knew what you meant, but I wouldn't be able to show my head if I didn't catch and report it! Your lucky you didn't go down for the SPOTD!

 

[Hap]

I saw them, but I wouldn't say "solar powered" They only do what we were speaking of which is charge up the batts. The curious thing in that article was when they said they were trying to package the panels in the canvas. That is interesting!

I know this is a long dead thread but I wanted to comment on the flex solar sewn on canvas. There are products out now that have it. The military uses them on medium sized tents with an approximate output of about 2kw. I'll root around to see if I can dig up the product link. It was all Mil-grade stuff but maybe it has trickled over to the commercial side.

H

 

[Hap]

I know this is a long dead thread but I wanted to comment on the flex solar sewn on canvas. There are products out now that have it. The military uses them on medium sized tents with an approximate output of about 2kw. I'll root around to see if I can dig up the product link. It was all Mil-grade stuff but maybe it has trickled over to the commercial side.

H

Not that anyone is even monitoring this but just in case it turns up in a future search I found the links that could be interesting for putting up solar canvas and making it dual function.

overview can be found here:
http://www.solarbuzz.com/news/NewsNAPT78.htm

and the actual company and some of their products can be found here:
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/military_government/index.php?cat=mg_shelters

I also turned up some Chinese manufacturers claiming to be able to crank out the same stuff (yeah, big surprise there).

It has a lot of possibilities for us. I hope this helps.

H

 

[Glen S]

As someone who has come over from the sailing side recently, I have sailing friends (at least I think they are still friends) who can go days at anchor using solar power.They are running a fridge and the typical electrical items like electronics, lights radio - not a stove since they are mostly propane. But they made sizable investment to do this - several thousand dollars with enough panels, charge controls, stainless arches that allow the panels to be rotated towards the sun, a very solid bank of deep cycle batteries etc. It comes down to a combination of investment and a certain restraint in power usage.

Cheers,

 

[Hap]

I have sailing friends ...who can go days at anchor using solar power.They are running a fridge and the typical electrical items like electronics, lights radio... But they made sizable investment to do this - several thousand dollars with enough panels, charge controls, stainless arches that allow the panels to be rotated towards the sun, a very solid bank of deep cycle batteries etc. It comes down to a combination of investment and a certain restraint in power usage.

The price per watt has definitely plunged in the last year or so due to a variety of new technologies and manufacturing techniques being brought online. Now that solar is no longer confined to rigid infrastructure the installation costs are going to crater as well.

Another interesting development is in organic dyes and paint based solar. Yup, paint on solar panels though the current problem is the limited lifespan (about 2 years). But it is still an exciting development. It works using a couple different coats and each layer provides a part of the functionality.

Anyway we have a lot of neat stuff coming into the commercial side that changes a lot of things in our favor. The old days of having to pay out the butt for a little bit of functionality are drawing to a close. It's amazing the premium we are forced to pay when we want to do the right thing.

H