Spray

Spray

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Solar Panel

In May we added a 100W Ramsond mono-crystalline solar panel on Spray's stern rail. Our intent was to provide enough power to keep the house battery charged while anchored or sailing with the refrigerator, radio, and navigation instruments running. The panel weighs only 16.5 lbs and generates 5.41 peak amps which should be sufficient for our needs. We installed a Schnieder/Xantrex 40 AMP charge controller configured for our Lifeline 8D AGM house battery with the float charge rate set to ~13.2 volts. We mounted the solar panel on the stern rail using two sturdy adjustable Magma BBQ mounts. This allows us to position the solar panel on either side or aft sections to achieve optimal sunshine based on our position. We're pleased with the results and will upload some pics next week.

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