Project 2 - Solar

There are three scarce resources aboard a cruising boat: water, black water holding capacity and electricity.  

Electricity is typically supplied by 12 volt batteries.  Trekker was delivered with a house bank of two Victron Energy AGM batteries of 160 Amp hours each and a starting battery of 90 Ah.  Refrigeration, radios, lights, instruments, and mobile devices all run off electricity, so it's critical that the batteries always be charged. 

On our Catalina 36 MkII the previous owner had installed 300 watts of solar panels which served our needs perfectly.  We very rarely plugged in to 110V shore power to charge batteries. We decided it was a must to have solar on Trekker as well.

The selection of manufacturers offering solar hardware is daunting.  To narrow down the field, I thought it would be a good idea to try and stay with the same brand as the batteries, assuming that all the pieces would play well together!

I also needed to fit the panels into the space we have beside, between and behind the backstays.  

Based on this criteria, I decided to go with one big HES 250 Watt solar panel that fit between the split backstays on top of our cockpit arch. More on the arch in another post.  

A Victron brand Blue Solar MPPT 150/35 solar controller, Phoenix 350W inverter and BMV-702S battery monitor completed the kit. 

Over the years I've come to realize that it is worth paying to have someone that knows what they are doing do certain things.  Drywalling comes to mind. It's not that I can't do it ... it's just that it takes me forever, and I create a lot more dust than a good tradesman!  Similarly, I probably could have installed the solar kit myself, but I have a full time job, and we wanted to sail this summer ... 

Pat Sturgeon recommended Nadil Mohammad of N.M. Marine Services as someone that knows what they are doing around boats.  In early March Karen and I met Nadil on Trekker and discussed the projects.  Nadil gave us a quote which seemed very reasonable for our projects, so we asked him to go ahead.

Beginning around the end of March, Nadil began working on the projects including the solar controller, inverter and monitor.  The size of the inverter was the subject of some discussion among Stefan at Ontario Battery Services, where we bought the solar kit, Nadil, Pat and my brother, who had just returned from cruising the Bahamas.  Some said the bigger the better, others said that a bigger inverter will likely hum when it is on and if we were not intending to have a microwave (which we are not) would not be necessary.  At the end of the day we decided on the smaller inverter which is enough to run the TV and computer, we can always change to a bigger one if necessary. 

250 W solar panel mounted on cockpit arch

As mentioned, we mounted the panel on the arch. We used u-bolts around the tubes of the arch bolted into the frame. The wires run through the tubes and down below to a terminal block (to allow for removal of the arch) and then forward to the solar controller located adjacent to the batteries. The inverter and battery monitor are also located in the same vicinity. The installation went as planned and once connected everything worked just as we had expected!