Stay! So if you've been following our
blogs you know that we've had a season
of battery charging problems of
generator problems and we've been
watching boats sail by with these lovely
solar panels on, not having to worry
about half the issues that we've had
problems with this season. When we looked
into it before solar was always outside of our
budget we thought if we could source
some cheaper panels and do the work
ourselves we could probably afford it.
So it was way back over a year ago now
when we were in Lefkas and we got
into conversation with a fellow a Amel
owner called Dean Giles and he had sketched up a
design for his Amel for three Panasonic
HIT 245w panels and he quite
kindly emailed us through his sketch of
the circuit diagram that he designed for
his boat. So this scrap of paper kind of
gave us the inspiration to look into it a
bit further. We were going to Tunisia anyway to get some jobs done and I
thought just out of interest I'd send a
rough sketch of the type of thing that
we had in mind and the quote came back
1,500 euros which was way cheaper than
anything we'd had quoted on before
so we thought - you know what - while we're in
Tunisia we're going to be sat in the yard for four weeks - we needed dinghy davits
anyway so we thought well why not?
It's not gonna cost that much
more to get the full arch made with a framework for the panel's -
let's get it done!
So the facilities were
basic but the skill level was there so
we went ahead and did it and we thought well
if we get at least a frame made for the
solar panels we could work out a budget
for the panel's and installation at a
later date.
So once the arch was in place it was
kind of flexing a bit - it was kind of
rocking from side to side even when we
were sat in the yard so we had some
diagonal supports put in as well which
were removable so we could get down the
steps and pull a dinghy on board if we
needed to through the arch.
So we sailed away from Monastir with
quite a lot of work done and the solar
arch in place but still no money for the
actual solar installation. Thunderstorm coming.
So after visiting the Balearic and
Sardinia we went down the east coast of
Spain with the intention of wintering in Almerimar.
Yeh, we've still got big jobs to do we've got some rigging to change and sails
to replace - the solar panels to go. We still didn't quite have the budget for it but we thought if we
did most of the work ourselves we could
we could afford it. So we had this solar
arch with no solar panels on it but it
was still useful obviously as davits it
was very handy with the dinghy so we
didn't have to bring it on deck
so the dinghy was stored quite happily
on the back of the boat until.. We were
stern to on a kind of finger pontoon and
as we were leaving the dinghy got caught
on the cleat and we managed to
completely rip the sponson of our dinghy.
While the dinghy was hanging
off the davits
it got caught on a cleat on a dock and
basically ripped it open. It also put a
lot of force on the davits and it wasn't
until we reached Almerimar where we
were going to do our wintering that we
noticed there was some hairline
fractures in the gelcoat along the base.
I noticed these hairline cracks on the sugar scoop here
so just worried theres a bit too much pressure coming off the davits here when the dinghy is being hoisted up.
So what I'm going to do is reinforce
it by putting some fiberglass below the
backing plate then put it all ack together again. I can feel a lot of Sikaflex in that hole so
that's a good job I'm taking it out cuz
I can clear that out before we start
feeding the lines through. But access is
really difficult.
That's one way of doing
a two-man job single-handedly
So I've got the backing plate off here
so I'm just cutting some bits of
fiberglass which you're going to go
behind the backing plate just to
strengthen up that sugar scoop
area inside. It's a bit tricky to get to
but I think it'll be worth doing before
we get the solar panels on and before we
hoist the dinghy up as well again.
So to pull the davits away from the actual section I'm working on,
I've had to tie a rope to
the bollard there. Just gotta hope it doesn't spring back
and cut my fingers off when I'm working.
We made some really good friends in Almerimar, one of them was Werna from
saving vessel Chiringuito - I think
I've got that right - So they do some
chartering but Werna is also a paint and
epoxy expert and he was keen to kind of
exercise his skills by trying to get a
gel coat match for our repair and
I've got to say he did a fantastic job.
9 0 1 6 the most white you can
get.
You're gonna mix it with the cream
yeah well 9 0 0 1
When I put the fiberglass in to
reinforce it I kind of made it a bit too
thick and now the backing place won't fit
properly so I'm having to scrape away
some of that fiberglass and I'm also
having to trim the backing place a
little bit to fit in so it's a snug fit
but it's a big galling when you've spent
all that time putting all the effort in
to reinforce it and then when they kind
of trim the reinforcing out so you can
fit the old stuff back in. It's all a bit
swings and roundabouts.
So now I'm gonna cut
away most of the fiberglass that I've
laid down just so I could get the
backing plate back on. OK look away now
because this isn't pretty.
So finally after doing loads of research
and drilling down on price from UK
suppliers - we got some really good quotes
and advice, so I just got to mention a
few - which were: The Renewable Energy Store,
Select Solar, Solar Supplies UK, Solar Wind
but what came out cheaper was CCL
in Glasgow in Scotland. We did try and
source some in Spain but they were still
cheaper to get them shipped in from
Glasgow than source locally. We just
found that the suppliers there just
didn't seem that keen on supplying a
small amount. OK, this is exciting the
solar panels have just turned up all the way from Glasgow from CCL.
The guys' just dropped them off - I haven't checked them yet so just going to have a look now.
Three Panasonic HIT 245 watt panels
Once you know what the wattage is you
can work out the amperage. Once you know
the amperage you can work out what the
resistance is by Ohms Law.
Another good friend we made in Almerimar and I've
mentioned him already in some of the
other blogs was Ant from SV Impavidus
- he's a bit of a mechanical and
electrical engineer he has taught the
subject as well. I equals V over R where
I is the current. So he acted as my
kind of electric mentor when we were there.
He helped tidy up and firm up our
circuit diagram for the solar
installation. He was also doing his own
solar installation and did a video on it
so I'll put the link down below in the
description if you want a bit more
technical in depth information.
Fortunately I've found an empty conduit
which is a bit rare on about which
apparently used to house or is designed
to house the SSB transponder and
isolates it from the rest of the cables so
they don't get any interference. This
shelf is kind of fiberglassed in place so
I'm gonna put it 19 mil hole through the
shelf in the conduit bring the wires
into here into the circuit breaker and then
back out to the solar panels and try and
keep it all in a nice line
otherwise I've got to start running it
all over the place.
Installing the MPPT controller: Victron Smart Solar MPPT Charge Conntroller 100v/50A
Obviously I wanted the controller to be
as close to the batteries as possible
but I also wanted it to be visible
because it has some some status lights.
So the rule of thumb is you supposed to
keep the controller within a meter and a
half of the battery terminal or the
battery shunt
but it does all bluetooth to a
smartphone as well but I just wanted to
make a bit more visuals I could just see
in passing what the batteries were doing
and how much solar was getting put into
there into the batteries.
Okay so I've just stripped the wires - these
are coming from the circuit breaker and
the cabin which then leads onto the
solar panels. Obviously I haven't wired
their panels in yet they would be the
last thing to do. There's always a debate
going on about whether he should solder
the ends or not but I think because this
is quite a chunky connection I will
solder the ends to make them nice and solid.
Running cables from the MPPT controller to batteries.
Running cables from MPPT controller to circuit breaker in aft cabin.
Preparing the circuit breaker box.
That's great and it's all safe but the
only thing I'm worried about is it might
be too long to fit in the cupboard
because that is a massive switch
Installing the circuit breaker : IMO DC Isolator 25A 1000VDC 2 Pole.
This is the first cable.
The locker outside - there's petrol cans in there and I
didn't really want to put any sort of
wires or any joins where there's gonna
be petrol fumes. So I brought the circuit
breaker inside the locker and I've got
the two feeds here - the two cables -
running from the nav station - two running
from the solar arch. It all comes into
this locker here and put the circuit
breaker in place and that should be that
section sorted out.
So I'm in the aft locker at the moment
trying to figure out a way of getting
these wires from the aft cabin - from the
circuit breaker - up the tubes and into
the solar panel or onto the solar
panel arch. I think I've found a fairly good run from the
conduit to the arch but everything's quite
close to the bonding strap which is kind
of a very sharp copper bit of strapping.
Just wanna make sure it doesn't rub on there.
This is where all of the kind of
heavy stuff gets put like the gas
bottles and the outboard engine, oars and things like that so there's al big items and
if you're not strapped down they kind of
move around a bit so I want to make sure
that wires are tucked well out of the way. So there's the conduit back there which is designed
to take the SSB antenna
and if I run the wires along here to the mousing line for the solar arch..
So I'm just going to fasten this cable on with some gaffer tape. So I've just taped
another mousing line onto the original
mousing line independent of the cable
just in case that comes off. In hindsight
I should have done this mounting line
twice as long and then tied this halfway
along and if we did lose it we should
look at the mousing line all the way through.
So tricky working in these small
spaces.
Stupidly I forgot the mark the wires that
went through the solar arch up here.
Because both ways are black I don't know
which is the positive and negative so I'm having to do a
continuity test on them to find out
which is which.
Okay because the arch is
made out of stainless steel and the
frames of the panel is made of aluminium
Made me get some insulator so I've got these kind of corner bits with self adhesive on it
so I'm going to put these around the aluminium frame before it sits onto the stainless steel.
The three solar panels don't fit in the
brackets with these plastic protection bits on.
Even though it was measured
correctly obviously in the real world
nothing is ever straight so it's about
out by about one centimetre over the two
point four meters span so it doesn't
actually fit in so now we're having to
take the plastic off to put some insulating
tape - hopefully that will do the same job.
It's like it was before really but with extra tape.
Fixing the solar panels in place.
Trimming the cable ends to size.
Stripping the cable ends for the MC4 Connectors.
Fixing the 4-way branch MC4 connectors and adaptors to the panel cable ends.
Panels wired in parallel.
Fixing the MC4 Solar Coupler Plugs to the cable ends.
So I'm just going to crimp these ends on
and luckily the electrician Spencer from
the local chandlery - he's got these
hexagonal crimpers which perfect.
Gotta be a bit careful because I don't want to destroy it.
OK so that's a nice tight fit - probably a bit too tight.
Unfortunately I've deformed so that's going to have to come off and have to do that again.
MC4 solar spanners for fixing MC4 connectors.
Male and female MC4 connectors - positive and negative
So this is Duralac - it's an
anti-corrosion compound that you put in
between metals when metals join in a
saltwater environment to stop the
corrosion. Because it basically sets up a galvanic reaction as if it's a battery
so it means one of the metals are going to
corrode. So this is great stuff for
bolting say aluminium to stainless steel.
The only problem with it, is it's really
sticky and if you get in your clothes, there's
no way of getting it out.
Final check by a qualified electrician, Spencer from Alamar Centro Nautico.
Just updated the firmware on the MPPT and just going to log in now.
And it's all looking good. Battery voltage 26.16, no solar
connected at the moment which is correct, No history showing in the App. but all looking good.
Solar Day! You ready?
It's been great. We've never looked
back it was the best decision we ever
made to get the solar installation.
Freezers, fridges laptops, devices, lights
everything. The batteries have barely
dipped below 90% and usually the solar
panels will have them fully charged
again by mid-morning [early] afternoon in fact
I'm actually thinking about getting some
inverters put in to run the washing
machine and the water maker but but
that's a different job and that will go
on the bottom of the jobs list for now.
So that looks great quite tight, oh nope it's coming off- okay cut.
Just trying to work out if we could afford..
So if you've been following our blogs you.. [Bleep]
You work out how much we actually pay
for it in the end.
As YouTube's continue to block our
comments - they're doing that with a lot
of family blogs - please give us a thumbs
up, subscribe don't forget to hit the
notification bell, and give us a little
bit of support. So if you do want to
comment
please pop over to our Facebook page or
the Patreon page and get a bit more
involved in our journey. So a few people
I'd like to thank for the video - Dean
Giles for the first initial sketch that
sent us down the road of getting solar,
Ant fromn SV Impavidus for all his help
with the electronic work, Werna from SV
Chiringuito, for help with all the
gelcoat work and Spencer from Alamar
Centro Nautica in Almerimar for his
help and advice with the electrical
install. And it goes without saying
thanks to our patrons without which none
of this would be videoed and uploaded.
and if you wanna do it - do it.
