1.2-1.6 KW solar?

[DavidM]

A disconnect switch is a bit of overkill. Just pop the fuse from the controller to the battery. You might have to do this once in a great while.


Also although it wasn't stated above, you do not need a fuse from the controller to the panels. Solar panels can only put out so much current- Ioc and the wire should be plenty big enough to carry that current indefinitely.


David

 

[foreverunderway]

Why do you think you need a kit? Buy the panels you want and a charge controller to suit and install. Simple as pie. I highly recommend the Morningstar charge controllers. Ours has been operating 5 years, trouble and maintenance free.

 

[ProMaritime]

With my two home PV systems (one 36-panel grid-tie and one 12-panel with battery storage) In both systems I find that cloudy days produce nearly as much as clear sunny days. The big difference in production during the year seems to be the number of hours of available daylight (sun rise - sun set) due to seasonal changes (from winter to summer). This amounts to about two hours max where I live (Hawaii) so this would have an even greater effect in the PNW (from whence I came).

Select the type of panels which are designed for the predominantly overcast days in the PNW. There are differences in panel design and materials to achieve better production in these conditions.

 

[janice142]

That isn't the absolute cheapest way for your situation, but close. You could use two panels hooked up in series or parallel to a 60 A controller. Outback makes a 60A controller for $470, so you save $180 vs two 30A Midnight controllers at $325 each. It has plenty high Voc spec so you could wire your two panels in series and save a bit of wiring, but you lose shade resistance. Wiring them in parallel would also work with that controller and they work independently of shading.

Regarding the solar controllers...

First of all, I have 445 watts in five panels atop Seaweed. Finally with the last two 85 watt panels I am "over the top" and do not run out of power. Before I did.

Originally I had a regular Morningstar30 -- that's a regular solar regulator, not the better MPPT version. The 30 was at the upper range of the load limit due to my aggregate panel wattage of 445.

It used an 8 gauge wire from the controller to the batts. That's a distance of 4' or perhaps 5'

I wanted to upgrade to a 6 gauge wire to prevent line losses. To that end I went to Amazon seeking a bigger/better solar controller. I chose the Epever 60. This one:

It accepts 6 gauge wire. What they do not tell you is the slot is square so you're going to have to buy a special crimper and ferrules. They are COOL as all heck. I found a crimper exactly like the $60 one on Amazon for for $25 on eBay.

Then I bought the wrong size ferrules, again on eBay as the prices were less.

Now I've only been using this new one for a couple of years. Thus far no difficulties and power is a-okay. I'm at 13.7 right now. Every day before noon I'm back up to fully charged.

I have a reefer using 60 Ah (80 degree ambient weather) (it's a Haier 2-door 3.1 cubic foot unit -- a small one no doubt though perfect for me.

I am always running my netbook (minimal power, less than 2Ah, plus a tablet, music on the radio, the VHF, depth sounder, etc. Basically my life of decadence.

And it is a very good life.

Consider the EPsolar regulator, AND make sure your controller will fit the size wire you need it to take. The Morningstar ProStar30 would only accept up to 8-gauge wire. A larger boat may require larger wires for those runs.

 

[kokopelliTim]

Janice;

Did you do the work yourself?

(somehow electricity scares me.....just so uncomfortable with it; but as I am comfortable with all the other systems on my vessel, I really want to become comfortable with electricity too)

I read your site religiously and love the frugal good lifestyle and cruising life you have created. You teach me so much. I too desire a frugal yet very practical life aboard.

So as I looked at what you had in your system, it came to about $2500...would this near correct?

What type of batteries do you have? And they work well for the system you have?

So, basically as I read what you have written: you bought the various parts/components online (not a kit) and developed the plan to provide the power you need.

Thanks so much for your input.

Tim

 

[DavidM]

Some solar panel kits are priced reasonably vs individual components, but some are outrageous. Renogy (on Amazon) sells complete 100 watt kits for about $200 and 200 watt kits for $350. The price is right, but there are two problems with these:


You get a cheap Chinese controller. Well all controllers are assembled in China today. But my experience is that an American designed controller will not fail like Chinese designed, built and marketed ones often do. Pick one from the group that Wholesalesolar sells.


Also the cables that come with the package are what they are. If you need shorter or longer cables, then you have to buy the individual components.


And the packages typically don't go above multiples of 100 watt panels so they can be shipped by UPS. Anytime you have to go with 150 watt or larger panels you are in to motor freight shipping and packagers don't serve that market. Also almost all of the packages use PWM controllers. That is fine for the smaller 12V panels, but if you need a lot of wattage you will be into 24V panels and you need a MPPT controller for those.


And BTW, probably 75% of solar panels are made in China today. I have no qualms about buying those. The entry costs are huge for building panels and the market will quickly flush out bad performers.



David

 

[kokopelliTim]

Again, thank you David!

One question (and I do not want to get into any politics....it is purely economic!)

With new tariffs on China, are solar panels and any other material regarding solar going to get too expensive?

I was planning on spending on the solar equipment in about a year, but because of the sanctions/tariffs, I am thinking of spending the money now to save me money!

Tim

 

[DavidM]

Surprisingly even with 25% tariffs solar panel prices haven't gone up nearly that much. 100 watt panels on Amazon are still near $100, maybe up 10%. Bigger panels of 200 watts and up are still available for 70-80 cents per watt. Production efficiency and squeezing margins has helped to keep costs down.

So I wouldn't worry too much about future cost increases. Whatever is going to happen probably has already happened.

BTW, I want to say a word or two about your concerns about electricity which are healthy. From what I have seen here on TF, 90% of the problems reported (or pending problems that were caught) are design related. These were lack of fusing at the battery, undersized cabling, undersized controllers, parallel vs series installation errors, hooking up a PWM controller to a 24V panel. Yes the latter was reported here on TF a few years ago. The poster wondered why he was only getting a fraction of rated output!!!!

So, if you can get the design right and we on TF are always willing to help vet it (witness dhays epic thread) then the installation is a matter of mechanics and any competent DIY should be able to do that right.


Parenthetically I worked in project management for big industrial engineering and construction projects. I always maintained and 40 years of experience has proven this out, that most of the problems on these big complex projects were engineering related, not construction. If you got the engineering right then you had a very good chance of having mostly problem free construction even though the majority of the money was in construction.


David

 

[janice142]

I've answered below in bold:

Did you do the work yourself?

The first panel over the cockpit is 75 watts. My friend on Sparrow installed that while I watched. The next two, 100 watt Renogy's were done by me directing a guy who I hired to help me bolt 'em down.

First Mistake: The original panel went on using starboard and a piece of oak to raise the panel. The goal is/was to raise the panel up higher than just the 3/4" starboard.

Side Note: The cooler the panel, the more the output. Starboard on the bottom because boats vibrate. Starboard is softer than fiberglass and would be the "sacrificial" point, but you knew that of course.

Anyway, after about ten years the oak rotted out.
So, I decided to replace it along with the teak I'd purposely used for the two Renogy's this past summer.

Free advice: stick with starboard at the bottom and don't use wood of any variety.

The final two 85 watt panels were a gift. They put me "over the top" as far as energy usage. I don't have to worry about power draw at this point.

My main consumer is a 3.1 cf Haier two-door reefer that costs me 60Ah in 80 degree ambient temperature.

Truth to tell, when the sun is shining on that side of the boat I turn on two 12-volt computer fans (drawing .4 and .3 watts) that blow on the compressor and the other pulls air out of that cabinet, so add that's an extra amp per hour. The computer fans are not needed when the sun is not on that side of the boat.

(snip)

So as I looked at what you had in your system, it came to about $2500...would this near correct?

No.
$150 for the first 75 watt panel and included a Morningstar10 solar regulator
$330 for the two 100 watt Renogy's
$100 for a Morningstar Pro-Star30 solar regulator

(then I "blew" aka wasted $60 for an ebay knock-off MPPT solar regulator that worked for exactly one year)
New solar regulator is a Epever MPPT solar charge regulator/tracer. I bought it along with the remote and a battery sensor for $220

So far, pleased. I like the digital readouts.

Benefits for this one: It takes 6 gauge wire. The Morningstar30, in addition to being the "standard" type versus the better MPPT could only accept 8 gauge. The Gotcha is you'll have to buy a cool new crimper and ferrules too in order to fit 6-gauge into the regulator.

This crimper:

This is a cool gizmo tool. You'll like it!

It sells for about $50-$75 on Amazon (please use my links/upper left corner of every page) OR, save money and order one from ebay. I got mine for less than $25 and the quality looks a-okay to me. Takes about three weeks to arrive though...

Frankly I don't know how much I spent on the wire. I use marine wire from Marine Wiring, Boat Cable and Electrical Genuinedealz.com -- I like the place. AND they will install the ends to connect to your battery for you. I believe they did that for free.

Shipping is via Priority Mail. Nice nice folks there.



What type of batteries do you have? And they work well for the system you have?


I have Group 27's from Walmart. The smallest/least expensive Marine ones I could find. $80 or thereabouts.

These batteries work well for me. EVERY MONTH (on the first/or the first week of the month) I check every battery. Mine are accessible. I am able to tell when a batt is starting to go bad at least a month or three before it finally goes belly up.

Be sure to have a CO alarm installed high in your cabin as it will alert you when that batt finally goes. The off-gassing sets off the alarms.

These inexpensive batteries work fine. I cannot afford the more expensive batts and frankly, with solar I don't worry about taking the batteries down too low.

ALWAYS, like as soon as possible, install multiple voltage meters around your boat. That way you will know when your batts start to get lower from consuming power. I have meters EVERYWHERE.

This one is by my bunk:

I was able to spot an issue when a wire loosened and I was not getting charging into the batteries because of the meter. I knew that I should be seeing a higher number and was able to find the problem ASAP because of these $2 meters scattered about.



So, basically as I read what you have written: you bought the various parts/components online (not a kit) and developed the plan to provide the power you need.

I wish I was that smart Tim. Basically I just added until I had "enough" to support my life of decadence. Originally my 75 watt panel provided enough for a couple hours of computer time and the anchor light.

Side Note: At the FL/GA border, 75 watts with a standard charger netted me 25 Amps per day. Take your wattage, divide by three and call it amps. Roughly of course.

Same figures at the Washington State latitude gets 75 watts/25 amps with an MPPT controller. That is the difference in the MPPT controllers.

But I digress...
The cost of MPPT was such that I opted for more solar panels as I could buy two panels for the cost of an MPPT. Financially that worked out better. Now the fancy ones by Morningstar are $$$. I can't afford them

They do have a distinct advantage for folks with limited space for solar panels. I am glad I found this one on Amazon that has met my expectations thus far (a year or two use so far)

This is my EP solar regulator:

I wish I could tell you I had this wonderfully carefully thought out plan. I did not. The boys here are really smart. They are far smarter than me at an integrated plan.

One more piece of data. A friend with a 50' power cat had 2K of panels on his boat running 24 volts. He could power the entire boat including air-conditioners from the panels. And yes, he had a power hungry boat with the big reefers, freezers and such.

Good luck Tim.
And be sure to oversize your wires up to the size that will fit into your solar controller. The bigger, the better!

And thanks for reading. I did run on at the fingertips.



Tim

 

[kokopelliTim]

Thank you Janice!

I appreciate your simple, easy way you work , write and describe things. I am a simple guy and electricity seems to flow way over my head...but I am determined to understand and figure it out safely.

Thank you for your honesty, various suggestions and pieces of advice. We all need to help each other and you are a BIG help.
I will get this eventually and slowly understand what i need to do to make my boat self-sufficient and not bound to a marina or shorepower cord.

Tim

 

[DavidM]

Janice:


I can't fault your solar system at all, nice job!


You started small with an 85 watt kit (with a POS controller) but added panels and a decent controller until it satisfied your power needs.


So Tim, what are you trying to accomplish with solar? To be independent of shore or generator power sources. Or maybe just to extend your time at anchor before your batteries get too low?


Read the four cases I discussed in my Library article on designing a solar panel system. Pick one that best matches your needs and post your specific requirements. I will be happy to work the numbers to fit your needs. Then once you know battery capacity and solar panel wattage, then you can look for specific components that make it all work.


David

 

[LeoKa]

WE have had our system two large panels, total 470 watt, that connection to a BlueSKy charge controller (it also has an AUX output so when house bank is full it switch over and puts the solar to our starting bank and trickle charges...they have great remote as well so you always know what your system is doing.

I like this idea. The question is; how was this setup? It would be nice to see pictures and notes of your system.

I do have a novice question. How this all ends up at the batteries? How the charging power is connected to + and - ?
What happens when I already have a charger/inverter? How do I incorporate the solar charging into this?

 

[kokopelliTim]

This thread is great for me...thanks for all comments.

LeoKa...I too am feeling very ignorant about the battery end of the cables/connections and how it might (or might not) go thru my very good charger.

David;
My desire is to not use marinas while I cruise/live aboard. I have a good gen; but I would rather use passive solar to live on.

Looking at the four examples in your paper, I am the first one: Sizing example 1, heavy use full time cruiser
My needs are going to be about 400w per day. (This is taken from my having a smallish boat ....29') and looking at Janice's needs (about 450 or so); so I am saying about 400 or so watts needed per day.

I currently have three house batteries (I know I will need to add more). I do not know what type; they look like regular car batteries (but marine type). Again, my ignorance...how do you discern what type of batteries you have?

I feel very simplistic in my answers; but this is the current level of my understanding (wanting to grow much in this understanding).

Thanks for your help.

Tim

 

[DavidM]

Tim and LeoKa: Let me try to answer some of your questions:

Multiple Charging Sources connected to a house battery bank:

Your multiple house batteries should be wired together with heavy (minimum 1/0) cables to minimize voltage drops between them. They should have a positive terminal probably connected to a DC buss, but you could also hook up multiple users to the positive terminal. They should also have a negative terminal hooked up to a negative buss sometimes with the battery monitor shunt in between.

Any charging source connected to those terminals: solar controller, shore power charger or engine alternator output will charge all of the batteries in that bank and each charging source will co-exist with the other. The sources with lower acceptance to float changeover voltages (even by a tenth or less of a volt) will stop charging first and leave the duty to those with higher voltage changeover. But during acceptance all sources will contribute to the charging except for the engine alternator if it has a simple internal regulator. The charging voltage from the other sources will be above the alternator's fixed regulated voltage so no current will flow from the alternator.

400 watts of solar needed


Janice's rule of thumb to take solar panel wattage and divide by 3 to get daily amp hour production is spot on. So if you think that 400 watts will work for you, that implies that you consume 133 amp hours daily. That is actually a rather large amount. I used about 75 amp hours in a similar situation.

If you want to anchor out for several days totally on solar power, you need enough battery capacity to carry you through for a cloudy day or two. I don't quite agree with Janice's statement that she got about as much output on cloudy days as sunny ones. I saw my solar power production drop in half or less on cloudy days, close to zero with dark clouds and rain. So assume 1/3 for the sake of the following calcs:

You will use 2*133=266 AHs in a two day period. Solar will only provide 2*133/3=89 AHs of that. So you need (266-89)/0.5= 354 AHs of battery capacity to carry you through for 2 days without going below 50%.

350 or so AHs of battery capacity isn't a lot, and could easily be supplied by 4 GC batteries hooked up in series/parallel. But if you don't want to do that, just fire up your genset for the odd occasion when solar doesn't supply enough.

Battery types:

I should have a standard spiel to plug in here about this as I have said it dozens of times on this forum: most 12V batteries are not true deep cycle batteries. They are starting batteries with a dual purpose or deep cycle label stuck on them. Certainly no battery without filller ports (except for AGMs) are deep cycle and most with them aren't either.

Golf cart batteries are the only types of inexpensive flooded cell batteries that I would use for a house bank. You could use more expensive 12V AGMs as they don't fail as quick as starting batteries do when cycled down to 50% routinely.

Genset usage:

You have a genset, right? This gives you a big advantage in dealing with high DC loads and cloudy days. Just start the genset. But to keep from running it all day, it needs to power a decent size charger, preferably 100 amps. On my recent boat, I had a 2000 watt Freedom inverter/charger with 100 amps of charging capacity. I would run the genset until the batteries were 80-90% recharged and let the solar panels or the propulsion engine top them off.

But to stay within the recommended maximum charging current of 25% of the AH capacity (some say 20%), you need at least 400 AHs of house batteries to charge with a 100 A charger.


Lots to think about.

David

 

[dhays]

I’d like to reiterate what others have already mentioned. Unless you have the space to install enough solar to get you through even on the very cloudy days, your genset can help out a lot. Running the genset long enough to get you through the bulk charging phase will make the most efficient use of your genset if your charger has a high enough output.

 

[kokopelliTim]

I feel like I am getting a mini crash course on solar this week. THANK YOU

I am feeling more confident about the set up, panels, basic solar materiel needed and beginning to think it all through.

BUT, as I was thinking yesterday as I took the dog for a walk (and maybe this is my ignorance): I want to power my AC part of my panel (computer, fridge, stove, hot water heater, lights). Do I need an invertor to transfer the solar charged batteries to make AC power that i want?

I know i can use the batteries to power the DC side of my power panel. But I want the AC half of my panel to be operable also.

So If an invertor is needed, where on the setup would it be placed?

Thanks.

Tim

 

[DavidM]

Tim:


I seem to be the only one talking here, but here goes:

You can't really power your stove or water heater with an inverter- too much power required which will run your batteries down quickly. And you shouldn't power your fridge either with 120V AC unless it is AC only (and that probably means it draws more power than a marine 12v Danfoss compressor unit). Also cabin lights are almost always DC.

So the first question is do you need AC power to run your fridge and how much? Small, Energy Star ones use maybe 175 watts when they run, but they only run part of the time. Larger, less efficient ones can draw more. Your laptop power supply probably draws 50-100 watts. So let's assume that your total instantaneous AC power needs are 250 watts. There are two ways to size and hook up an inverter.

Probably cheapest of the integrated inverter/chargers is a relatively small 1000 watt inverter/charger with a 55 amp charger like this one- https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|2289962|2289971&id=3115706. It won't charge your batteries as quick on generator power as a bigger and more expensive inverter/charger, so if you plan to do that often, install a bigger one with 100+ amps of charging capability.

Because it involves 120V AC I would recommend hiring a marine electrician to install it. But basically you hook up your house batteries to the inverter which lets it charge when AC is available or draw power from the batteries in inverter mode to produce AC. Then wire your incoming shore power to the inverter's AC input and the AC output to your 120V AC panel. There are much better ways to do this which isolate the big load appliances like the stove and hot water heater, but discuss these with your electrician.

Then when plugged into shorepower or your genset, the AC passes through the inverter to the AC panel. But when AC is not available the internal transfer switch lets the inverter generate it from DC and passes it to the AC panel.

This will cost $1,000+ installed for the one I indicated and more for a bigger one.

Another way is to get a couple of cheap, low power inverters. Use a 150 watt one plugged into a cigarette lighter socket for your laptop and a larger 200+ watt one for your fridge. This can be done for $100 or so and even cheaper if you only have a laptop to power with AC.

I cruised full time for a couple of years and even though I had a 2,500/100 inverter/charger I rarely used it- only for warming something up in the microwave. I did have a 150 watt lighter plug in model for my laptop.

David

 

[DavidM]

Tim:

I just remembered that you apparently have an electric stove. During my full time cruising days, I used my propane stove at least once a day on average. To use yours you will have to run the genset. If so why worry about so much solar? Seems that you are really a cross between case 1 and case 3 in my article.

Also unless you are ok with a cold or solar shower (the solar shower actually worked quite well for me, but I sometimes filled it with hot water from the stove) you will need to run the generator for another (or simultaneous) 30 minutes to heat up the water.

That much generator running time can easily put in 75 AHs of DC in your batteries, IF you have a large enough charger. And if it is a cloudy day, just run it for another 30 minutes to make up for that.

In this case I will bet you can get by with 200 watts of solar.

But in reality you are just guessing at your DC usage. Before going any further, install a battery monitor and hang out on the hook for a few days and really measure your DC use.

David

 

[dhays]

David makes sense. Since you do have a lot of AC appliances, you will need an inverter (IMO) and will also need to run your genset. The only way I see you could get around that would get rid of the electric galley and convert to propane.

I’ve got an inverter/charger that will will put out 2800W and charge at 125amps. I’ve also got a 6kW genset. I can run the genset for an hour to bulk charge my batteries, heat water, make coffee, make toast etc... I can’t do all at the same time however. I don’t turn on the water heater when the charger is putting out 125amps for example. There is no way I could also run an electric stove without some serious power management.

 

[cardude01]

I'm going to toss this into the fray.



https://www.zampsolar.com/





They build really for the RV market of which we are/were part. Found them at Quartzsite last winter and bought one of the portable kits for use on the boat.



Worked well for us this summer. Now that I have it I am looking to expand it.



It is a nice little kit but I'll let you folk scout the site.

In typical fashion, I’ve looked at solar for a couple of years but haven’t done anything. My problem is very little room to mount fixed panels, and I’m really not using the boat that much now anyway.

One worry I have is the marina loses power, or if my cord fails or whatever, and my expensive AGM battery bank gets ruined. I’ve wondered about a portable system like this to keep the batteries up if that happens when I’m away from the boat for weeks at a time.

Is that a valid use of a portable 40-80w system? Would it really keep my 460AH bank charged up? (I don’t have anything DC running when gone but bilge circuit is left on obviously). Would someone steal it off the back of the boat? [emoji30]

 

[DavidM]

Yes, that is a valid use of a solar panel, particularly if you don't get back to your boat that often. Here are pages of packaged systems that can work well and are fairly reasonably priced- https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...1HI2IWLWWK5IN&rh=i:aps,k:portable+solar+panel


Go with at least 50 watts and one with a controller. The ACOPOWER one looks good. Some are just panels, no controller. You need 50 watts to cover the parasitic loads- CO monitor, intermittent loads like the bilge pump and the daily losses of batteries just sitting while disconnected.


David

 

[cardude01]

Oh cool. Thanks.

I kind of like the idea of setting up one of those portable suitcases up On my side deck for when I’m gone. I would need to tie it down somehow, maybe with some zip ties or something.

 

[kokopelliTim]

David;
Your advice this week has been great. Sincerely, thank you.

My next step will be to get on the hook, live aboard and see in actuality how much power I use.
Then make the necessary decisions.

But I have learned much, and I thank you and the forum again for the freedom to ask, learn and not feel foolish.

Tim

 

[JDCAVE]

A disconnect switch is a bit of overkill. Just pop the fuse from the controller to the battery. You might have to do this once in a great while.

Also although it wasn't stated above, you do not need a fuse from the controller to the panels. Solar panels can only put out so much current- Ioc and the wire should be plenty big enough to carry that current indefinitely.

David

All of David’s advice is well thought out. The vendor of my system indicated that there should be breakers after the panels and also between the MPPT and the house bank. This is code for house or land based installations which was their primary market. The after-panel breakers are to protect against voltage surges. The breaker to the house bank is useful for sitting down the panels when on shore or alternator power. WRT the alternator, I find it shuts down when the bank is full and the voltage exceeds the Balmar 612 specs. He tachometer and other gauges shut down as well.

Edit: I only have 435 watts of panels. Some days I can get the house bank “filled” according to the SOC meter, however I think the absorb phase is insufficient. Our daily power use is about 250 amp hours.

Jim

 

[cardude01]

Yes, that is a valid use of a solar panel, particularly if you don't get back to your boat that often. Here are pages of packaged systems that can work well and are fairly reasonably priced- https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_...1HI2IWLWWK5IN&rh=i:aps,k:portable+solar+panel


Go with at least 50 watts and one with a controller. The ACOPOWER one looks good. Some are just panels, no controller. You need 50 watts to cover the parasitic loads- CO monitor, intermittent loads like the bilge pump and the daily losses of batteries just sitting while disconnected.


David

David :


So I got the little suitcase portable solar panel in. It looks like I just put the clamps on a positive and negative and that’s it? I have a big 12v positive and negative “bus bar” I guess it’s called that has lots of cables hooked to it that lead ms to my battery bank (about 500ah AGMs). Can I just clamp to that?

I did clamp to that and this is what the controller looks like now:



Does this look OK? Have not hooked up the panel yet as it’s very cloudy now. If it’s cloudy (or dark) this thing won’t draw down my batteries will it?

I’m obviously a solar idiot. This little controller came with the Acopower portable kit. 120w panels. 10w controller.

Thanks!

http://www.epsolarpv.com/en/uploads/news/201710/1508813833641925.pdf

 

[DavidM]

Yes, clipping to the pos and neg buss is fine. The controller looks like it is working fine with no solar input.



All solar panels have blocking diodes built in which prevents any current going to them from the batteries (or each other) while (one is) dark. The controller also has a blocking diode that does the same thing.


David

 

[cardude01]

Thanks for the quick reply! Doesn’t look like I will have much sun to try the panel out here on LB Key next couple of days due to the storm. The good news is it doesn’t stink here like it did a few weeks ago. Maybe the storm will help clear this red tide out of here?

 

[C lectric]

The controller or the panels will not draw down the batteries or should not when there is no sun., such as night. There are diodes to stop that.

You should have gotten the manual but this is a PDF copy from the net:

http://www.epsolarpv.com/en/uploads/news/201710/1508813833641925.pdf


The controller gets its power from the panels so no sun, no controller power.

Very similar to mine. Once the night comes I see no action on mine, the screen goes entirely blank, although a different controller and package.

I avoided using the clamps, rather used a heavy plug, receptacle to plug unplug.

There are decent units available for the powered down riggers that could be adapted. Check them out as they are often capable of handling 20 or 30A.

My system used a slightly different style of plug but was easily set up.

No, I did not use the MC4 plugs. My power connections are well covered/protected. If they ever get wet I have much bigger problems.

 

[cardude01]

Yeah the clamps are kind of suspect— could possibly fall off. I should probably crimp on a ring and bolt them to that big bus bar.

 

[C lectric]

If you want to keep the set portable then look up the plug and receptacle set.
I want/need to keep mine portable so used the plug.

THis would do a good job for you. They are Marinco FInd them locally to you.

The plug/receptacle kit is Marinco 12VCPS2

Often used for electric trolling motors or electric downriggers.
For small setups like we have they will easily handle the current.
Bigger setups, then ?????



http://www.delzer.com/powerproducts/MPP_CAT_001_1012/79/#zoom=z