> > José - Solar panel for boat

HOW TO BUILD A SOLAR PANEL AND INSTALL ON A BOAT

Our buddy Jose di Santander (Spain) bought one DIY Solar 70Wp Kit to build a solar panel for his craft and achieve result.

Shopping list:

1 x KIT 36 SOLAR CELLS 3"X6" A-GRADE

1 x SOLAR CHARGER CMP12 10A 12V/24V

We're publishing his article already translated and published in Spanish language on him Web Site www.empopada.com:

A while ago i thought to build a solar panel and/or wind turbine cause i have a boat and in these time of crisis we're living, attendant nautical stuff costs are incredible expensive, so this is the reason of this article, hope you'll find it useful.

 

  
 

I began with solar panel to try and fortunately didn't lose my time, work or a lot of money and finally my experience was very funny.
After very hard internet scouting, i found that solar panel power i needed costs ( between 60Wp and 70Wp ), were about €280,00 and more, well... no comment!
I understand that in the northern Spain, solar panels are ideal solution to obtain top performance, anyway that's a matter for a separated talk and i decided to diy solar panel.
This not intended as a tutorial but only a note that you can read and take advantage of my experience.
A little patience is required to build your own solar panel.

 

 
 

Materials used are:           

 

DIY Kit 36 solar cells 3"x6" A-Grade                           Solar charger CMP12 - 10A 12/24


 

Two polycarbonate plates size 1,2m x 0,5m, aluminum and transparent silicone.

The complexity assembly depend of each of us; you can simplify and save money using less expensive materials.

I don't wont to spending much time to talking about this, i explain assembly process below:

 

 

Carefully solder the wires that connect the solar cells on which we have previously passed the flux. Calculate panel size so that it fits the configuration of 3 rows of 12 cells.


   

Every solar cell produce 0.5V and 3.6A. for over 1.8Wp / h, final total amount is more than 70Wp/h. Welding solar cells in series you can build a solar panel with voltage of 18V and current of 3.6A.
 

 

Then assembly and glue whole three strings with silicone on a panel and apply transparent polycarbonate on the top cover all solar cells. It's not complicate and finally we should get a voltage between 18V and 19V that is optimal value to charge battery that obviously must connected to solar charger. The final result should be something showed in the picture below:
 

  

 

Artificial light result                                       Sunlight result

 

 

Now remain last step... installation on the boat...

 

 
 
 

I would like to thank MR WATT  serious reseller, careful and with great prices.Thankyou so much for commmercial attention paid.