How Many Solar Panels For A Sail Boat

We have found in the winter sun here at the moment our 150 watt rated panels are only producing around 80 watts for about 6 hours per day.

How many solar panels for a sail boat. Don t be fooled by solar panels showing 150 watts of energy you will rarely get that out of your solar panel. In other words the marine solar panel is just a solar panel that collects energy from the sun and uses it to power the boat in many ways. July 2016 i just took an informal poll from my boater and rv camper friends. Your required power output can be divided among them as well.

Having multiple solar panels also allows you to have smaller panels which tend to get in the way less. The number of solar panels you ll need for your boat not only depends on the type and size of your boat but also the quality of the equipment you choose how many sun hours the boat sees and the amount of electricity you require. This is far below the rated capacity sailors in the tropics will do better and sailors farther north or sailing in the winter more poorly but this is. If you think you will need twice the power of the above energy budget then install 2 separate 100 watt panels.

If you need 200w a day then you could have three 90w solar panels on different parts of the boat and be covered power wise even on different tacks. How to work out how many solar panels you need. In summary if the devices and hours used in the above list seem to be in line with your energy budget then go with a single 100 watt solar panel. In the charging system the solar panels convert sunlight into electrical current and deliver it to the batteries via a solar charge controller.

A solar power installation on a sailboat is made up of two independent systems. Some boats can get by with one 100 watt solar panel or even smaller while others require a multi panel setup.