Looking to bite the bullet and get a solar setup on my yacht. I haven't seen much talk about using residential panels and was wondering if there is a reason for that? I was thinking of just having a single panel like the below hooked up to a Victron 100/30 SmartSolar controller.
solaroutlet.com.au/products/solar-panel-trina-vertex-s-n-type-mono-perc-dual-glass-430w-144-cell-black-30mm-evo2-landscape-25-year-warranty-tsm-430neg9r-28

Is there a disadvantage to this over say a 200w panel from renology etc.

I have trina vertex 400w panels they output above there rated output I have 2 of them at 800w seen them put out over 1000w through a victron mppt regulator
The advantages I see is higher voltage smaller wires required and less voltage drop
Quality construction
Also residential panels have to comply to regulations unlike alot of 12v panels available suppliers can just make up there output I have had many 12/20v panels that don't even come close to there output
Screen shots below of actual output of 2x400w trina panels in parallel through a victron mppt

What voltage system would you like on your vessel ? 12v, 24v, 48v ? Modern household systems usually go with 48v it inverts better to 240ac. @ 12v you need too many amps with associated large cables for it to be viable to run a say 4000w inverter. Max voltage for a 12v system would be around 18v to give headroom for a required of say 14v to charge a 12v system. I imagine that 12v would still be the order of the day on yachts at least the size of vessel that most seabreeseers Sail
I know more questions and no answers

A Victron mppt solar regulator will reduce the 40v to the required 14v ect for charging
My victron will accept up to 150v panel input and reduce it to whatever is required and set in the settings

Yep - a good MPPT controller will take a high voltage and convert it down to 12 ish volts, so most household panels will be fine.

I have two house size 24-volt 330 watt panels in parallel on my 38 ft boat on stainless steel hoops doubling as a Bimini and reduced to 12v by mppt controller. Working great for three years now.

Thanks for the responses, good to hear there are a few already doing it, will push ahead! How have people gone about mounting to dinghy davits with rails running across the beam of the boat? I can see a company call Gemini make these but U bolts through the panel frame might be easier www.geminiproducts.net/slide-mount-and-hinged-slide/

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Sydney88 said..
Thanks for the responses, good to hear there are a few already doing it, will push ahead! How have people gone about mounting to dinghy davits with rails running across the beam of the boat? I can see a company call Gemini make these but U bolts through the panel frame might be easier www.geminiproducts.net/slide-mount-and-hinged-slide/

You are starting to talk about a lot of weight aloft. What size boat is this? If you know the weight and the height of all these additions you can use a calculator to tell you how much of your keel ballast this will negate and hence stability in a knockdown etcetera.

Here's my set up on a 48ft boat mounted on existing davits there used to be a bimini mounted on them
I had my welder make a aluminium frame to my dimensions
And mounted it to the davits it's very strong doesn't move at all been up there over 2 years now and over 2000nm up and down the east coast
Some photos of how its mounted
The last photo are the mounts I used to fix the frame to the davits at the rear

I've tried to find a reference to how much UV comes through a rigid solar panel, but I can't find one. I like the thought of an aluminium framed rigid solar panel s as a replacement for my Bimini. Am I going to get cooked under it?

Learning all the time, haven't solar reg / controllers come a long way. Cheers

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EastCoastSail said..
I've tried to find a reference to how much UV comes through a rigid solar panel, but I can't find one. I like the thought of an aluminium framed rigid solar panel s as a replacement for my Bimini. Am I going to get cooked under it?

Should be none as the underneath is usually painted / got a pvc layer that lets nothing through

The new solar panels work both sides. Domestic ones anyway so I suppose it will flow on to the smaller panels.

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Lenn said..

EastCoastSail said..
I've tried to find a reference to how much UV comes through a rigid solar panel, but I can't find one. I like the thought of an aluminium framed rigid solar panel s as a replacement for my Bimini. Am I going to get cooked under it?

Should be none as the underneath is usually painted / got a pvc layer that lets nothing through

Yep that's right Lenn. Don't know anything about the double sided ones tho. Don't think their use is widespread yet and last I heard advantages were minimal.

Just as an aside look at this dog's dinner. Wonder how he hooks up the controller/s

my current planning is 2 x ~380w 'house' style panels with in series which will prob be max to dc2dc charger....

challenge is to attach to the bimini (punch holes through cover etc etc and slight overlap)

I had a look at the specs and Trina Vertex and similar are 26kg a panel. That's a significant structure to keep it safe in a seaway.

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EastCoastSail said..
I had a look at the specs and Trina Vertex and similar are 26kg a panel. That's a significant structure to keep it safe in a seaway.

Recently I had installed a solar system on my residential house and a number of those that quoted recommended trina panels, they were all the low end quotes that insisted that the system that I needed was a 6kw system and the chinese trina panels were the best thing since sliced bread. The other quotes that I received from a number of well recommended installers all suggested that trina were perhaps not the panel that I was looking for and offered another brand and a larger system, which has turned out rather well with no cost to a power supplier since install. My suggestion would be go for the best panels and the most area that you can comfortably fit on your boat, along with a good brand mame controller and reap the benefits.

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julesmoto said..
You are starting to talk about a lot of weight aloft. What size boat is this? If you know the weight and the height of all these additions you can use a calculator to tell you how much of your keel ballast this will negate and hence stability in a knockdown etcetera.

Yes good point will have a look into that before I go ahead, might go down a size.

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UncleBob said..
Recently I had installed a solar system on my residential house and a number of those that quoted recommended trina panels, they were all the low end quotes that insisted that the system that I needed was a 6kw system and the chinese trina panels were the best thing since sliced bread. The other quotes that I received from a number of well recommended installers all suggested that trina were perhaps not the panel that I was looking for and offered another brand and a larger system, which has turned out rather well with no cost to a power supplier since install. My suggestion would be go for the best panels and the most area that you can comfortably fit on your boat, along with a good brand mame controller and reap the benefits.

A friend installs solar so I can get them pretty cheap hence why I was heading down the Trina path. I was originally looking at LG panels but they've exited the market.