Solar Panels - Where to mount them?

[p424owner]

All,

I am sizing out a solar installation for my ketch, and I am considering where I should mount my panels. To date, I have seen two ways of mounting panels that I like:

1. Rich's davit-mounted Kyocera's(?) on Third Day which I believe are 110W panels - two of course. These fit great, but I have made a decision not going to install davits.

2. Drew's hard-dodger mounted panels on Dosia, which are smaller, (2x)40W if I remember?

I will have an Air-X on my mizzen as well, and I will likely install a Balmar to complete the picture. My question is where to put the panels?

Are there any other installation experiences out there?

Thanks

[Atavist]

I also just installed kyocera KD135's on my davits, mine are the production davits which are a bit smaller than Rich's (from the pictures I've seen) so mine stick out about 2 feet over the back of the davits but with two evenly spaced slidy pivit mounts they are plenty stable and well out of the way... another alternative I thought of doing was putting a rail in from my stern rail to the first stantion and mounting them there... trick was the 135's are 59 inches long and the space between the stern rail and the stay that goes on the outside of the lifeline is only 58 inches... the way the mounts hold them up a bit they probably would have been fine, just would have stuck over the stern rail abit ... but with the concern over moring and trying to figure out an adjustable support arm that would reach out to support their outer edge when deployed horizontally and fold away to let them drop down to a vertical position for pasage making i decided to just go with the davit mounts... and if/when i decide to go WAY offshore and do some serious passage making I'll just sale them and put the money towards a windvane.

good luck, keep us posted.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Today I was looking at my BZ Products MPPT solar controler and seeing 17AMPS out of my two 130W solar panels....so I of course did was anyone else would do.  I put some water in my ice trays

[INCOMMUNICADO]

Rich I like your priorities and attitudes. Living life is a wonderful thing. Allen

[BlameItOnBuffett]

Rich,

I looked at some of your older pictures to see where you had mounted them. Are those custom davits, or were you able to put that together with off the shelf stuff?

Jim

[p424owner]

Speaking for Rich - I believe he used Martek Davits?

[SV THIRD DAY]

Speaking for Rich - I believe he used Martek Davits?

Yep...Martek and would buy them again today!

[skier842]

Here is where the two 75 watt solar panels are located on Effie Rose, now "Independence" They are pretty much out of the way except for stern loading. A bit of bending to climb aboard via the stern ladder. I also have a Starboard ladder for those times I need it.

[RayNWanda]

We are probably going to mount a pair of panels out the back of the boat, probably on the stern rail with a brace down to the transom. What I have in mind is to build the mounts out of aluminum channel so that the panels slide into the mounts from the cockpit. This arrangement will allow us to lock the panels in the mounts to prevent theft, slide them into the cockpit to remove. Our wind vane will stick up through a gap between the mounts. I have been sort of looking at a 260 watt panel kit here:

http://www.partsonsale.com/marinekits.html

The 260 watt panel kit had Kyocera panels, but now I see it has Suntech panels. I have not looked around at panels lately, but this looked like the best deal I could find when I was looking.