Solar Panels on boat covers or biminis - good idea?

[Eastern shore wake]

Hi, my 13 year old son, Nick, is working on an “innovation” project at school. He has done some preliminary research and wanted to get the opinions of boaters on it. Cannot think of a better group of boaters to get feedback from! Here is the idea; solar panels on bimini tops or boat covers. He has identified very thin and flexible solar panels which can be sown on to the top of a bimini or a mooring cover. Two panels which are 12 X 73 inches each could be attached and generate 2.4 amps per hour combined (assuming sunny day). A five hour charge could power a gps or vhs for hours or run a 3 amp bilge pump for 6 hours. We were exploring whether it would be enough to allow a boater to do away with his second battery which in many cases is really used to power accessories. We realize it is not enough to power heavy duty stereo/amp/speaker set-ups but may be enough for folks whose accessories draw less power (and boat on sunny days!).

His other idea would be to attach 2 of the solar panels on the mooring cover and hook them directly to one or more small dehumidifiers which would run periodically and keep the boat free from excessive moisture without draining the battery. Of course this assumes the boat is stored outside under the sun.

The cost of these solar panels and the accessories needed to hook them to a battery or dircctly to an appliance have come down dramatically. The cost would be $500 to $700 per install depending on the set-up.

Our question is whether as boaters you would be interested in either of these in view of the approximate cost and benefits. Any and all feedback would be welcome!

Thanks!!!
Eastern Shore Wake

[sparky216]

Hi, my 13 year old son, Nick, is working on an “innovation” project at school. He has done some preliminary research and wanted to get the opinions of boaters on it. Cannot think of a better group of boaters to get feedback from! Here is the idea; solar panels on bimini tops or boat covers. He has identified very thin and flexible solar panels which can be sown on to the top of a bimini or a mooring cover. Two panels which are 12 X 73 inches each could be attached and generate 2.4 amps per hour combined (assuming sunny day). A five hour charge could power a gps or vhs for hours or run a 3 amp bilge pump for 6 hours. We were exploring whether it would be enough to allow a boater to do away with his second battery which in many cases is really used to power accessories. We realize it is not enough to power heavy duty stereo/amp/speaker set-ups but may be enough for folks whose accessories draw less power (and boat on sunny days!).

His other idea would be to attach 2 of the solar panels on the mooring cover and hook them directly to one or more small dehumidifiers which would run periodically and keep the boat free from excessive moisture without draining the battery. Of course this assumes the boat is stored outside under the sun.

The cost of these solar panels and the accessories needed to hook them to a battery or dircctly to an appliance have come down dramatically. The cost would be $500 to $700 per install depending on the set-up.

Our question is whether as boaters you would be interested in either of these in view of the approximate cost and benefits. Any and all feedback would be welcome!

Thanks!!!
Eastern Shore Wake

Interesting idea and very innovative for a 13 yr old. That is impressive in itself, that a 13 yr old would come up with this, wow.

I personally have 2 batteries for two reasons: First it's my just in case battery, makes me feel good and safe. Second, I use it to power my stereo when I'm anchored and just hanging out.

I would be afraid to sew a $700 panel into my bimini top personally, too much risk for the potential reward. I personally do not see how it would help me, if I feel that my batteries are getting low, I just turn on the boat for a few minutes. Perhaps this idea would be better suited for cabin cruisers, putting a fixed panel on the boat to run a hot water heater or something like that. On a wakeboat, it may just be a real expensive bimini..

The idea about putting a dehumidifier is an awsome idea for those mooring long term, but whose going to empty the bucket of water........may have to rig something to expel the water.

[dogbert]

Why not power more than one battery? Most of us need to recharge our batteries anyways after a day on the lake.

[gman]

Good idea, however he also needs to look at the following and maybe he already has. Not knowing the exact design and type of cells, I believe there could be a problem with the bimini. How would you roll it up and store back in the cover? What if you do not want to put up the bimini? Also what about the wiring? How would you roll that up in the cover? Bimini Warranty? You would have to run the wiring somehow on the tower(a harness of somesort) otherwise it would flop around in the wind and then it needs to go through the deck in order to hide the wiring. Need to take and see what the wind loading would do to the bimini support structure with the cells. On the boat cover, we roll it up to store away. You would have the same issue here as to how to roll up the solar cells unless you take the whole panel off. Need to have some way to also connect to your system. If towing with cover, how will cells and cover survive? What is the cost of elec to run your humidifier for time you do run it vs the cost of cells? The idea is good, implementing it will be the difficult portion.

[whitlock87]

I like the second idea.

[TeamAllen]

I had this idea at the beginning of summer. I am a Roofing Contractor and install solar attic fans on customers homes.

To give you an idea, here is a link to the product. I'm an Authorized Dealer and Installer.
http://www.sunrisesolar.net/

I have seen the flexible panels that you mentioned at Roofing Conventions. The panels I saw are used to attach to different types of roofing membranes, usually single ply roofs, like TPO, EPDM or PVC.

For a boating, battery charger I think the flexible ones are the way to go because you can store it away easily. My idea was to use the flexible panel and take it out when you are stopped, anchoered or floating and attach it to the battery by aligator clips, pre-installed battery charger type wire or use the 12V accessory plug (picture attached). That way you could use it for your car, share with a another boater or on other toys. You could also place it in different locations and angle to get maximum solar efficiency.

Using the bimini has two problems I see. At least on my boat, the tower and wakeboards, mounted on the side, would create shadows, drastically reducing the amount of sunlight. In my situation, I would have to mount it to the top of the tower to get maximum sunlight.
As gman pointed out, folding the bimini up, I believe, would damage the panels.

On Tige.com, the current survey shows 58% of respondents store their boat indoors. Houseboats and RVs are the ideal situation for solar energy. They are always outside, have large surface areas to mount panels on and help to minimize running the necessary generators.

The biggest problem to overcome is cost to benefit. Everyone sees this issue differently. What is it worth to have a portable solar battery charger? How many WATTS would be needed?

[Eastern shore wake]

Yeah those problems needed to be thought about. Another idea, for the second solution, is just running the wire through a consealed hole in the mooring cover to the dehumdifier. From there you could run the dehumidifier's water to a bucket or even more and from there you could fill the bucket/buckets all the way up and the dehumidifier. If you didn't want the folar panels always on the cover you make a clip gadget that would allow you to clip it in and plug the wire into it or unclip it and unplug the wire form it. Very good idea.

[Eastern shore wake]

yeah

[MoneyPity]

I also think the idea is great for a 13 year old. Research if something out there exists in the market for boats in general and if not you may have an idea that could be patented. You just need to patent the idea not production of the idea. If the idea did catch on it may have been worth the time to apply for a patent.

Currently the vents you find on various boast covers are solar powered. I have heard of bilge pumps being solar powered as a last resort. I think it is practical to power fans in mooring covers but the bilge pump idea is a big maybe it could work.

[TedHowell]

Hi, my 13 year old son, Nick, is working on an “innovation” project at school. He has done some preliminary research and wanted to get the opinions of boaters on it. Cannot think of a better group of boaters to get feedback from! Here is the idea; solar panels on bimini tops or boat covers. He has identified very thin and flexible solar panels which can be sown on to the top of a bimini or a mooring cover. Two panels which are 12 X 73 inches each could be attached and generate 2.4 amps per hour combined (assuming sunny day). A five hour charge could power a gps or vhs for hours or run a 3 amp bilge pump for 6 hours. We were exploring whether it would be enough to allow a boater to do away with his second battery which in many cases is really used to power accessories. We realize it is not enough to power heavy duty stereo/amp/speaker set-ups but may be enough for folks whose accessories draw less power (and boat on sunny days!).

His other idea would be to attach 2 of the solar panels on the mooring cover and hook them directly to one or more small dehumidifiers which would run periodically and keep the boat free from excessive moisture without draining the battery. Of course this assumes the boat is stored outside under the sun.

The cost of these solar panels and the accessories needed to hook them to a battery or dircctly to an appliance have come down dramatically. The cost would be $500 to $700 per install depending on the set-up.

Our question is whether as boaters you would be interested in either of these in view of the approximate cost and benefits. Any and all feedback would be welcome!

Thanks!!!
Eastern Shore Wake

It is very nice idea but hard to implement.. You need sufficient amount of energy production from these panels which might be hard to achieve

[Ruger761]

I like the idea especially for a 13 yr old cant say enough about that. But the idea gets beat out by reality I think to some degree. If you look at most solar battery chargers on the market that are portable aligator clip style most only put out a few watts with ideal sunlight. So they take 12 hrs or so to charge a battery. Now if you jump into the larger panels or combine panels together about the size of 3/4 or the full size of the bimini now you can get some power out of them. They are starting to make some flexible solar panels that can be rolled, so there is hope on the storage issue I think. So with some work to and large enough panels I think he could be on to something, and more electronic stuff in boats requires more power. The price point of solar is going to be what hurts the idea. Nice panels get really expensive. So the cost of solar vs starting the boat for a few min to recharge is a trade off. If he keeps at it he can figure out a way to make it all work and marketable. Very impressive for a 13 yr old soon to be an engineer I would guess.

[da.bell]

Bring back a thread from the dead apparently.

[Ruger761]

Oh yep sure enough. I didnt even look at the date just saw it listed as a new posting.