Category: Upgrades

Blog posts covering our upgrades to Floydtilla

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Planning for Solar Panels part 8 – Buying Solar Panels and Mountings

When looking at Solar Panels I wanted a know brand and also ones with a strong thick tempered glass top, many of the people I had spoken to about the panels installed on their boats mentioned how easily they flexed and therefore worried about their ultimate strength (This could be a even bigger problem with tillable mountings?).

I had discovered while trawling the data sheets for solar panels, that they seemed to come with two different thicknesses of tempered glass, the cheaper ones had 1.6mm glass while generally the more expensive had 3.2mm glass.

I also noticed the ranges available for the cheap panels changed almost weekly, I would find and interesting panel and just a few days later they would vanish from stock.

In the end I decided to go with City Plumping, who always had stock available at some very good prices. I selected 2 of their 435W panels (LR5-54HTH-435M) from Longi Solar at £91.76 (£110.11 inc VAT) each.

435W panels (LR5-54HTH-435M) from Longi Solar

Best bit about ordering from City Plumping was free delivery 🙂 I had been quoted £50 for delivery and often at a price almost double for the same spec (lets hope I got a bargain).

Now that I know the panels are ordered and I have the final size of the panels, I can order the mounting and after much debate and costing up alternative solutions, I have ended up ordering the Semi-Permanent Adjustable Mounting from Midsummer, they cut them to length before shipping ready for me to install.

My panels are much larger, but the mounting will be like this.

After I placed the order online with Midsummer, I followed the order up and sent over a copy of the panels data sheet, which included all the dimensions they needed. Very quickly I got a response to says they had got what they needed and it would all ship ASAP.

I did also check with the Marina (Droitwich Spa Marina) that they would be happy to hold onto the panels for me, I would not be visiting for a week. As normal they could not be more helpful, always a good experience.

Also see
Planning for Solar Panels – Part 1
Planning for Solar Panels Part 2 – Panel Mounting Options
Planning for Solar Panels Part 3 – Types of Panels
Planning for Solar Panels Part 4 – MPPT vs PWM solar controllers
Planning for Solar Panels part 5 – Cable sizes, lengths and resistance.
Planning for Solar Panels part 6 – Panels in Serial or Parallel
Planning for Solar Panels part 7 – Buying the cable and Circuit breakers
Planning for Solar Panels part 8 – Buying Solar Panels and Mountings
Planning for Solar Panels part 9 – Wiring
Planning for Solar Panels part 10 – Drilling, Tapping and Fitting

Safety Disclaimer

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Planning for Solar Panels part 7 – Buying the cable and Circuit breakers

After a lot of hunting around and looking at lots of different web sites I ended up purchasing 25 Meters of both Red and Black 6mm Solar PV cable from Superlec Direct who at the time seemed to have the best per meter price for this length at 99p per meter plus VAT (£1.19) with free delivery for orders over £50. I also added some MC4 connector to the order as these also seemed reasonably priced.

Cable from Superlec Direct

I could have used 4mm cable for this and made a small saving, but just to cover future upgrades and I don’t what to have to do this twice I went with the 6mm cable, also this is the maximum the MC4 connectors can handle.

If you have been following this blog you will know I purchased a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 a few weeks ago, and the manual for this recommend a fuse between this and the batteries of between 55 & 70 Amps for this I have selected a RED WOLF 60 amp Circuit Breaker which came in the end from Amazon.co.uk

Red Wolf 60 Amp breaker

This comes in midway between the Victron requirements, we will see how well this operates when it arrives.

Reading and watching all I can find on installing fuses and circuit breakers in solar systems, most of the ready-made kits I have seen for canal boats do not include any isolators or fuses.

In domestic systems there are always large breakers and fuses as a domestic solar array will be much larger and we are then working with much higher voltages often over 350V for a just a small 4Kw PV array, so much more dangerous in terms of power and much greater risk to life from electrocution.

What does a fuse/circuit breaker do?

A fuse in a circuit is to protect the wiring and other devices from excessive current flow that could damage them, it is designed to blow before any further damage can be done.

Fitting fuses/circuit breakers between the Solar Panels and the MPPT Controller?

The solar panels have a rating for “Series Fuse Rating” which in our case is approx 20Amps which is the maximum Amps this panel can withstand being dumped into it without damage . In our case with the panels in series our max output will be about 10.5 Amps, so we are well within that and safe without fuses on each panel.

But If we wired the array in parallel, then the Amps would increase with each panels fitted, if a panel failed the output of the others would find the route of least resistance through the broken panel, potentially exceeding the 20A “Series Fuse Rating”, to prevent this from becoming a problem, 15A fuses should be fitted for each panel in the array so that in the case of a problem the faulty panel is disconnected from the array before any damage is done.

Next week we will be selecting and ordering the panels and hopefully also deciding on the mounting system so I can get them delivered direct to the marina ready for my next visit.

Also see
Planning for Solar Panels – Part 1
Planning for Solar Panels Part 2 – Panel Mounting Options
Planning for Solar Panels Part 3 – Types of Panels
Planning for Solar Panels Part 4 – MPPT vs PWM solar controllers
Planning for Solar Panels part 5 – Cable sizes, lengths and resistance.
Planning for Solar Panels part 6 – Panels in Serial or Parallel
Planning for Solar Panels part 7 – Buying the cable and Circuit breakers
Planning for Solar Panels part 8 – Buying Solar Panels and Mountings
Planning for Solar Panels part 9 – Wiring
Planning for Solar Panels part 10 – Drilling, Tapping and Fitting

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New Unlimited Smarty SIM for our WIFI

In May 2021 we fitted a Huawei B311 as our internet connection, and at first we used a SMARTY SIM to get access to the internet on there 100GB for £20, but my Daughter soon used that all in the first week of our holiday and the cost of extra GB was stupid!!!, and they would not let me upgrade to a larger data plan until the first month was complete..

So we moved to EE as part of our Family tariff and during this time we put our Daughter on an unlimited data tariff (£££).

SMARTY Unlimited
SMARTY Unlimited

Well now we are back with SMARTY as they have a unlimited Data/Calls/Texts tariff SIM for just £18 per month, and so far no problems, this enables me to update the Moorings Map Page while we are travelling and not worry about watch a film etc etc.

If you are interested we have a referral link https://i.smarty.co.uk/TWt5bGx but you may find better offers if you shop around.

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Solar Controller – Victron SmartSolar MTTP 100|50

Having used the Victron MPPT sizing calculator with the correct configuration for my 2 X 415W solar panels it recommended I use their SmartSolar MPPT 100/50, if you follow the link above you should see the calculation.

Victron SmartSolar 100|50
Victron SmartSolar 100|50

So I was now on the hunt for the best price I could find; I tried all the normal boating solar companies, but the prices are all very similar when I found on eBay for just £220.00

Midsummer Energy£357.00*
Dragons Breath Solar£285.61*
Midland Chandlers£339.16*
Sunshine Solar£300.85*
Nomadic Conversions (eBay Shop)£220.00*
*Prices Include VAT and where checked at the time of writing 07/06/2023

So the order was placed. Things got a little odd when I got a message from DPD, and it seemed they had been booked for delivery, but had not got the package, even after a few days this status did not change. I messaged the supplier via eBay with no response, but then an email from Royal Mail with shipping details arrived and a few days later it was here.

I must admit I was starting to get a little worried that it was too cheap to be true, but I have it, it is new and sealed in the box ready to be fitted in a few weeks. Now I need to find a similar bargain for the Solar Panels!

NOTE: In the package came a leaflet from Nomadic Leisure, the company that run the Nomadic Conversions eBay shop their main market seems to be Campervans and surprisingly on their online shop the SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 is £302.40

So it seems it is a good idea to shop around and try alternative sources like eBay. You may, like me, get a bargain.

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Planning for Solar Panels part 6 – Panels in Serial or Parallel

We need to look at the wiring options for fitting the our Solar Panels, they can be wired in multiple ways, each with it advantages and dis-advantages. With our current plan for a two large 415W panels we have two main options we can wire them in Series or in Parallel. If we fit more smaller 200W panels to get to our 800W target we can also use a hybrid wiring option.

Panels in Series or Serial Wiring

In the example below I have wired the panels in series so that the output of one panel goes to the input of the next panel.

Solar Panels Series Wiring Diagram

In this example each panels can output up to 38.9 Volts and 10.62 Amps, by putting them in series we combine the voltages (2 X 38.9 = 77.8V), but the Amps will stay the same at 10.62A.

Giving an output of 826 Watts (77.8 Volts X 10.62 Amps = 826.23 Watts).

The main advantage of wiring in series is that we get a higher voltage, this enables us to use a thinner mm2 wire, while carrying the same amount of power (Watts) and also a lower voltage drop in the cable.

In our boat in this configuration with an expected cable run of 12m using our voltage drop calculator we could just use 2.5mm2 cable and still keep the Voltage drop below the 2% target. ( I suspect we would use the 4mm2 as this would give us a larger safety margin at little additional cost).

Also we find the both MPPT and PWM solar controllers are much cheaper if we use a higher voltage/lower amperage versions.

One potential disadvantage is that wired this way the two panels act as one larger panel, so if one is in the shade it will effect the total output of both panels.

Parallel Wiring the panels

In this example below I have wired the panels in parallel so that the positives are connected together as are the negative on each panel.

Solar Panels Parallel Wiring Diagram

Again in this example these panels can output up to 38.9 Volts and 10.62 Amps, by putting them in parallel we combine the current in Amps (2 X 10.62A = 21.24A), but the Voltage stay the same at 38.9V.

Giving an output of 826 Watts (21.24 Amps X 38.9 Volts = 826.23 Watts).

In our boat in this configuration with an expected cable run of 12m using our voltage drop calculator we would need to fit a 10mm2 cable to keep the Voltage drop below the 2% requirement (This could add significant extra cost in cable and fittings).

Hybrid Serial & Parallel Configurations.

In this example we have wired 4 X 200W panels so that they connect is pairs in serial and the two pairs are connected in parallel.

Solar Panels hybrid Series & Parallel Wiring Diagram

So in this example each of these 200W panels can output up to 19.2 Volts and 10.42 Amps, by putting them together in pairs in series and then the two pairs in parallel the calculation is as follows.

We combine the two serial panels together so that we double the voltage of the pair of panels 2 X 19.2V = 38.4V while the Amps stays the same at 10.42 Amp.

Combine both sets of panels together in parallel and the Amps doubles 2 X 10.42 Amps = 20.84 Amps at 38.4V

Therefore 20.84 Amps X 38.4V = 800.25 Watts

In our boat in this configuration with an expected cable run of 12m using our voltage drop calculator we would need to fit a 10mm2 cable to keep the Voltage drop below the 2% requirement.

Things to remember

  • Solar panels wired in series adds there Voltages together.
  • Solar panels wired in parallel adds there Amps together.

Note: the circuit diagrams where drawn using Draw.io

Also see
Planning for Solar Panels – Part 1
Planning for Solar Panels Part 2 – Panel Mounting Options
Planning for Solar Panels Part 3 – Types of Panels
Planning for Solar Panels Part 4 – MPPT vs PWM solar controllers
Planning for Solar Panels part 5 – Cable sizes, lengths and resistance.
Planning for Solar Panels part 6 – Panels in Serial or Parallel
Planning for Solar Panels part 7 – Buying the cable and Circuit breakers
Planning for Solar Panels part 8 – Buying Solar Panels and Mountings
Planning for Solar Panels part 9 – Wiring
Planning for Solar Panels part 10 – Drilling, Tapping and Fitting

Safety Disclaimer

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