UK Canal Maps and our Canal Boating Blog
Our maps are growing fast, we now have 900+ moorings and marinas listed in our first map, and we have also created a new map to the services you need most often like Pump outs, Elsan points, Calor Gas etc.
Click here for the Mooring Map – UK
Click here for the Mooring Map – Scotland
Click here for the Services Map
If you know of a site we are missing, we even have a online form for that, Click here to help us keep everything up to date 🙂
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
A busy day ahead as Mary is leaving us by Train at about 2pm, but before we get started we now have a very low leisure battery bank and the voltage must be very low as the fridge has stopped working, it little internal LED is flashing away. Luckily in the freezer box we had some packs of Obi’s dog food acting as freezer blocks and helping keep things cool.
Looking at the alternator for the leisure batteries it’s possible that belt is also now loose, it does seem looser that yesterday, but I may be getting paranoid and unfortunately the tools we used yesterday just don’t want to fit well enough to get the bolts loose without damaging them or me.
Now a sudden inspiration strikes ‘Screwfix‘ I look on their web site and see they have a one hour service in this area with deliver just £5.00, all I need is a postcode to deliver to. Luckily the local business we are moored near is happy to help, so within an hour we have some smart new spanners and five minutes later the belt is a little tighter.
With the engine running we still no charging taking place, now I check the wiring, wish I had done this first, as the single yellow and black wire that connects to the alternator just comes away in my fingers. Probably all the vibration from the engine a couple of days ago and is has finally given up holding on to it’s spade terminal.
I need a bit of luck as unfortunately I have also left my crimp tool at home in the tool bag, but in my box of boat bits I find a spade terminal with approx the right gauge wire already attached and manage to strip back both ends and twist them tight enough that they will hopefully get us home once covered in some insulation tape.
With Mary safely on the train, by 3pm we are on our way out of Birmingham, the plan is to go as far as possible before it is to dark to chug along.
Finally at about 8pm we moor up just before the Shortwood tunnel entrance, under the cover of some trees, Antony and Ellie cook tea and it is off the bed.
Today we have travelled 12 miles in about 5 hours.
August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day
I know this is not very special, but another late start and after some coffees from Nero and 4 of us showered we finally managed to emptyed our water tank. But before we refill we decide to head to McD’s for breakfast, just making it before the 11am cut off (its relatively cheap and you have to love the hash browns).
On the way back Mary and I found a DJI shop ( 2-6 Corporation Street, B2 4RN) with lots of interesting gadgets, I could not resist the Oslo Mobile 6 Smartphone Stabiliser (Approval was sort from the boss before purchase, I’d not that stupid). On the way back we stop off for a quick photo on the Black Sabbath Bridge, it is not often clear of tourists.
While the rest of the group then headed to The Birmingham Sealife centre, which is just the other side of the canal, I decided to stay, write some of the blog and then have to hunt for the dog who has taken himself off for a walk. He does not get far, I am told he visited the Lego centre and then was captured by the kind people at Sommar which is a microbrewery just above us, they found my number on his collar and call me, but in my panic I had left my phone on the boat, but I soon returned and got their voicemail. Obi (The dog), is very please with himself having been well looked after, but is pleased to see me and follows me back to the boat then under my stern glares he quickly falls asleep in his favourite place under the table.
When the others returned, we start the engine and reverse with the assistants on some crew on the lines to the canal roundabout, before chugging to the water point, just opposite The Cube and just outside Noel’s Bar and Restaurant and we moored while we waited for another boat to complete filling up.
After we had filled our tank, we then reversed back and moored up again at the 4 day moorings.
I did notice that the leisure batteries where a bit lower than I expected, but as we were going out tonight and as we planned a ½ days chugging tomorrow, I hopped going to be a problem.
That evening we had wanted to go to Dishoon, an Indian restaurant highly recommended by Jason (Sonia’s No.2 son) who was joining us that evening, unfortunately we could not get a table booking at a convenient time. I then did a quick dive into trip-advisor and somehow found a small restaurant call Ju Ju’s Cafe that looked interesting, most of my family seemed think I was nuts, but we had an truly excellent meal, which did contain an extraordinary amount of garlic, but we are all family on the boat , high recommended.
August 2023 – Part 1 – A little adventure, Droitwich to Birmingham
August 2023 – Part 2 – A really Tardebigge adventure
August 2023 – Part 3 – Birmingham Engine Lows and Highs
August 2023 – Part 4 – Lost dog and diner out at Ju Ju’s Cafe
August 2023 – Part 5 – Screwfix almost saves the day