Solar installed, yet to be connected up.

Phoenix now has 4 shiny new solar panels upon her roof.

The plan continues

The day started slow but once the nicely fashioned aluminium brackets had been attached to each panel, I started the layout of them.

Initially I had planned to put three panels across the roof and the forth along the roof.

All panels needed to go towards the front (bow) end as I use the centre rope lots when travelling alone. Jumping on and off with just a back (stern) rope is a pain as you’ve only got the one end at hand. Once the back is in, the front wants to go out. The middle rope is ideal as it just pulls it all over at once.

The single centre rope is a boon when working the locks alone too as I can walk the open gate whilst slowing the boat and by the time I’ve entered the lock, I’m ready to push the gate shut (dual gated locks).

Anyways, so the new panels needed the brackets installed on the panel and then holes marked with them for the roof to be drilled and tapped to take some bolts.

The bolts are actually hex head m5 bolts and they have been glued in with some waterproof gorilla glue (it expands and should be fine).

The panels are yet to be wired into the boat electric system but progress has been made nonetheless.

The installed panels

As you can see from the last photo, there was going to be enough room to have all 4 panels side by side.

They needed to go on the one side as I wanted to be able to get from back to front of needed and visa versa.

I have spent some time now working locks alone and this decision was made with first hand experience.

The work being done, so far, has meant that over the next few days, Phoenix should be generating her own power from the environment. How green are we actually going with this boat? ?

In the image above, you can see my dad and he is looking at the entry point for the solar cabling into the front of the boat.

What’s next?

Next is connecting up the 4 12v batteries into 1 big 12v battery.

Then it’s the hookup work. That will involve connecting the large battery first to the charge controller (via a fuse) and then the solar into the controller too.

Then finally, I will be able to see what all the fuss is about solar (in the UK no less).

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