If you are going to mount them flat there are a lot of flush mounting brackets available:
James is doing something unique building a three axis sun tracker. But both your option are a little pricey for my taste. I looked at the Solbian panels and at 5 times the price they where just to pricey for me.
I will just stick with quantity over quality. But then I have a little more space to work with. I do like that your dingy is half the size of your boat. :-)
Hi James,On the subject of windage from solar panels...On 02/08/2012, at 1:39 AM, James Lambden wrote:Windage is an issue with any solar array. The idea with this array is that you can keep it horizontal for less windage, even when the boat is heeling over.I have Solara solar panels on my trimaran Current Sunshine and I have just installed an array of Solara panels on the canopy of a solar boat and these panels add virtually no more windage to the boat. They are 2mm thick and can be slightly curved. The cells are bonded on a stainless steel plate to give a really robust panel that can be walked on.Here's a photo of the solar boat and you can see the panels on the canopy.
<IMG_1610.JPG>
Since choosing those panels I have come to learn about Solbian panels which are similar to the Solara ones but are on a much lighter backing and weigh in at only a kilo of so per panel. They can also be walked on providing the surface they are glued to is well prepared.Both these types of panels are expensive compared to the raw cost of regular framed glass panels. But when you take into account the cost of the mounting structure, such as you've done, I'd expect there'd be nothing in it.The advantages of these panels are light weight and no windage and no ugly super structure. The disadvantage of these panels, for a sailing boat especially, is the problem of shading and it is likely that such panels would harvest less of the available sun. The Solbian panels are available with Sunpower cells and so can also highly efficient.CheersChris
__._,_.___
.
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment