T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Solar Catamaran Project

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Re: [Electric Boats] Solar Catamaran Project

Unfortunately the sting setup is very dependent of what charge controller you buy. Some need the voltage to be higher then the pack voltage, some have pretty tight max voltages you can't go over.

12 180w panels would be around 2160 watts when not open circuit. So at 48 volts you will need around 45 amp charge controller I would go with a 60 or 70 amp to give you room to expand some day. Once you find the charge controller with the features you want with the price you like, that charge controller vendor will have a size calculator to figure out the string geometry, because one vendors charge controller could need radically different input voltage limits.

If money is no object and max performance is key then the most flexible and highest performance will be per panel micro inverters you will not have to worry about stings at all and you can orient the panels at different angles with out effecting the other panels performance.

On Sep 1, 2015, at 8:36 PM, albert682@yahoo.com [electricboats] <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi Group :)

Just an update on the 8 Metre Solar Catamaran Project.

Purchased so far:

2 Ray Electric 48v Outboards
48v Balqon 400ah 20kwh battery bank
48v CALB 72ah will become a 12v house bank and 24v trolling motor for tender and gps autopilot
12 SYFD-FSPC180W-1 System Voltage 24V Vmp(V) 32.92V Imp(A) 5.48A Voc(V) 39.80V Isc(A) 5.85(A) semi-flexible solar panels
2 Samlex/Cotek 48v 3000w inverters
2 Power Jack Smart Generators 48v
1 Alphagen 52.5v Generator
1 Incinolet Electric Head
1 700w Drought Master Atmospheric Water Maker
1 Craig Cat boat Tender
etc...

So I am getting near to the date to start installing all this. What leaves me in a conundrum right now is the selection and string sizing issues of the charge controller. I might add that I am leaning heavily toward a pwm charge controller 440amp or 155amp from coleman air. It has the necessary settings to adjust the charge rate for lithium batteries and when I'm ready I can hook up a wind turbine to it.

Any constructive thoughts on charge controllers would be appreciated especially how it relates to sizing strings in series and parallel.

Arden