Replacing the solar panel on my 2020 R23

[Bigman99]

After upgrading the stock controller with a Victron 100/30 in anticipation of a panel upgrade and reading countless threads and watching Martins terrific videos I’ve got my new panel and….a problem.

Channel Surfing’s video shows the panel cables covered in a loom. Removing it reveals the yellow and red wires indicating + and -. My boat however has two black wires from the panel to a cable clam mounted on the funnel. Great, I’ll just remove the access roof panel in the salon and spot the yellow and red. No dice. Just black wire as far as I can see. The cable run ends in the port lazarette with red and yellow wiring. Not being an electrical genius how can I identify which wire at the panel side is which without tearing the boat apart?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[watson1987]

Is there an MC4 solar connector on the top side connecting the panel to the black cable run? From the panel, the female/contact protected side should be positive.

Or, if you are replacing the solar panel, you could cut off the panel on the top side and use a connectivity tester on a multimeter to see which wire is which

 

[Hamster]

The two wires at your old panel should have (or had) yellow and red tape around the black cable at the MC 4 connector. Mine did - at both ends.

 

[scross]

My 2017 C-28 had red and yellow AWG 10 wires coming out of the stock Kyocera panel. Unfortunately, the yellow wire was positive and the red wire was negative. Obviously this is the reverse of standards.
Here’s what I’d do: First, cover the old solar panel. Then carefully disconnect and cap off the wires from the solar panel where they connect to the old controller. Next, I’d cut the existing wires about 4-6” from where they exit the old solar panel. The MC4 connectors are really easy to add so that you can connect the existing wires to the new solar panel at that end. Connect the new solar panel to the existing wiring using the MC4 connectors.
Now, with a multi meter, check the output from the existing capped wiring near the solar controller. Label them so you know what wire is positive and what is negative.
With the VE solar controllers, if you somehow mess up and get the input wires from the panel to the controller reversed don’t worry - it won’t harm the controller. You just won’t get any output current. I’d also recommend inserting a resettable 10 Amp breaker on the positive wire just before it connects to the VE controller.
Be VERY careful not to reverse the connection of the wires going from the controller to the battery - that will fry the controller!

 

[Submariner]

After upgrading the stock controller with a Victron 100/30 in anticipation of a panel upgrade and reading countless threads and watching Martins terrific videos I’ve got my new panel and….a problem.

Channel Surfing’s video shows the panel cables covered in a loom. Removing it reveals the yellow and red wires indicating + and -. My boat however has two black wires from the panel to a cable clam mounted on the funnel. Great, I’ll just remove the access roof panel in the salon and spot the yellow and red. No dice. Just black wire as far as I can see. The cable run ends in the port lazarette with red and yellow wiring. Not being an electrical genius how can I identify which wire at the panel side is which without tearing the boat apart?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The factory panel is simply hardwired from the solar panel to the boat. Undo the split-loom and you'll find the red and yellow wires from the boat butt-spliced to the solar panel. Cut the wires 1 at a time (so as to not short out the panel). And mark the solar panel wires + and -.

If you've already cut the old panel off, then just put a volt meter to the solar panel's wires. If the reading is positive voltage then + and - match the voltmeter leads + and -. If the voltage reading is negative, they are opposite.

We just published this video 2 weeks ago that goes over in detail how to do the solar panel wiring up top on the boat. I also came up with a better way to crimp the MC4 cables that doesn't require crimping MC4 ends.

Upgrade your boating experience with Solar!
https://youtu.be/KW3FJgtGs-Q

 

[Bigman99]

Thanks to all. It appears that Fluid Motion stopped using wire loom at least on the R23. Martin, I watch all your videos and have upgraded many of the items you added to Channel Surfing and your advice and videos have been extremely helpful. In my case the way they hardwired the panel is different and I will proceed to cut the panel off and put my multimeter on it to figure out the connectivity. I was just a bit nervous cutting off a perfectly good panel without first seeing if anyone had my same setup. I’d post a pic but not sure how.

Thanks guys. Ill post here again once it’s all done.

 

[RThorn]

What panels are you installing? I am putting in 2 - 175 panels on our 2019 R23

 

[Bigman99]

Ok. Panel installed successfully. Thanks to everyone for the advice. I was able to determine the polarity after removing the factory panel using a multimeter. For everyone’s info the wire on the starboard side on my 2020 was the positive one. Using Martin’s method I wired in new extensions with butt connectors and mounted the new panel with the factory mounts. The new panel is a 215 watt and so far I’m seeing roughly double the power over the factory installation. The installation went well after I got over my nervousness. My goal was really to keep the fridge running without taxing the three house batteries I have. I think I’ve achieved that. I may add more solar at a later date if I upgrade to lithium. We’ll see.
Again thanks for the responses.

 

[scross]

Congratulations on the panel upgrade!
If you’re still using the Morningstar Sun Saver Duo PWM controller you can get another 5-30% output bump by switching that out to a MPPT controller like the Victron Energy Smart Solar. Not much more difficult to do than the panel swap. The MPPT is even more efficient compared to the PWM controllers in cooler climates.

 

[Bigman99]

Congratulations on the panel upgrade!
If you’re still using the Morningstar Sun Saver Duo PWM controller you can get another 5-30% output bump by switching that out to a MPPT controller like the Victron Energy Smart Solar. Not much more difficult to do than the panel swap. The MPPT is even more efficient compared to the PWM controllers in cooler climates.

Thanks for the response. I’ve already upgraded to the Victron.