I installed solar on my Mainship Pilot last summer before leaving on the Loop. One of the few amenities that was missing on my Cutwater. I thought about installing it on the Cutwater but the sport racks didn't have enough room to put anything significant up there. I had a larger radar dome and we stored a paddle board on the racks.We also depended on the roof hatches for ventilation. The panels would have limited the opening of the hatches. The biggest problem was I never got around to designing and installing a system that would give a significant benefit. I think the Tugs can get a better "Bang for your Buck" because of the different roof.
Before installing the solar I read a couple of "How to do books" panel sizing, wiring configurations, batteries, inverter, solar controllers, battery monitors ....... I was not well informed about solar before starting the project and still feel I have much more to learn. I did retain the basics and drew up a system on paper. Now it was time to get educated about the equipment and pricing. One of the 'How to do books" referred to Rich Solar as a go to source. I looked at a few of their complete systems but I didn't feel it was the best. Their Panels had good reviews and fit my needs so I picked Rich Solar as my Panel distributer. (3) RICH SOLAR 200 watt monocrystalline solar panels. I Also purchased the 10gauge extension cables from them. Next was solar controller. All reviews and information I read was I could not go wrong with the Victron controller. I purchased the 100V/50 amp controller which was more than enough for the 600W panels wired in series. I also went with the Victron battery monitor. Both solar and monitor have a bluetooth connection to my iPad that I use onboard.
Batteries? What do I use?? If money was no object Lithium is the way to go. Because this was all new to me I thought I would make "baby steps" when it came to battery purchases. I went with old school flooded lead acid, group 31 East Penn Dual Purpose, marketed as Dura Cell batteries, rated at 105 AH. I have four wired in parallel with a back up thruster battery 4D deep cycle 180 AH flooded lead acid battery. This can be in the house bank circuit by use of a battery switch. When it is tuned on it increases my house bank to 600 AH and is in the solar charge circuit.
Inverter is a Kisea 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Enough power to run any 120 Volt accessory on board. This includes the Marine air and hot water heater. Obviously one at a time and with power management.
Breakers are (1) 50 amp blue sea surface mount breaker that can be used to turn the batteries off to the controller and also protects the wiring and controller from an over loaded circuit. I also installed a double pole breaker between my solar panels and the controller (15 amp) this may not be needed but I feel it is an extra safety device. I can remove the solar panels from the circuit if I need to do any work to the solar system with the flip of a switch.
How is all this working out? To early to tell! We have been cruising since August 2022 and now in Florida. Unfortunately the most we have stayed on the hook at one time is 4 days. That was in August when the sun light was out longer. We would have 100% charge to the house bank usually by 1:00 pm and the rest of the day the solar would operate in float maintaining all the 12V needs. The most panel watts produced to charge the battery banks was 480W showing a charge to the batteries of 27 amps. The controller controls this. The largest discharge I have seen from my battery bank was 32% with the Victron showing 68% left. This was in the morning after a full night of 12V usage on the anchor. We do use power management. Not bad but I would be less conservative with 12V usage if I had lithium.
Why all this information for a thread "Solar Brands". There is much more to the solar charge than the panels. I am a novice at the installation. I'm sure there are many on this forum that could give you more information. When I did my install I did it in a way that I can make revisions to the system without a complete refit. There is a lot of information out there at the touch of a key.
For me price did matter. I didn't want the cheapest and I didn't want the most expensive. I wanted the best for the money I spent. I feel that I accomplished that. Do your home work.
