Solar Panel (March 2006)

We installed a 500 milliamp solar panel to the port side, on and aft of the stern rail. This panel is operated whenever we sail and usually keeps up with our electrical demands at the time. Since it was installed. we seldom need to use our shore power battery charger. The solar panel output lead goes into a small, plastic, sealed electrical box that holds the milliamp meter and push-on, push-off switch. The output leads are fed through a sealed entry in the coaming to the interior electrical panel. The ground wire is connected to the ground bus. The positive wire is attached to a small circuit board which contains two, one amp diodes. Both of the diode anodes are connected to the solar panel positive lead. Each of the cathodes are wired to the positive terminal of one of the batteries This isolates the batteries and allows each battery to accept charging current.

{Lesson learned:

Small investments pay dividends in reducing energy consumption and time spent on operating charging equipment.}