Sunday 12 Apr, CY day 29: Happy Easter! Solar panels are installed… but there is a weird electrical problem.
Spot on forecast, the wind increases at breakfast time. And by the time we get the over-boom sun shade off at 10am, it’s gusting over 15 kts. Once it’s removed, the cockpit feels bright, hot and very exposed to the intense sun until we get the bimini back on. This is no simple task, especially in this wind which is now almost 20kts. But by mid morning it’s on the frames and all nicely tensioned up. And, thank goodness, no distortions in the fabric due to my amateur sewing. Now the moment of truth: will the solar panels actually slide into place OK? First one goes in perfectly… then 2nd…. then a full side. Finally, all 6 are in place and I’m pretty chuffed! If I may say so myself, the installation looks quite professional, a B+ at least. And I think it can be firmly said: our SailRite sewing machine has now earned its money.
Next task is to connect the wires to take the solar power to the 2 MPPT controllers, where the panel power is optimized, regulated and sent to charge the batteries. Electrically, the panels are configured as 2 arrays of 3 panels wired in series. This increases the voltage 3-fold and reduces any power loss due to the length of the wires. With first array wired in, I get great pleasure to see almost 10amps charging the batteries. Brilliant.
But when I connect the 2nd array, I’m so (over)confident that I ty-wrap everything in place, completing the installation, before going down below to see the charging performance. When I do, I’m disappointed. Both arrays now seem to be limited to 85watts output only, even in bright sunlight. Very odd. I disconnect the first array again and the remaining array is again charging at 10amps. Hmmm what’s going on? Individually. the arrays work. But together they don’t. I have a feeling the powered wires are interfering with each other. So after dark (when no power on the panels) I disconnect and run one set of wires direct to the MPPT, completely away from the other set. Let’s see what that does when the sun comes out tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Pffff, boats! Nothing ever works right the first time! Or so it seems.
During the day, with the increased wind, the swell is starting to come into the bay, resulting in us rocking quite severely. Sobad that poor Oana has to take a sea sickness pill. She’s not a happy bunny. And we’re both not happy when we go to bed, because on top of the uncomfortable rolling there is also a lot of water-slapping noises on the hull. It won’t be a good night sleep 🙁