Hobie Cat Forums

was just reading this article http://www.gizmag.com/joos-orange-personal-solar-charger-affordable-rugged-and-extremely-energy-efficient/14403/ and was wondering do any of you guys have panels to charge your 12v battery when your out and about?

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I have been pondering this question myself and a handy friend has solved the issue for me.
He is building me a wind powered generator that will charge 4 12 volt AGM batteries.
He is using all off the shelf materials and even says the cost will be under $100.
I will post pics as soon as I take delivery.

I'll be interested in seeing this

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Mickey
2011 AI Golden Papaya
2011 TI Golden Papaya

Picked up a new 2.9amp 12v battery for my fish finder at the local battery specialty shop (Battery Bill). While I was there, I was checking their selection of solar panels that could be used to maintain charge while at sea. For a 2.9amp 12v battery, a 6 watt solar panel was recommended by the shop's expert -(Battery Bill)

find out what amperage your Fish finder draws then its easy to see if he is full of crap... most are under 250mA

Watts = Volts x Current

so 12 X 0.25 = 3 Watts. So 6 watt may be a little bit of overkill.

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6W should be about right. Remember that a solarpannel seldom delivers full power. ( only under ideal conditions ). That you only get when they are directed to the sun. Laying flat with salt spray all over it will defenately decrease the output..

yeh but he has a 2.9amphour battery so the solar panel should just be topping up the battery.

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I'd go the bigger capacity solar panel. A lot of the time the specs on the panels are very optamistic and under perfect conditions. Add some cloud and salt spray and you'll get less power out.

These seem to pretty popular for kayaks-


Find more info here-
http://mattbezzina.blogspot.com/2008/10/solar-powered-battery-charger-for-bilge.html

and here-
http://www.roguepaddler.com/battpak.htm

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They look like nice panels, in terms of going the higher wattage panels yep your always better to get them but the price of panels increases exponentially with wattage.

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Probably a dumb idea but is there any way you could incorporate a solar panel into a sail sheet or are they to ridgid?

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Soon.

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