Boat Solar Panel Wiring

Small panels maintain or trickle charge batteries while you re unplugged from shore power.

Boat solar panel wiring.

The benefit of parallel wiring each panel works independently. The wiring of your panel to the boats battery bank is critically important. Just hookup your existing boat wiring infrastructure to the terminal block and buss bar. If one panel is shaded it will not affect the entire solar array.

Choosing whether to wire the panels in series or parallel on a boat affects the wire gauge required which is why many solar power installers lean toward wiring the panels in series. Click on calculate to see the size wire required in awg american wire gauge. Mount your panel on your stern rail see photos details below. Mc4 connector a water proof connector used in solar wiring.

Usually 12 24 or 48 volts. Most decent 12v nominal panels will output a voltage of around 16 0 to 19 0 volts. Solar controller except for small trickle charge systems all solar systems should have a solar controller. I recommend an inline fuse on the positive wire from the solar panel to the positive terminal to the charge controller use heat shrink butt connectors.

Attach marine grade copper wires to the panel. Panels wired in series can be wired all the way to the solar charge controller with a thinner gauge wire than those wired in parallel. Positives to the terminal block and negative to the bus bar. Giving up any of this voltage to voltage drop can affect how quickly your bank is recharged.

Run the wires into the main cabin this usually means drilling a small hole in the cockpit. By tom burden last updated. The positives of course must be installed on the correct gang associated with the respective switch for that load. Enter the total amps that your solar panels will produce all together.

Most are terminated with standard 8 ring terminals. Most solar panels come with mc4 connectors attached to 3 foot solar wire pigtail coming from the panel junction box. Installing one or more photovoltaic solar panels on your boat is a great way to keep your batteries topped off and in larger installations replace the power consumed by house loads. This is great for a sailboat with lots of shadows from lines mast boom etc or a cabin in the woods with varying shadows throughout the day.

These are dc wires for a 12 volt system so you need 2 sets of wires. The purpose of a controller is to prevent batteries from being overcharged apply the optimal charging current to the battery bank and prevent current from back. Enter solar panel output voltage. Connect the negative wire from the solar panel to the negative input on the charge controller.

Individual silicon cells produce only around 0 6v and so enough of them have to be connected together in series to produce a voltage high enough to be able to charge a 12v battery.