A SPRINGTIME SOLAR SURPRISE

 I've been away from the boat for awhile. I was traveling to warm places each month over the winter. Plus getting COVID knocked me down but, not out for two weeks. So I did not get on BIANKA for my usual checkups and battery charges. Usually that would not be a problem since my 48 volt solar panels would keep things topped up. So it was a surprise when I looked at the data from the new Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100-Volt 20 amp 48V solar controller.  

Where I noticed several days of no charging data and when there was some charging it was lower than usual. I also noticed the Dual Pro four bank charger was charging at the lowest bar display. This meant the batteries where in a more discharged condition than I've seen in a long time.  

Time for some serious diagnosis on what was happening with the solar charging system. I first checked the 48 volt solar panel voltages and they were near their open circuit voltage specs. I then turned my attention to the Anderson connectors that I used to combine the panel wires to the solar controller. It was there I found the problem. I installed the panels and connectors over twelve years ago. My mistake was never doing any maintenance on the connectors in those years. I found despite taping the connectors to improve their water proofing most of the Anderson contacts had corroded to the point where they were no longer conducting voltage.

I redid the connection using some Spade Connectors I had on board and the problem was solved if only temporarily. Now I need to see if the 48 volt electric propulsion battery bank comes back to full charge as we head toward spring launching. 

BLOG UPDATE:  Going back a few days later and the solar controller charging and battery bank was back to normal. 

 The battery bank was charging normally using the Dual Pro charger. So it looks like things are moving in the right direction for a spring launching.

 

A SOLAR UPGRADE

One of the nice things of having converted from Diesel to Electric Propulsion is the ability to easily upgrade. That includes the auxiliary systems.  Like BIANKA's 48 volt solar controller. I originally installed a Morningstar 48 volt solar controller back over ten years ago.

It has been a real workhorse that has never failed to keep the propulsion bank topped up summer and winter. Since that it was installed new solar charge controllers have come on the market. ones with MPPT tracking that claim to squeeze more watts out of the sun along with on board data collection with Bluetooth connectivity. So in late winter I decided to replace the Morningstar unit with a Victron SmartSolar 100/20 48 volt Solar Charge Controller.

Time will tell if the Victron unit will hold up as well as the Morningstar. But, I'm not going to get rid of the old Morningstar 48  volt controller. It has already proved it's self over the years. Instead it will become part of the boat's spares complement. As the prudent mariner always has a backup.

 

A SMALL CONNECTOR PROJECT

When I added the 48 volt solar panels to the bimini project I needed a way to connect both the 12 volt panels and 48 volt panels to their appropriate battery banks. So I rigged up a temporary junction box using a barrier strip and a small plastic project box as a temporary install. Here is what I had and it has work pretty good over the years.

 Well several years later I'm getting around to an upgrade . I'm finally getting around to making a better way to connect the solar panels to the solar controllers using Anderson Powerpole connectors. Like the ones shown here:

The blue connector signifies that the voltage the wires are carrying is 48 volts and is used to charge my electric propulsion battery bank. Speaking of colors notice how the red color has faded from this wire:

Exposure over the years has caused it to almost become white in color. Another good reason to have color coded connectors like Powerpoles on the ends of the wires.

 The Anderson Powerpole connectors can also be mated as shown here:

 This assures the proper ground (black connector) travel with the positive voltage wire. This helps to eliminate confusion with different voltage systems. You can also buy an optional clip that locks the pairs of Powerpole connectors to add some extra security that they won't pull apart.

So after replacing the lug connectors with Powerpoles I also put a little dab of Marine Goop on the back of each connector to help seal the wire and connectors.

Now both the 48 volt  and 12 volt solar panel connections can be easily accessed for troubleshooting and testing. I have plans to put some instrumentation in line to measure how well the panels are doing in the near future and I will post about those tests here on the blog.

CODE BLUE FOR ELECTRIC PROPULSION

When I added the solar panels to help charge my 48 volt electric propulsion battery bank I used a Morningstar ProStar Charge Controller- PS-15M-48PG to regulate the solar panels charging. That controller also has a 48 volt 15 amp tap that provides a protected voltage out. It was very convenient to have that tap inside the boats cabin. I used it to power the 48 volt  to 12 volt converter which usually powers my laptop on board:

You can see the tap in the above picture. Even though the output is limited to 15 amps I am using  a75 amp Anderson Power Pole connectors. Why? Because that was what I had available at the time and it fit the input wires to the 48 volt to 12 volt converter. The problem is the red color of the positive wire looks the same as the 12 volt connector color code. Someone could accidentally plug in a 12 volt device if they are not familiar with the controller. This year I finally got around to correcting that. The Anderson color code for their connectors says blue should be used for 48 volts. So I ordered a Anderson Power Products 1300 connector, power pole, 75 amp, housing  that matches the Anderson standard. Nice thing about Anderson Power Poles it is relatively easy to change the connector case:

 So now one can immediately see that the 48 volt controller requires equipment connected to the 48 volt output requires a matching blue connector:

A small change like this can avoid confusion and accidental failures when one is using various voltages on a boat with electric propulsion. You can also see I used a P-Touch label on the controller to also let others know the voltage of the controller.

SOLAR BIMINI REWIRE

Tweet I installed the completed solar bimini on BIANKA back in 2010 though I did not finish posting about it until 2012. At the time I did a quick job of connecting the 48 volt Kanaka panels to the  Morningstar ProStar PS-15M-48V Charge Controller using the connectors that came with the panels to get the system up and running. In this case it was using  spade lugs connected to a two screw barrier strip and then down to the controller. I taped the whole thing in some electrical tape. This worked fine for awhile and it was always my intention to make things a little neater and more weatherproof at some point. Well, that project got moved up on the list this spring when I saw this:

I found that one of the solar panel connections had corroded and broken away from the spade lug.  

Indeed all the connections showed severe corrosion issues. Definitely time to replace this "temporary" setup. So that's what I did. I've mentioned before I really like Anderson Powerpole Connectors   for a lot of connections on board for a number of reason. One is they have wiping contacts that help clean the contact surface when connecting and disconnecting. Plus they are compact and can be ganged together. Another advantage is they have color coded cases available:

Since I'll be connecting 48 volt solar panels it is a good idea to follow the Anderson color code for their Power Poles. For 48 volts the recommended color is blue. I used it above for the positive 48 volt panel connection. This helps avoid confusion with the 12 volt panels that are also part of BIANKA's solar bimini.
Another thing with Anderson Powerpoles it is also easy to make up "two fer" cable harnesses so that in this case I can connect two separate solar panels to the same solar charge controller. This ability to quickly connect and disconnect the connectors helps in troubleshooting or taking voltage and current measurements of the panels.

As is the Anderson Power Poles are not particularly waterproof. So what I usually do is fill the back end of the connectors (where the wire enters) with Marine GOOP and then cover that with some electrical tape. Another wrap of electrical tape around the connector case joint ensures even more protection from moisture.    
With the new connections more waterproof than my previous installation I should not have to revisit this area of my electric propulsion charging system for long time.

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CHARGING ON THE WIND

Finally got back on the boat Memorial Day after a month away. Beautiful day somewhat cool and windy. My 48 Volt Marine Air X turbine was spinning away charging the batteries. As I sat there I was waiting to see it stop as it usually does on sunny days such as this because the solar panels manage to keep things charged up. In fact The 48 volt Air X is usually stopped much of the day as the solar panels do most of the charging. But, for some reason it was spinning longer than usual,  When I went into BIANKA's cabin I soon found out the reason.

What happened was the  Morningstar ProStar PS-15M-48V, 15 Amp 48 Volt Charge Controller was still in over voltage disconnect mode and had not been charging the battery bank for the last month. A month ago I used the Dual Pro 4 Bank Charger to top off and balance the four 8A4D batteries using grid power. The voltage applied to the battery bank by the charger can reach 62 volts at some point in the charge cycle. The Morningstar controller senses this as an over voltage condition and disconnects the solar panels from the battery. It's a safety feature of the controller. I just need to hit the reset button on the Morningstar controller after the Dual Pro finishes it's charge and it starts charging normally. Apparently, I forgot to do this the last time before I left the boat so the only charging of the propulsion bank for the past month was from the Marine Air X turbine. Not a problem when one has multiple ways to charge the battery bank. Nice to know the boat is always fueled up with energy even if one of the systems is accidentally disconnected. This sailor always likes to have a backup. With electric propulsion it's easy to have multiple backups for charging.

WATTS GOING DOWN ON LAND AND SEA

I have mentioned that those of accustomed to living on boats may have an easier time than those who are only living on land after storms like Hurricane Sandy. That's because cruising on a boat like BIANKA involves getting away from land as much as possible. My boat is usually on a mooring or anchored off in some picturesque spot that pleases me. Very rarely will I tie up to a marina's dock. So one is well aware of how much power one can use and where it comes from. We sailors know it is not seemingly unlimited and always available at the flick of a switch. Millions of people who reside on land including the residents of lower Manhattan had a "reality bites" experience after Hurricane Sandy blew through the area. They might learn a thing or two from sailors like myself who have taken some of the technology that worked so well on board our boats and have transferred it sucessfully to land based structures. You can save quite a bit of power (watts), money  and have an automatic emergency back up system to illuminate the rooms in your house at the same time.  Like my whole house LED lighting system:

I have converted many of the lights on board BIANKA to energy efficient LED's from the masthead anchor light to the ones over the galley and cabin.   They worked so well in the boat I wondered how they would do in the house. So I went about building a simple system that would meet my needs. It's easy to do with off the shelf components the heart of which is a Morningstar SL-10L-12V SunLight 10 Amp Charge Controller LVD .

This unit does a number of things. 

1) It turns on up to 10 amps of 12 volt LED lights at dusk and off at dawn. It also has timed switched presets if you don't won't to have the lights on all night.  

2) It controls the charge to battery from the solar panel(s). It also has a jumper to select charge profiles for Flooded or Sealed batteries. 

3) It uses the output of the solar panels to sense when dusk begins and turns on the lights and also when dawn begins and turns them off. 

4) It has a low voltage disconnect it will disconnect the lights from the battery bank once the battery voltage drops below 11.8 volts to protect the battery bank until the solar panels once again are able to start charging the battery again.

Connections are simple:

Two terminals are for the solar panel connections.

The next two terminals are for the 12 volt battery

The last connections are for the wiring to the LED lights.

I use In-line AGC Fuse Holders on the output to LED lights and the battery to protect against a short circuit. It's for safety and I recommend it.

Two Siemens 12 volt 75 watt solar panels that were left over from a boat project that changed direction provide the charging for the batteries. I've mounted them on the south side of the house.

As you can see one has not yet tilted one of the panels for optimum sun exposure but, it's on the to do list though the system works fine as is anyway.  

 The batteries are two Sealed Lead Acid Battery (12V; 35 AH; UB12350) batteries connected in parallel. 

The only reason I am using two is because one arrived with the lug damaged and the other one was the replacement. So rather than just have one sitting around sulfating I put both of them to work on the LED house system.

I use two types of LED's in the system. One is a   Disc Type G4 Base Side Pin 6 SMD LED 10 - 30 Volt DC  unit. I like to use the warm white version.

It also has a buck regulator that keeps current regulated so that the LED junctions do not overheat and fail due to voltage or current fluctuations in the wiring. It's something you should look for in any LED's you use on board the boat or at the house as a slight variation in current or voltage can blow the LED electrical junctions destroying the LED.

The other LED light I use is the BEKA Light from BEBI Electronics. ( BLOG UPDATE: Bebi Electronics is no longer selling LED Lights )It was designed to be used on a boat as a cockpit anchor light. But, I use them in the house when I want to illuminate bigger rooms like the living room or dining area. I ordered mine with warm colored LED's facing downward and the bright white LED's for the outside  perimeter facing ones.  

 The downward facing LED's  provide a warm incandescent like look directed downward. While the bright white LED's bounce off the walls and illuminate the room with a bright indirect light.

Just about every room in my house is lit up by one of these two LED lights. They provide enough illumination so you can walk from room to room without ever having to turn on a light. Since they are charged by solar energy once the system is in place there are no additional costs and the rooms are lit from dusk to dawn. During Hurricane Sandy my neighbors wondered why I was the only one who seemed to have power when they saw my LED lights on. On the boat it's all about saving as much energy as possible by being as energy efficient as possible. On land this also has the added benefit of saving you money and also providing light when the electrical grid goes down as it did after Hurricane Sandy.