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diy solar

diy solar

Options for mounting solar panelson lifelines?

jdege

New Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2020
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175
The design of my ketch pretty much rules out a solar arch, so I'm considering hanging lightweight flexible panels from the lifelines.

What I'm considering are BougeRVs flexible 100W panels. These are 40x24", only 1/4" thick, and weigh just 4 pounds.

71fr3dBOu4L._AC_SL1500_.jpg


These are, as described, very flexible, which means very floppy, but I've found that bolting them to 1/4×3/4" aluminum flat bar stiffens them up nicely, without significantly increasing either weight or thickness.

As for the lifelines, these will probably be 1/4" dyneema. I'm looking for a combination of hardware and control lines that will allow me to hang them on the lifelines, while being able to manually control the angle.

I've seen a few people doing something similar, but never with much detail as to exactly what kind of hardware they were using.

Ideas?
 
I have had several flexible panels. Compared to the same Watt rating as framed panels, they have all under performed. Some massively. We have 2x180w fixed panels on each side of our guardwires, giving us 720w total mounted this way. I converted the last two stanchions to take 1" s/s tubes so I could better fix the panels. We have done several Atlantic crossing with panels set up this way and had no mishaps. We also have a ketch.
 
Depending how fancy you want to get you could use your 1/4" dyneema with some UV resistant nylon zip ties OR you could use a stainless steel wire rope with stainless steel zip ties if you want it to be a bit stronger.

Is that what you meant or am I not understanding what you mean by "hardware "?
 
I covered my SS life lines with PEX tubing, and then used heavy nylon zip ties to secure the panels to that. It worked for a 35k mile circumnavigation. You don't need anything more fancy than that.
 
Holy crap. Why?
Lightleaf solar panels

FWIW… I’m installing 12 of these on my sailboat.
Holy crap, why? 35k ocean miles on my glass panels zip tied to my lifelines. Propped up with sticks. If you want do do something a bit less cheap than what I did, fine. But you don't need to spend $700+ per panel. It would be more useful to just set your money on fire and watch it burn.
 

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