WHY
Now that I have a separate battery up at the bow to raise and lower the anchor chain via the Lewmar Pro1000 Windlass, I needed some way to keep that battery charged. After raising and lowering the complete chain about 3 times the LiFoPO4 100AH battery is at about 50%, or used about a total of 40 amp hours. The actual testing here could be less, as I didn’t quite start out with a fully charged battery but better to be thinking about this by being pessimistic, not optimistic.
WHAT and HOW
I picked up a 30W solar panel, very small, useful for keeping a single battery in your car topped up. It is not big at all, about 5 inches by 12 inches in size. I wanted this up at the bow so I wanted it small and non-obtrusive.
If 30 watts doesn’t do it, I’ll get a larger panel but I will try this one for a bit. The panel was $25 on Amazon.
I drilled a larger hole than the small wire (it is 18 guage?) the solar panel does not look that beefy and uses some weak components. I filled the hole with epoxy and later drilled a small hole and used sikaflex 291 to caulk the wire and keep water out.
The brains of the operation is the Victron Energy MPPT Controller, I picked up a small one, 75/10. It can handle up to 75 volts at 10 amps. So far I can’t quite see how this panel is rated at 30 watts. So far on a great sunny day the panel only produced 5 watts peak.
You can see from the last week in the captured history on the Victron controller, the MPPT solar wattage is averaging 3 watts. I don’t have it directly following the sun, but it should have been facing enough sunlight to do something close to 30 watts.
It’s a trickle charge that’s for certain.
I installed the solar charger on the backside of the forward anchor locker bulkhead.
The BUS is the switch BUS. There is 12 volts, and UP and DOWN. I installed a switch right here in the anchor locker so I can single handed raise and lower the chain right here with my head poked in. This is so I can view and straighten out and tangled chain without having to go back on deck or to the helm station. There are UP and DOWN foot controls right next to the windlass and there is a switch at the back of the boat from Lewmar as part of the kit to manage the anchor at the wheel. This will be handy if I need to steer and raise/lower the anchor (for tasks like backing down on the anchor).
The BREAKER is the circuit breaker to keep power off the whole system. It sits between the battery and the BUS.
The CONTACTOR is an on-demand relay that is designed to not arc when power is applied. So you apply a little power, and then the contactor bridges the battery directly to the windlass (big power). This keeps it safe.
The LiFoPO4 battery is from LiTime (used to be called AmpereTime).
I use my phone with the Victron Energy app to read the battery voltages and the Bluetooth is a must. I couldn’t connect the Bluetooth to the 48volt main power system as the 2 systems do not contact each other, they are completely separate.
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