Solar installation on a Lagoon Catamaran, Ep 17, Sailing to Mexico soon, Off the Starboard Hull

Ouch

Ahi Scott I have spent the last few days chatting to a visiting 55ft FP that is from Fiji but cruising the Indian Ocean now for a few years. The British owner skipper fitted LiFeO4 batteries 4 years ago and has not touched them since. He dropped from 1000 amp hours to 400 and said he never runs out of power and has saved a lot of weight. Have you thought of them ?

How much power can you have from this setting on A Nice Day .... About 5 kWh approx ?

awesome workshop. im crafting one with a CNC machine and other stuff

You can always use the solar panels to catch rainwater if you install a small gutter at the bottom

I agree the addition cover is a great bonus. I would add did yo consider making a hard connection from the hard cover of the boat to the solar panels rig thus no water spray would make it between them. Just a thought. great job really neat build, wish I had a workshop like yours. Cheers

I love your workshop too

Great video!!!!! Thanks so much for making it!!! John

Dear Scott please make a Video of your workshop please =)

Hi Scott, Love your videos/life! My wife and I are planning to follow your path when our son graduates from high school in 4 years. Right now we are thinking of a 440 or 450 with the upper deck bridge. In the meantime I am going to install a solar system on our house that will replicate the system you installed. This will give me power if and when we can't get if from the local power company. I will also be able to demount and install on our not yer purchased boat plus gain 4 years of knowledge on running and maintaining the system. Can you tell me what the brand / model of the inverters you are using? I have done some research already but respect your knowledge as an electrician. Keep up with your technical posts, it provides much needed real working experience I could not get otherwise. Cheers from the Bay Ares Ca.

As I don't know where you get your solar panels from, Have you through about wind turbines......You can get one that will work in salt air.

Scott,

Thanks for the video. I am also an electrician with a Catalina 42, in Bellingham WA. I have been following your videos for a bit now and enjoy them. We are casting off full time next year. One thing I did on my system was add tubing plugs for a finished look. Here is a link to a company, but many make them. http://www.mocap.com/tube-plugs.html they make a size for most every size tubing. Enjoy Mexico!

Just one question, but before I want to say thanks this will save me a lot of thinking! We have just started outfitting our boat for live aboard and I had almost reached the conclusion that the panels would be better where yours are instead of on top of the davits. But I still had to figure out exactly how. Now it's basically cut and paste! So my question is at what angle can you no longer see the stern light? Wondering if you would be in the dark to really tall tanker half a mile off.

beautiful installation!

I haven't seen it, so I wanted to ask, do you have a wind generator also? (to help with the foul weather and night time loads)

just found your channel...how many batteries and house/engine battery split... what is your power usage...looking forward to seeing your S.Pacific adventures!!!
thanks

Have you ever considered a wind turbine for your boat as well, been I interested to know if you have any experience with these?

Hi Scott, great video, thanks for the details! I'm curious whether you find that the 1600Ah and 5x256W panels are overkill on your boat? We've just purchased a 38' Seawind 1160 and I am planning our power system, and your video and boat are making me re-think my plan to accommodate a larger system (I'd originally planned to do ~800Ah and 4x140W kyocera's).

The 256's don't look quite as big in your video as I thought they might be, so I may go with 4 of those instead. We're planning for some longer-term live-aboard cruising, so don't want to regret being underpowered at that point....

Scott, I have just purchased a 2010 lagoon 400, i also purchased (5) 270 watt Kyocera they are 65.43 x 39 x 1.8 inches or 1662 x 990 x 46 mm believe they are same dimensions as your would it be possible to get measurement and drawing for how you attached them to your roof and stern rail ....? when are you going to get another video up...

Scott I love your attitude! What a brilliant boat you have. See you when you get to Aus....