Solar panel for trolling motor charging?

[Doctor J]

My boat lift has a solar panel for the winch battery. I don't have power down to shore, and short of running 200 ft of extension cord, my options for charging my 24 v trolling motor system is to take the boat out and charge it in the garage. I have an onboard charger.

As I was lobbying for power to the lake, my wife asked why I couldn't use the solar panel to charge my battery. This panel is supposedly for a single 12 volt for the winch.

My question is: If I bought a bigger solar panel, or 2 more of these 12 volt panels, could I use them to effectively charge my 24 v trolling motor system?

Counter argument is 2 extra panels x $190 might equal a lot of the cost to run power to the lake, and then I can plug in my onboard charger...

Thanks

[delcecchi]

Simple calculation... Take the output of the panel and calculate the current times hours. It takes several tens, maybe 40, (amps times hours) to make much of a dent in a discharged deep cycle battery. Also they only work during the day when you might want to be using the boat.

If you only use the boat weekends it might be a possibility.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I think you're easiest bet is running cords

[fivebucks]

I have 2 panels on my boat lift and it easily charges my 24 volt system. That said though, there is always at least a week in between uses. If you are a part-time user you will be fine with solar, just make sure you use a solar controller.

[h8go4s]

Generator?

[Tom7227]

I don't think you have given enough information for anyone to provide you with a knowledgeable answer. How often do you use the boat and how much power to you use on average. If you run a trolling motor for 5 hours every other day then my guess is that the answer is no, a solar panel won't do the job. What's the draw on the motor and how long do you typically use it? Once you know that you can begin to decide if the solar unit(s) would work for you. Taking the boat out seems like an awfully lot of work - how often do yo have to do that? What kind of soil and terrain would you have to go through to trench in a line? I would bet that a proper setup with GFCI protection would cost more than $190.

[Ufatz]

I'm wildly enthusiastic about solar power and we use some around here. Down in the desert LOTS of folks use it on roof tops and other locations. But in this case it would appear we have a misapplication of technology. Sure, you could put up enough panels, controller etc. to do what you want but it would be so much easier to run a line down to the dock (we did) even if you just use a couple extension cords (keeping in mind the line loss). Or just bite the bullet and have a line, complete with GFI installed by a pro.

The other option would be a little Honday generator, which could come in handy for a whole lotta other uses.

[Down Deep]

The proper solar set up would work for you. You should be able to get information from your local power company for cost, equipment and set up. If it were me I would do a cost analysis between solar and a wire. While solar is passive and over time provides a long term environmental benefit, but a wire provides much more reliability and flexibility.

I installed solar for exterior lighting for my house and property and it works well for that. The system with panels, co

[CaptainMusky]

When do you use your boat? During the day? While the solar panel sits on your boat lift you return to the lift later after a day of fishing, plug in your solar charger and the sun goes down.

Your battery would never get charged up. I have seen some analysis on the size of panel required to push enough amps into the battery in a short period of time to charge it and the panel would almost be the size of the boat to be effective.

If you use your boat sparingly a panel would be fine, but I would look at either a small inverter (NOT generator) or running power to the water. You will be much happier in the long run.

[Sonicrunch]

Generator?

Wind generator.

[elkhornsun]

Output is the key. A great panel that is reasonably priced is the Kyocera 140 Watt 17.7v panel. It is a closer match to the 14.5 charging voltage you want for your batteries than the 34v panels. Key is the amps out from the panel and most of this size will provide 5-6 amps which with a 100AH battery at 50% DOD you can expect to recharge the battery in a single summer's day.

There are also very cheap solar charge converters that will go from full charge to trickle charge and sell for under $40. One drawback is that these usually have connections for 10ga wire so you would need to add jumpers for the battery connections.