Installation

Having trawled through hundreds of ‘deals’ to get the best price on the most efficient panels you can afford you now need to know how to install them to best fulfill your energy generation needs. The output, even from the highest quality photo-voltaic array, will only be as good as the installation itself, so following our guidelines should ensure you extract every last drop of energy from your investment.

MOUNTING THE PANELS

Sailing boats are not the ideal structure on which to mount wide, flat PV panels, so before you go ahead and purchase what looks like the biggest and best, take a few minutes to decide on exactly where you can mount them, as this will affect what size and type of panels you should buy.

In many cases the first choice would be on an arch, davits or gantry aft, especially if you already have, or plan to fit one. These allow a solid metal framework to be constructed that will be strong enough to take the heavier, more productive rigid PV panels. You can also build in some form of adjuster to the framework that will allow the panels to be orientated towards the sun for the best performance. With luck (or careful planning) a gantry will also keep them aft of the boom, thereby eliminating loss of output caused by boom shading.

The next most popular position