Jeorgia Gets Greener

Added two more solar panels to Jeorgia’s  electrical generating capability. It only took about 6 weeks to actually get them on and running, but they are doing a smoking job now. We now have 340 watts of solar. I bought two more panels from Sun Electric (www.sunelec.com) in Miami. I went with them because I wanted to match the two existing panels already installed and they have cheap panels. Used Gente de Mar (www.gentedemar.net) to pick them up in Miami and ship them to Panama. After a few delays, mostly caused by Sun Electric, the panels made it down to Panama. They, of course, weren't the panels I ordered. Same wattage, but different manufacturer. Oh well, too much hassle and cost to return them.

  Here’s Ollie ‘this place is a sheet hole’ the German welder, welding on a new upper stainless rail to mount the panels on. He also built custom panel mounts to attach them with – this project got dragged out way too long.

So now, with the help of a little bit of Sun, we have happy batteries by noon. I figured the whole job would cost about $600 – it came in at closer to $1000. It means the pay back when we are in anchorages is probably a year. When we are at sea, it means we can keep up with the autopilot, chart plotter and radar for a lot longer before having to charge with the main engine.

Paul