Hi Alex, been doing some research for myself and watching my favorite Solar and LiFePo4 battery guru, Will Prowse. He said that military grade SIGS solar panels are the first flexibles that he would recommend because they're military grade panels that are extremely shade resistant, exceedingly well-built ( you can run a car over them without sustaining any damage or you can put a bullet hole in them and they will still continue to function ) and they will last a long time and are super efficient. They used to cost over $1,000 for 80 watt panel, but now you can get long strip (26”x 85” ) 200 watt panel for a little over $500. I would consider one or two panels, depending on your energy requirements, and I would mount them on the amas contrary to what I said earlier about running wires to and from the amas. If you have a waterproof outlet on the upper side of the main hull, then you could plug in a separate heavy-duty exterior quality cable to the panel and to the boat and have it be long enough that it can be zip tiesd at the edge of the netting going to the main hull. Before folding, you would disconnect from both the panels and the hull and cap both the panel connection and the hull connection. The panels being so thin would easily slide into the boat without interfering with the closing of the armas. Since you're not bending he wire when closing and you can visually inspect the cable every time you hook it up, I think this would be a safe way to actually use the space on the amas for Some serious power. Another Recommendation from Will is the 460Ah Epoch LiFePO4 battery. This is a well built, with all the safety features and comparatively cheap for 460 Ah battery. Even with a few days of no sun this battery would be more than enough to run all of your electrical as well as a refrigerator no problem. Just some thoughts while researching for my next boat. Frank
Oh, of course I meant add cut the zip ties and put the connecting cable down below when the amas are folded to keep from bending and to protect it from the weather...
@@user-gb4hr5nt9e great information! I also have watched his videos before. The topic of solar and lithium is so big. It’s also quite hard to find good panels at a decent price. Will definitely be looking into what you suggested as it would be quite cool!
Agree with better quality charging ports. I’ve been getting by with charger plugs in my 12v DC and 110v AC outlets. Neither are particularly fast. +1 on the butyl. I use it on just about all hardware above the waterline. It lasts forever. There is still some original butyl on my 1982 boat.
They work but don’t charge very fast. 1.2amp ax for me and these can do 3amp max. I have noticed the difference while out on the water. Also depends on budget and what matters to you on a boat. I use my phone for logging my routes so that sucks lots of battery.
I really like that waterproof charging station -- very good design. I think you picked the best spot for the mounting location too -- even though it's waterproof, it's best to mount it away from locations prone to spray. Hey just a tip if you are going to do a similar solar mounting system to what you had on Meraki look into bi-facial solar panels -- they have cells on both sides of the panel. You get extra charging because the bottom side of the panel gets the light reflected off of the water -- bottom side never rated as high as the front but adds to the overall rating. They are perfect for boating when rail mounted or mounted on an arch as they give you that extra bit of charging.
@@AlexGoesSailing That's too bad. What is the size that you need? I'll keep a look out over here in the States -- might have a distributor over here that you don't see advertised over there.
@@robertscholz4486 well I have some standard ones for now so should be fine for what I need. But anything in the 50w-100w size range really. Thanks Robert!
That’s the bms app for my lithium battery. You can do something similar with a Victron smart battery monitor. Well worth it to be able to see what the boat brings in and puts out! Thanks for watching!
Hi Alex. Interesting product the phone charger. I guess it's like a completely built in alternative to installing a 12V cigarette plug and then plugging in a fast car charger unit to that? This does lead me to ask how this works for all appliances. Reason I ask is that most brands have their own fast charging protocols. For instance Apple has its own, Android devices with qualcomm chips have a specific charger that will not work in MTK chipped phones. So if you plug an Android phone into an Apple charger and vice-versa it will charge but it will default to 5V charging only and will charge relatively slowly. Maybe worth a test with some different kit to see? I even used to have a Oneplus phone and the fast charging was brilliant in that. If I plug my new Samsiung phone into it, it defaults to quite slow charging. I need to use the proper Samsung charger to get full speed fast charging, so even Oneplus must have a specific way of doing this for their phones. Very neat solutuion though.
Would highly recommend going on the scanstrut website and all the information is there! The other thing to watch out for is voltage drop with the wire gauge you’re using. Thanks Dave!
@@bubu210741 was just looking through my battery monitor Bluetooth app. Loads of different ways to see. I have also done it with Victron smart devices before.
