We keep and sail our 26M in Croatia and would love to make use of the long sunny days to power our camping fridge. I would be grateful for any solutions members have adopted for securing solar panels to their Macgregor.
Sat, 01/04/2023 - 8:11am
#1
Solar solutions for a 26M
Hi Andrew
I fitted plastic solar panels to my 19 a few years ago, they are fixed to the deck and can be safely walked over. There's a write-up and photos here.
You will need something rather larger to run a fridge though. Wattage ratings for solar panels are somewhat misleading, as they are based on the panel's max output voltage of 18V in full sunlight. What matters is the current they can supply, so you need to divide the quoted wattage by 20 to get a realistic figure for actual current (20 is a bit more pessimistic than 18, giving a more realistic figure!).
Rick Jones (Treasurer), former 26X & 19 owner, Isle of Wight
Hi Andrew, last year , as my last mod for Aranah in prep for cruising in Scotland , I fitted a 100w solar panel onto the stern mast support. I had always left it on as useful to attach things to or haul things over the pulley. I chose an economical firm type panel with an aluminium frame. It came with fixation brackets which I used to attach the panel using L section aluminium lengths one short and one long. The short one spanned the panel and fixed near the top of the mast support and the long one was attached near the base. I wanted a system for attachment that would allow easy removal since I wasn't confidant to transport with it in place. I was pleased to find a solution using bicycle seat tube clamps from Halfords which meant I could adjust by hand to make them nice and tight and in theory adjust the angle of the panel. The cables fed in through a double side entry gland (Force 4) and they reached nicely to my battery after connection to solar controller. After a bit of fiddling to get right length and design the job was done in a day.
Jonathan Knight did something similar but I think with a more solid form of fixing. I can't recall if either was written up but if not I will do it in detail with photos.
Ps...it worked well to power my hungry Peltier fridge.
Roly
Hi, I fitted 2x100W solar panel kit (Ebay and very affordable). Working great so far!
Screenshot 2024-01-06 at 12.12.49
I fitted 120W flexible panel + Victron MPPT 100/20 controller for 200Ah LiFePO house battery and 30W + PWM controller for 9Ah 700 CCA LiFePO starter battery. Haven't had to connect to the mains for 2 years now (in Scotland).
Check out M26M "Harmony" pictures on this website to see the panels' position.