Electricity from Sunshine
05 April 2009 | Annapolis MD City Dock
Carl
As the weather in Annapolis improves and we get closer to moving out on the anchor once again we spend our weekends (and other non-working time) doing boat projects. The list has been dusted off and added to over the last few weeks as we eagerly anticipate warmer weather and the hope of periodic adventures around the Chesapeake through the summer.
Our latest project over this weekend was installing a new solar panel along with the wiring and control equipment that will allow us to charge our batteries from sunshine, thereby boosting our independence from the world, what we call "living off of the grid", for longer periods of time. As you can imagine a project of this scale requires some upheaval on the boat caused by moving gear around to gain access to the right places, crawling into small spaces to run the wiring, mounting and hooking up the new control box and readout, and making some minor structural modifications to mount a rather large (60" x 40") solar panel up away from the shadows on deck but secure enough to withstand whatever weather we might encounter. As we launch into projects like this Spike always gives us that "I am outa here!!" look so we help him find a hiding place near his box and food for the duration.
Projects, like most things, rarely go as you envision they will, and we normally run into obstacles that we didn't count on. Most of them can be overcome with some thought or imagination, but some put us back a few steps trying to find a solution. Mounting the solar panel itself on our non-commercial davit became a real issue and we weren't able to finish up the installation as we'd hoped. I have to talk with a welding service tomorrow about some alternatives and the boxed up panel still takes up precious space in the cockpit.
We're sore and tired from the project, feeling at times like we're getting too old for this stuff, but a little rest and a new day will more than likely shed some new light on things. Stay tuned for the impending victory dance and fanfare when we check this project off of the list.