We're super excited about SV Delos going solar with SunPower! We've been catching some glimpses of their SunPower 170W & 110W E-flex panels aboard in photos posted to Instagram & Facebook for a couple of months but today SV Delos published their YouTube video with more details on the install.
click here to watch Episode 262 on YouTube
Brian & Karin have been busy sailing the seven seas aboard Delos, their 53' Amel Super Maramu, for a number of years and have gathered quite the following (a Delos Tribe!) publishing a video every Friday to their YouTube channel. They are now a crew of 3 with their baby daughter Sierra aboard and it's great to see them as a new family living the cruising life. Their 262 YouTube episodes range from adventures at sea & on land to how they prepare the boat for crossings but also more technical & fix-it videos.
"Solar is by far our No.1 source of power aboard Delos"
SV Delos has had solar panels aboard for some time and the 930W solar array on the davits has generated a lot of their power aboard. They had 3x310W LG fixed frame panels aswell as two wind generators and a diesel generator aboard. Brian guestimates they made 25% of their power with the generator, 10% with wind and 65% with solar!
However, with their plans to install a Viasat dome (high-speed satellite broadband), as they rely pretty heavily on internet connectivity for their business, they had to sacrifice one of the 310W fixed frame solar panels as the davit was the only viable place to install the dome. The solution for making up the lost power was to go with some SunPower flexible solar panels and they were able to fit 2x170W and 4x110W panels on their bimini and deck for a total of an extra 780W.
It's great to see such a detailed install video, Brian looks like a pro on the sewing machine as he creates 'pockets' for the panels and attaches them to the canvas bimini. With one panel done it's clearly time for a sundowner! We look forward to future videos and seeing how the rest of the install goes and how the SunPower flexible solar panels perform.
Brian has mentioned running some side by side tests over the next few months to see just how the flex panels compare to the fixed frame solar panels they already had aboard. It's going to be interesting to see how much solar power they are cranking.
Be sure to check out www.svdelos.com