Saturday, March 07, 2009

Boat Solar Panels - Alternative Way of Powering up Boats

If you own a boat or any form of small vessel that you use to enjoy both the cool and roughness of the sees, would you consider running it on boat solar panels? The fact is that not many people are using the energy from the sun to power their boats. For one thing, the  panels would be hard to use during night time, since the sun will not be out. Of course, the best thing to do is make sure that the device collects as much power during the day, in order to run the boat during nighttime.



However, there are now a number of boats that run some of the vessel’s small appliances such as fans, ovens, cookers and lights through the energy harnessed from the sun. For consumers who might be interested, there are many boat specialty shops that sell efficient, yet affordable kits to create alternative sun energy that is enough to provide power to the boat's requirements, even if only partially. A lot of these do-it-yourself kits are very effective, being able to make use of the latest in sun power technology. If you have such device, even if just the portable one which mainly consists of PV panel and wire components, this is enough to run your small devices in the vessel.

It is a good thing that more and more boat owners have realized the potentials and benefits of alternative power from the sun, with a great number already using these reliable and efficient boat solar panels to power as much as they can on the boat, rather than utilizing diesel. It is a known fact that the utilization of this popular alternative energy is a boon to the environment as no pollutions is ever caused with the use of photovoltaic panel devices.

Another great advantage of such a device is that it works quietly while providing power to run the vessel. On the other hand, this is not the case when it comes to diesel run types, which tend to produce noise, which is definitely irritating to users of the boat. Not only do they produce and emit toxic fumes and chemicals, which clearly pollutes the seas and air, but they also create what is called noise pollution, which is considered to be a nuisance to sea passengers.

Just a tip when using this device to power up your vessel: Whenever installing your gadget, you must see to it that it is 100% secure in its place. You never know if you will encounter any extreme weather condition such as high waves and rough winds while sailing the oceans. This will definitely cause instability of your boat as it sail along. See to it that mounting kits of your boat solar panels are used correctly to secure it in its proper place. Image credit: Solar panel on a house boat by Hans and Carolyn