Installing solar panels on railings

[peliflight]

We had several solar panels hook on to our stearn pulpit that were hinged and could be folded down when need. This is a DIY system and not expensive. The wiring is the most difficult part.

[Jacko]

I have side mounted panels and have put gas struts on them with a line that can pull them down. its great for following the sun when it is off the beam and also to tie them down when entering a marina ect

[ottow]

This model is quite popuplar in Scandinavia:https://noa.se/eng/products/solar-pa...olpanelhallare
A more heavy-duty version is this one which has its base on the deck: https://noa.se/eng/products/solar-pa...hallare-40-ror


Ppl keep them up in all sorts of weather, I've seen them in 30-35knots of wind with a a 60-70W panel and they don't break.

The consensus seems to be that 80W is about the maximum you can have on these mounts tho.
https://noa.se/eng/products/solar-pa...elhallare-50mm can probably take a larger panel.

[onestepcsy37]

i thought about rail mounting the panels, and with a wide flush deck there would be no problems with trying to walk along the sidedeck. but i always felt they would be in the way when sailing, maybe catching a jib sheet and getting yanked overboard. so with the same ingenuity i would need to build side mounts i built a stern mount, using the stern rails and deck to build a mount right over the stern and well out of the way. and able to be tilted easily by adjusting lines attached to the panels, which stood five feet above the stern. and with my battery bank being near the stern the run from the panels to the controller to the battery bank was about nine feet.

just my two cents.