solar panel

[TBW]

has anyone tried the bougerv flexible solar panels?
look good on youtube but???
need to put a few solar panels on the hardtop to maintain the house (4, 8d lifelines) for a week or so at anchor. Only real draw is the refrigerator; air conditioners and stove/ oven require genset.
TW

[GordMay]

IDK about BougeRV panels, in particular.
Personally, I’d only use [any] flexible solar panel in portable use - NOT in fixed applications.
They’re only 2/3 as efficient [10% to 15% ], as rigid panels [15% to 22%], and have a [much?] shorter life-span [less durable, more susceptible to damage].
As a result, many flexible solar panels have a solar warranty of up to 5 years, compared to 25 years for a rigid panel.
The biggest advantage of flexible solar panels is that there are more mounting options, and they’re lighter than rigid panels.

[George_SD]

What Gord says. While flexible can do the job, I would only use them if there is no other option.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by TBW

has anyone tried the bougerv flexible solar panels?
look good on youtube but???
need to put a few solar panels on the hardtop to maintain the house (4, 8d lifelines) for a week or so at anchor. Only real draw is the refrigerator; air conditioners and stove/ oven require genset.
TW

Well I feel the flexible panels are just fine for your use. Yes they aren't as efficient and don't last as long, but for a temp system they are just fine. Once you add up what it takes in shipping and installation costs hard panels end up a lot more $$$$ than the flex panels.

I used you keep my boat on a mooring with the refrigerator on all the time and a 290W hard panel kept the batteries charged in the NE US.

[Theo89]

Personally, I would only choose to install flexible solar panels if I need to frequently walk in that area. Flexible panels are useful when deck space is limited, but this is the only advantage they ever offered me.

[svtickles]

One boat I considered buying had 4 flexible panels installed on the bimini... one flew away and fell in the sea, two shattered and only one was working. As mentioned above, this approach is suspect.