Mounting Flexible Solar Panels On Bimini

Using the magnet mounting kit is easy.

Mounting flexible solar panels on bimini.

These grommets can be used to stitch the panels directly to the bimini canvas. Solar panels can be mounted to a bimini or dodger in a variety of ways. In this video we will show you one possible way to install the solar panels onto a bi. The solar panels installed in the video are for a soft bimini top onboard our powerboat makeover project which belongs to brian a manager at sailrite.

Brian s main goals for his solar panels were to have the panels be secure enough on the bimini that they wouldn t flap in the wind while at the same time being easily removable so the bimini can be folded if necessary. And the best way to do it appeared to be flexible panels mounted to our bimini. We have found very high power rare earth magnets up to 20 pound pull strength per magnet are ideal for temporary mounting of our flexible solar panels on a canvas bimini or dodger. Installing flexible solar panels on our bimini posted on june 7 2017 january 26 2019 by steve it s been over a month since our big yellow umbilical chord has been out of it s locker and used to attach us to shore power.

Our rare earth magnet kit includes 8 or 12 magnets and adhesive to attach the magnets to the upper side of the solar panel. You can use the eyelets that we provide on the panels for mounting solar panels on bimini. The only thing that would occasionally shade them would be our backstay mounted radar dome as opposed to the boom if we d installed them on top of our dodger. Flexible solar panels are light enough that they could easily be installed on top of the bimini without adding too much weight.

We had space for 500 watts of panels and using the lighter flexible panels mounted to the fabric bimini eliminated the need for a complicated and expensive support framework. When we decided to go with the semi flexible solar panels jr wanted the mounting to look finished we knew that sewing industrial velcro on the bimini and dodger and sticking it to the underside of the panel would do the trick but he wanted it to look a little more custom. The canvas with the solar panels can then be attached to the bimini canvas using zippers.