Freeman Cruiser Solar Panel Kit

For years it has been difficult to fit solar panels to smaller river cruisers, such as the Freeman 22's and 23's, that produce enough power to be worth the investment and space required for fitment on board.

With the Freeman Cruiser Solar Panel Kit, a slimline 80W panel, can quite happily be installed on the cabin roof of a Freeman 22 or Freeman 23 between the central accessories ledge and the handrail. In fact, this kit can be fitted to the majority of Freeman Cruiser cabin roofs (other size solar panels are available so please contact us with your requirements).

What do I get with the Freeeman Cruiser Solar Panel Kit?

To make the most out of the space onboard your Freeman solar kit comes with:

• An aluminium framed, high quality monocrystalline 80W glass solar panel
• A 10amp digital solar control panel
• Two solar panel straight support feet
• Four solar panel corner support feet
• A twin-cable wire grommet box (including two wire grommets and one blank-off grommet)

What power can I expect to gain with the Freeman Solar Panel Kit?

This Freeman Cruiser solar panel kit provides up to 80 watts of solar power. The high quality monocrystalline slimline solar panel generates 4.5amps and the solar charge controller panel with this boat solar panel kit is rated to 10amps.

The maximum output of any solar panel is worked out on the brightest day so it must be remembered that you won't always receive the maximum amount of power through your solar panel. Having said that adding another form of battery charging to your boat (the engine alternator or dynamo is usually the other source of battery charge) will provide additional charge to help keep your batteries topped up.

Why use Solar on a Freeman Cruiser?

As technology has progressed we find ourselves living a very 'digital' life and our expectations and requirements for mobile power have increased vastly. When Freeman's were first made, running hot water was a luxury and fridges on boats were unheard of! Slowly though, Mr Freeman started to install fridges and luxury electronics into his boats. Nowadays, many of us expect everyday household luxuries on board. Many of which can be used much like they are at home, however, when drawing power it must be remembered that your battery is like a tank, we need to refill what is taken out - at home we do not worry about this as we have a constant supply.

Solar power can now provide us with additional free energy to help refill our 'battery tank', this means we are able to use more power overall. Solar power is also environmentally friendly and reasonably accessible these days.

Can I rely solely on solar power to run my boat while on holiday?

In short, yes, you probably could. However, do you have enough space on board to install all the solar panels you would require to run the technology you have on board? Does your usage actually require you to run fully on solar power? Is solar worth the expense for how you use your boat?

These are important questions when looking more closely at solar panels for your boat. You see, in an ideal world, we would all probably choose to operate with a carbon-neutral footprint. However, this is quite a huge ask for many as we continually use more power on average thanks to advancements in technology.

It is true that solar power has progressed exceptionally fast over the past decade, solar panels were not very efficient (there is still a huge inefficiency in current solar panels too) and the technology was very expensive. Solar panels have become more efficient, less expensive and smaller to boot so are much more usable on a small cabin cruiser.

In reality, solar on boats at the moment is a great additional supply of energy to compliment your existing charging methods and, depending on how many panels you have, can keep you running when you are totally off-grid cruising the countryside.