Easy Ac/Dc Boat Wiring is pleased to present a guest article on solar panels from Barbara Young.

Barbara writes on solar panel kits and 12 volt systems in her personal hobby blog, 12voltsolarpanels.net.  Her efforts are centered on helping people save energy using solar power to reduce CO2 emissions and energy dependency. And, to further those efforts, Barbara generously offered the following overview to those of us in the marine electrical community.

What’s solar power?

Solar energy is radiant energy which is produced by the sun. Every day the sun radiates, or sends out, an immense quantity of energy. The sun radiates more energy in a single second than people have used since the beginning of time!

The energy of the Sun derives from within the sun itself. Like other stars, the sun is a big ball of gases––mostly hydrogen and helium atoms.

The hydrogen atoms in the sun’s core combine to create helium and generate energy in a process called nuclear fusion.

During nuclear fusion, the sun’s extremely high pressure and temperature cause hydrogen atoms to come apart and their nuclei (the central cores of the atoms) to fuse or combine. Four hydrogen nuclei fuse to become one helium atom. But the helium atom contains less mass compared to four hydrogen atoms that fused. Some matter is lost during nuclear fusion. The lost matter is emitted into space as radiant energy.

It takes an incredible number of years for the energy in the sun’s core to make its way to the solar surface, and then just a little over eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles to earth. The solar energy travels to the earth…Please click here for Barbara’s complete article.

Kevin,

I bought a four-position switch to replace my four-position/four-terminal switch on my Mercury Marine 5.0 MPI’s boat wiring. 

The problem is the new switch has arrived and has six wires. The extra two say 5 and 6 position are for the battery and ignition – as shown in the attached picture.

Should I ignore these and cut the wires off or should I connect them to 1 and 4? 

Do I need a different switch?

Dan

Hi Dan,

This switch will work fine.

Ignore positions 5 and 6. They are internally connected to 1 and 4. You can either cut them off or tape them up.

Kevin

Kevin,

How do I install dual fuel guages on my boat wiring?

I want to add a second fuel guage on my boat’s upper flybridge helm station. There is an existing fuel guage in my lower helm station.

Thank you,

Mark

Hi Mark,

A fuel gauge needs three wires to function.

• Power
• Ground
• Signal.

For the first two, use your flybridge ignition as the power and ground the gauge at your flybridge.

For the signal use an ON-ON switch similar to this one from Carling to switch your fuel tank sending wire from your upper to lower station.

• Remove the existing sending wire (usually pink) from your gauge.
• Connect this wire to the center terminal on your switch.
• Run a new wire from the lower terminal on your new switch to your upper gauge.
• Run a second new wire from the upper terminal on your new switch to your lower gauge.

Install the switch near your lower helm fuel gauge.

Hope this helps,

Kevin