electric supply/solar panel

[chadfunk48]

I have a C-20 that is pretty bare... not that a 20 footer is going to have all the modern conveniences, but I am trying to wire the lights up, and possibly an electric bilge pump. There was hardly any wiring in the boat when I bought it and no visible place for the battery or the pump. Does anyone know where a good place for these might be. Also, I'm not at a slip with electric, so anybody have any experiences using solar panels? Will it charge, or just keep the battery from draining?

[Chrysler20%26]

Hi, on my c-20 I keep the battery topside in the box by the tiller with the gas tank. Makes it handy for the fish finder. If you need to keep it locked up. Put it inside on the portside along side the mast suport. My outboard takes care of my battery. It is a fun boat to sail, Varry good in ruff water, hope you have a long saft outboard, the boat rocks for&aft an the outboard comes out of the water,in ruff water. Have Fun

[thepartydog]

Hi Chad,

To answer your solar panel question, it depends. I used a 2w (small) solar panel from West Marine. It only keep the batteries topped off. If you mounted a larger panel, around 15w, you could recharge the batteries. This will also depend on where on the boat you mount the panel, where the boat is docked, etc... With a solar panel above 5w, I would also recommend getting a charge controler, especially if you only have one battery. You might want to look into getting led lights as they use very little power.

Darin