When designing the Aira 22, we initially did not take a solar panel into account. During the making of the Aira, the development of solar panels also continued. Due to increasing yields, we were still able to find a suitable solar panel for the Aira 22.

Charging while sailing

The solar panel appears to work very well in practice. That is of course because we sail in the beautiful seasons, when the sun is shining. The panel starts charging in the morning and only stops charging in the evening when the sun goes down. The great thing is that the panel also charges while sailing. People regularly tell us: we have sailed all day, using the electric motor, and when we return the battery is still completely full.

Ideal if you don’t have electricity at your disposal

The panel is also a solution if you have no power available, for example if you are moored at a buoy. And it’s handy that you don’t have to mess with cables. We understand from customers that they never even have the boat connected to shore power again. That feels nice. Because the battery is always charged, you can easily use the electric motor, charge your electronics and you hardly need to use shore power.

78W with MPPT

The solar panel is on the hood of the boat. A quiet place, even though you can just stand on it. The power is 78W. With the solar panel we supply an MPPT, a box with an electrical engineering system that is used to generate maximum power. This is built into the ‘battery box’, the space on the bottom of the front that also contains the battery.