Portable solar
There are suitcase, or portable solar panels that are commercially available. They don't seem to be over 120 watts, and are pretty expensive for my "thrifty" taste. Add the fact that it's snowing and ...
Forum Discussion
kerrlakeRoo wrote:
There is a 200 watt suitcase kit from Renogy. One of the members here did a you tube video on, and he seems happy with it.
You tube search for
Grand adventure
It's his episode 16
Thanks kerrlakeRoo! Sorry that it took me a couple of days to notice this thread. Here's that vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfSxxf28q6M
Yes, this is a 200W suitcase comprised of two 100W monocrystalline panels, and we've been very happy with it. You'll see that we don't have a large TT, yet this suitcase still stows easily inside my basement storage via the small exterior door. Setting it up and taking it down takes no more than about 3 minutes. It's heavy enough (35-40 lb) that I've never had an issue with it blowing over, even in the desert southwest. We're not careful on energy consumption (I admittedly watch a lot of news) but it has no trouble keeping our 220 Ah battery bank topped off for days on end. I wish it had an MPPT charge controller instead of PWM, but I have yet to see a suitcase model that comes with MPPT. You'd have to build that, or swap it out.
And unlike a rooftop setup, I don't get the benefit of solar charging while driving, but I also didn't need to cut any holes or fish any wires. (I did drill two holes to run 1/0 AWG wire from the batteries to the invereter as is shown in the video, but that has nothing to do with the solar.)
