Self regulating solar panels

How large is that 50 watt panel? Measure it and tell us.

I have a pair of 45 watt panels, and they are about 12" X 36" long, maybe a few more inches, they are not close enough to measure right now.

I also have a self-regulating 10 or 15 watt solar panel on top of my A/C unit. These do not require a regulator because they are so much smaller than the battery, or in other words the 15 watt panel might put out 7amp hours per day, not enough to overcharge any battery.

Most modern RV's have a CO detector, propane leak detector, and refrigerator that together use about 35 amp hours per day. This is about what one of my 120 watt solar panels can put out in 1 day of good sunshine. I have a pair of 120 watt and a single 75 watt on my RV roof now.

The pair of 45 watt became a home lighting system. I used a $13 PWM solar controller that also turns on the lights at night for an adjustable 1-13 hours or until sunrise. IT will shut off the lights if the battery voltage is to low. It is rated at 10 amps maximum.

The lights are 24 LED panel lights that put out a fair amount of light, while only using 0.13 amps per panel. There is about 10 panels attached to the underside of the rafters around the house, lighting it up nicely.

The light panels are $1.60 each when you get 50 at a time. Ichanged my most used RV lights to LED panels. THe porch light has 4 of the 24 LED panels. The bathroom has 2 panels in each side of the factory two light fixture. So I replaced about 2.2 amps of lights with only 0.45 amps of LED's that are brighter.

For heating, I use a Olympic Catalytic heater. It puts out about 6,000 Btu's and can heat a 30' RV to 70F when it is above 40F outside, and I run the furnace a bit when it is colder outside, but not much each hour.

Good luck,

Fred.

I've known some panels to be called "self regulating" that were actually designed to put out less voltage then "regular" 12 v panels. Somewhere around 14 Vmp. This seems like a really bad approach as it simply wouldn't charge very well.

I have to disagree than 50 watts isn't enough solar. It all depends on how you camp. On my first 24' TT I had a 75 watt panel. I used an inverter to power my toaster, microwave, and TV. I had plenty of power.
On my current TC I've used a 55 watt some and now a 30 watt panel. When dry camping I have plenty of power for an extended weekend of lights, pump, ref., vent fan, etc.

Sorry for the typo on the first post. It was supposed to say wired into the cable going to the batteries. My ipad autocorrected it on me and I missed that one.

I also found a web link for Soltek. www.soltek.ca
Which as Westend says now goes to Carmanah Group.

From what you guys are saying the brochure calling it a self regulation system isn't quite accurate. The amps are so low it can't hurt the batteries.

Evan

I know a 50 watt panel won't keep up on trips. I also made a mistake the chart that shows the regulator was a bad fax copy and I read the wrong line last night . That was the next kit up that came with the regulator. Sorry about that.

The specs on the panel on the sheet say puts out 3.1 amps of current.

Thank you for the above information.
Evan

I found a link to SPS Soltek Power Source. The company was acquired by Carmanah Corp. in 2005. One division of Carmanah is Go Power. Go Power is known for their excellent inverters and they also make RV kits, including solar modules.

As was mentioned 50w is only enough for battery float maintenance.

Not to belittle your info or knowledge
what you is a 'maintainer' system
appox 3+ amps of DC power in full sun
enough to keep the battery charged, while the TT is in storage
the 'panel' is Not self regulating
it's just not capable of putting out a enough power to harm the battery
there is NO 'built in' 20 amp controller
there is probably a 'diode' to keep the panel from draining the battery during the night (reverse drain protection)

50 watts at battery voltage is less then 4 amps. Real world a 50 watt panel is generating less then 3 amps at battery voltage - on a good day. Most 12 volt panels are 17-18 volts, shorted to your batteries at 13.5 only put out about 40 watts, or 2.934 amps less the losses from the panel to the batteries. At most I would say it is offsetting the propane detector draw. If you plan on using boon docking you will need 3 times that just to run the fridge and a led light or two without a generator. Most people "running on solar" are in the 250-800 watt range..

Have any link to these soltec panels?

Can't find a thing on that name. 50w isn't anything, and it certainly doesn't need a 20a regulator.

Sjovolde wrote:
... the panel is edited into the cables going from the converter to the batteries.

"Edited"? Does that mean connected?