Solar Panels - worth it?
We are looking at a Roadtrek that has solar panels. We have never used them and don't know how they work. For those of you who have them, do you find them useful? Would you buy them again or would you...
Forum Discussion
small solar panels most definitely are only good for maintaining an already charged up battery... If you get behind the charge state curve the small solar systems won't be much help for you..
I have used a small low wattage output solar panel for years back in my JEEP days sitting on the dash and plugged into the cigarette lighter socket.
Battery charging using solar panels with its controller is the same as using a smart mode charger. If you want your 50% charge state battery re-charged in a quick three hour time frame you have to hit the battery with 14.4VDC Boost charge for around three hours to get the battery back up to its 90% charge state. The discharged battery wants to start out using around 20AMPS of DC current which is only available from several solar panels in parallel.
The beauty of the solar panel is the high sun may be around 6 hours or so what you are hoping for is to make the 90% charge state before you lose the high sun. Otherwise you will not benefit from the battery stated performance and it may get dark on you sooner then you wanted it to. Continuing to only re-charge to small charge levels will eventually do harm to your batteries.
My rule of thumb when camping off the power grid is to always start my day/night run off the batteries at their 90% charge state. I have learned my battery usage and starting with this 90% charge state I know i can make it through the night until 8AM the next morning where i can start re-charging my batteries again. If I am going to run out high sun if I was using solar then I would switch to generator while still allowed to use and get my batteries to the 90% charge state.
You have to come up with your own battery use requirements where recharging by use of generator would be the primary way and the solar charging of the batteries is a PLUS complimenting the generator method when camping off the power grid. Otherwise you will not be successful keeping long life from your batteries.
This is the way I look at it at any rate...
Roy Ken
I have used a small low wattage output solar panel for years back in my JEEP days sitting on the dash and plugged into the cigarette lighter socket.
Battery charging using solar panels with its controller is the same as using a smart mode charger. If you want your 50% charge state battery re-charged in a quick three hour time frame you have to hit the battery with 14.4VDC Boost charge for around three hours to get the battery back up to its 90% charge state. The discharged battery wants to start out using around 20AMPS of DC current which is only available from several solar panels in parallel.
The beauty of the solar panel is the high sun may be around 6 hours or so what you are hoping for is to make the 90% charge state before you lose the high sun. Otherwise you will not benefit from the battery stated performance and it may get dark on you sooner then you wanted it to. Continuing to only re-charge to small charge levels will eventually do harm to your batteries.
My rule of thumb when camping off the power grid is to always start my day/night run off the batteries at their 90% charge state. I have learned my battery usage and starting with this 90% charge state I know i can make it through the night until 8AM the next morning where i can start re-charging my batteries again. If I am going to run out high sun if I was using solar then I would switch to generator while still allowed to use and get my batteries to the 90% charge state.
You have to come up with your own battery use requirements where recharging by use of generator would be the primary way and the solar charging of the batteries is a PLUS complimenting the generator method when camping off the power grid. Otherwise you will not be successful keeping long life from your batteries.
This is the way I look at it at any rate...
Roy Ken
