Special generator discussion
Requesting special thoughts here- I have dry camped a lot. And I can decide for myself but there's usually a few valid intangibles that you can pick up in a discussion. Never had a generator and I...
Forum Discussion
Hi Roy,
How big is the battery bank in amp-hours (20 hour rate)?
360 watts is good, but you are forgetting that by shortly after sun up and until shortly before sun down, the panels will be supplying all the parasitic loads, whereas before those loads were only being met during actual generator run time.
Another factor is the choice of charge controller. If it is temperature compensated with a probe on the actual battery bank, charging will be more optimized than what your converter does.
Is the charge controller PWM or MPPT?
In the summer time, 360 watts may allow harvesting about 125 amp-hours per sunny day.
How big is the battery bank in amp-hours (20 hour rate)?
360 watts is good, but you are forgetting that by shortly after sun up and until shortly before sun down, the panels will be supplying all the parasitic loads, whereas before those loads were only being met during actual generator run time.
Another factor is the choice of charge controller. If it is temperature compensated with a probe on the actual battery bank, charging will be more optimized than what your converter does.
Is the charge controller PWM or MPPT?
In the summer time, 360 watts may allow harvesting about 125 amp-hours per sunny day.
RoyB wrote:
I went with the beefed up trailer techniques and running from large battery banks first being re-charged the next morning running my 2KW Honda generator when allowed to run one.
I am just now starting to add on SOLAR PANELS etc to aid in not having to run my generator as long .
I need 20AMPS per battery to properly recharge my batteries in a quick three hour smart mode charge time and a 120WATT Solar Panel will give you around 5-6 AMPS of usable 12VDC power for probably 6 hours in a day. Will take many solar panels for me to mimic my PD9260C smart mode converter/charger unit. More than the three 120WATT Solar Panels I am planning on starting out with.
If the solar panels don't do the job by at least 4:30PM each day then I have to go to PLAN B and run the generator to get everything back up to the 90% charge state so we can make it until 8AM the next morning.
Roy Ken
