General RV Solar Questions?
I'm planning to add a couple of new high end Kyocera 140 panels and build up a new system out of them. Currenly I have what my old 95' Squire 400 came with which is a substandard and smaller panel wi...
Forum Discussion
The reason I asked about the distance apart is the 6v's have to be connected to create a 12v. That would be a interesting bit of wiring if they were 7 feet apart.
You can have batteries inside if they are vented to the outside properly, you can also use sealed batteries.
I agree with West about the original panel. Should it turn out to be small, the space may be better used by a bigger panel. When a larger battery bank gets down, it takes either a lot of panel to push it around or days to recharge it. I ran a test with a 250ah 8-D discharged to 12.1v resting and a 220w system. After 5 hours in brilliant sunshine and subfreezing temperatures I think it made the battery giggle. The battery needed 125 ah replaced and the system could do a tenth of that, it would take days. Even tracking the sun for long hours in the summer, it would take a few days to get a really good charge and that's without you using it.
Simply put, big loads take big battery banks, big banks need a lot of panel.
You can have batteries inside if they are vented to the outside properly, you can also use sealed batteries.
I agree with West about the original panel. Should it turn out to be small, the space may be better used by a bigger panel. When a larger battery bank gets down, it takes either a lot of panel to push it around or days to recharge it. I ran a test with a 250ah 8-D discharged to 12.1v resting and a 220w system. After 5 hours in brilliant sunshine and subfreezing temperatures I think it made the battery giggle. The battery needed 125 ah replaced and the system could do a tenth of that, it would take days. Even tracking the sun for long hours in the summer, it would take a few days to get a really good charge and that's without you using it.
Simply put, big loads take big battery banks, big banks need a lot of panel.
