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
Not that it interests you, but you can improve the efficiency of harvest of any panel and the number of hours it gets close to peak amps by having the ability to aim it directly at the sun, versus fixed mount on the roof. Important in fall, winter and spring, when the days are a lot shorter, nights are longer and your usage is higher, and harvest time of electricity is shorter.
If you don't camp in winter, and just in the summer, it's a non issue, if you camp year round, or full time, it's a big issue.
What this all means is that if you are in a smaller travel trailer, portable folding panels might be a better option, that you can manually aime 3 or 4x a day.
Solar Blvd offers ( when in stock ) folding kit solar panels. If you camp in the winter in AZ... perhaps snow birding it... figure 5 or 6 hours tops, to get the battery bank topped off. The 160W version makes about 9 amps... x 6 hours is about 54 amps, in the dead of winter. As the days get longer, so does the charging period.
I just got back from Montana, summer soltice and all, and you can get sun power from about 8 am to 8 pm, easily 5 amps out of my 120w 6.6 amp peak version, folding portable solar unit. More than enough to charge my 30-45 amp loss.
Minor tricks.
Fat copper electrical wire from controller to the battery, to minimize voltage and amperage loss between charge controller and battery.
Mount the controller as near to the battery as possible.
Go with an adjustable Voltage output charge controller
Program what ever voltage you need to see 15.0V at the battery terminals, to get your battery as near top charged daily as possible.
Plan on doing a lot of study first. Do your homework here by reading folks that are the quantitative types and that log their actual results. Engineering folks around here abound. You can tell by how they post up on solar and batteries and battery charging methods.
If you don't camp in winter, and just in the summer, it's a non issue, if you camp year round, or full time, it's a big issue.
What this all means is that if you are in a smaller travel trailer, portable folding panels might be a better option, that you can manually aime 3 or 4x a day.
Solar Blvd offers ( when in stock ) folding kit solar panels. If you camp in the winter in AZ... perhaps snow birding it... figure 5 or 6 hours tops, to get the battery bank topped off. The 160W version makes about 9 amps... x 6 hours is about 54 amps, in the dead of winter. As the days get longer, so does the charging period.
I just got back from Montana, summer soltice and all, and you can get sun power from about 8 am to 8 pm, easily 5 amps out of my 120w 6.6 amp peak version, folding portable solar unit. More than enough to charge my 30-45 amp loss.
Minor tricks.
Fat copper electrical wire from controller to the battery, to minimize voltage and amperage loss between charge controller and battery.
Mount the controller as near to the battery as possible.
Go with an adjustable Voltage output charge controller
Program what ever voltage you need to see 15.0V at the battery terminals, to get your battery as near top charged daily as possible.
Plan on doing a lot of study first. Do your homework here by reading folks that are the quantitative types and that log their actual results. Engineering folks around here abound. You can tell by how they post up on solar and batteries and battery charging methods.
