Going Solar!
Hi, new to this forum. I am a many years of experience Travel Trailer type RV-er. We do most of our camping "dry" with out hook ups. My wife and I are getting ready to buy a new trailer that will c...
Forum Discussion
pianotuna wrote:
Hi Vintage,
How many amp-hours of battery bank? If it is 300 or less I'd go for 300 watts of solar. The smaller the bank the higher the ratio of solar to amp-hours needs to be. With medium to large banks the minimum figure is 60 watts per 100 amp-hours.
At about 85% state of charge, flooded batteries won't accept more than 12.5 amps which translates to 150 watts of solar. So the "reasonable" maximum is about 150 watts per 100 amp-hours of storage.
You can service a larger bank of batteries by having switches so that the solar will service 1/2 the batteries at a time. That is what I chose--back when panels were $5.50 per watt. If I were doing it today I would have gone for 525 watts (or more) of solar.
With a residential fridge I'd add 200 amp-hours of battery bank and enough solar to cover the daily wattage demands of the fridge (about 200 extra watts, based on a 5 hour solar harvest).
BTW I don't think handybob is a good source of solar information. Too much rant.
This guy has the golden rules of solar without the rant.
http://www.jackdanmayer.com/rv_electrical_and_solar.htm#The%20Golden%20Rules
Also some suggested installers. and as pianotuna said rule of thumb is 100 watts of solar per 100AH of battery. That is a minimum figure.
Get a PWM CC for small solar banks, 300 watts or less. At 400 watts MPPT will begin to pay for itself.
