How Much Solar ? First Hand Report
Just got set up here in Quartzsite, two 100 watt solar panels on my receiver hitch mounted polar mount, moving it 3 times during the day. Panes were partly shaded by an old power pole till 9 am, then...
Forum Discussion
smkettner wrote:
Another ~230w on the roof and even Oregon might be enjoyable :B
Thanks for the report. I agree solar does seem to put more charge in the battery compared to the generator.
On generator you do 50-90s which leaves the batts 10% undercharged and rapid capacity loss each succeeding 50-90 in a row. Solar lets you get to a higher SOC with more time and lower amps than you can afford with generator, so naturally you can do longer (weeks rather than days) off-grid before noting any capacity loss.
But you still are not truly getting to 100% every time, so there is no escape in the long run. It just takes longer, but that is good. Unless you are a full timer off grid, you do go home eventually and get a chance to put your batteries right after their ordeal. As long as you don't leave it too long to do a recovery desulfation.
Solar makes it much easier to do our seasonal off-grid thing now compared with the Big Losses episodes just on generator trying to do the same thing before. Just how much solar you need to get by is very situational with the individual camper.
