How Much solar to Add??
We dry camp as much as wet camp. I have tow Trojan T-125's up front providng a good long draw for 240ah. I am looking to keep these charged up. 300-400-500 Watts? Waterpump and heater are the two larg...
Forum Discussion
Solar is part of a balanced system that starts with understanding your needs. Once you have a handle on how much power you use daily, have enough battery to tide you over when bad weather keeps the sun from playing nice. ( could be 3 days worth, maybe a month, only you can decide) Once you have a battery size, get enough solar to bring those back up fairly quickly when the sun does come back out. Some say 1-1.5 watt per AH, I like two better.
Location, time of year, climate, etc., should all be considered.
So that sounds complicated and so there is a second way to look at it. Cover the roof with panel and put as much battery as you can in, go camping and see if it keeps up with your needs. Since you have no more room, if it doesn't keep up all you can do is figure how and where to conserve. LED lights are a popular energy saving method.
Last thing is to have a back up mean of charging up the batteries in case Mr sun decides to take a weeks vacation. The most popular is a smaller inverter generator for charging. A pair of them or a larger inverter if you want to use the AC too.
So do some home work, start figuring out what you need and if you want/need those extra batteries as they will be part of the equation.
Location, time of year, climate, etc., should all be considered.
So that sounds complicated and so there is a second way to look at it. Cover the roof with panel and put as much battery as you can in, go camping and see if it keeps up with your needs. Since you have no more room, if it doesn't keep up all you can do is figure how and where to conserve. LED lights are a popular energy saving method.
Last thing is to have a back up mean of charging up the batteries in case Mr sun decides to take a weeks vacation. The most popular is a smaller inverter generator for charging. A pair of them or a larger inverter if you want to use the AC too.
So do some home work, start figuring out what you need and if you want/need those extra batteries as they will be part of the equation.
