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...
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490w was a nice amount for us this year, then again it was on the ground and tracking the sun too. It will require more battery to offer the same level of comfort with the panels laid flat. I'll take one of the portables to augment until I see that the mounted pair are enough.
How old are your existing batteries? Replacing them and matching up with the new set may be best. I have never mixed batteries of different age or type but I'm told they don't charge and discharge well together.
As far as designing your system, I'm becoming more and more a cover the roof in panel and fill the bay with batteries. When that's not enough it's time to augment or conserve. Had I filled out the power form and based everything on how we used the trailer back then, I would be way under powered now. Back then we used the trailer much like the tents we had used for 20 years, even running the furnace on 26F night the grp 27 was only down to 12.3v after three days. It took a few years to transition from tenters to RV's and then last year we added the high powered toys. We went from minimal power usage to 150-200 ah a day.
Good luck with your install, I look forward to hearing how it does for you.
How old are your existing batteries? Replacing them and matching up with the new set may be best. I have never mixed batteries of different age or type but I'm told they don't charge and discharge well together.
As far as designing your system, I'm becoming more and more a cover the roof in panel and fill the bay with batteries. When that's not enough it's time to augment or conserve. Had I filled out the power form and based everything on how we used the trailer back then, I would be way under powered now. Back then we used the trailer much like the tents we had used for 20 years, even running the furnace on 26F night the grp 27 was only down to 12.3v after three days. It took a few years to transition from tenters to RV's and then last year we added the high powered toys. We went from minimal power usage to 150-200 ah a day.
Good luck with your install, I look forward to hearing how it does for you.
