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
If it happens that your daily AH consumption is 120AH, and you have a bank of 240AH, then yes, you will be needing to do 50-100s every day. You can only do 50-90s with gen/charger so you need solar.
How much solar it takes to get 120AH a day "depends" (latitude, location, time of year, panels flat, tilted, tracking, etc. not to speak of how long you run the gen in the morning before turning it all loose on the solar) but say you have that much solar.
You are now at the so-called magic rule of thumb one for one solar/battery ratio IF---somehow you can get 120AH a day out of 120w solar (have to be in a tracking contraption in the summer down south)
So you buy two more batteries to get you by when the sun fails to shine for a day. You still use the 120AH but now you only need to do 75-100s every day. Same solar does that, no change there.
But now you are no longer obeying the rule of thumb! Yipes! You only have half as much solar as you are supposed to have for that much battery! Oh no, you are going to die! Never mind your solar is still doing the 120AH daily that you use.
How much solar it takes to get 120AH a day "depends" (latitude, location, time of year, panels flat, tilted, tracking, etc. not to speak of how long you run the gen in the morning before turning it all loose on the solar) but say you have that much solar.
You are now at the so-called magic rule of thumb one for one solar/battery ratio IF---somehow you can get 120AH a day out of 120w solar (have to be in a tracking contraption in the summer down south)
So you buy two more batteries to get you by when the sun fails to shine for a day. You still use the 120AH but now you only need to do 75-100s every day. Same solar does that, no change there.
But now you are no longer obeying the rule of thumb! Yipes! You only have half as much solar as you are supposed to have for that much battery! Oh no, you are going to die! Never mind your solar is still doing the 120AH daily that you use.
