Looking to add solar

I'd go with a pair of 120W if you roof mount, or you could probably go portable with a 160w and aiming it at the sun a couple of times a day. You need less watts with the portable vs roof mount, because it's pretty much always in alignment with the sun by aiming 3 or 4 x a day, so it's amperage yield will be considerably higher that flat mounted on the roof, it's much more efficient aiming directly at the sun.

Get a good charge controller also that has adjustable input voltage for the bulk charging mode, and set it for 14.8V, that way you'll hopefully charge to 97 to 98 or 99% daily, instead of just 90% State of Charge at 14.4v.

Been there, done that.

^^ I always wonder if the high voltage panels (24v) would do better in these conditions.
Cloud covered day is always going to be low production. :(

Solar really neat.....when the sun is shining.
But here in Quartzsite this week, solar is about worthless as tits on a boar,.....ok, ok, its better than nothing, even the daylite gives me an amp or 2. But rain the rest of the week, not sure worth the investment ?? But this has been the worst year for solar in Qzs, generators running everywhere.

I guess I could do like the big boys do,...add 3 more panels, and another 240 lbs of batteries. But camping on the coast in Oregon, I'm not sure I need what I got. :(

doughere wrote:

smkettner wrote:
Call ahead and stop in Norco on your return. (save the shipping)

https://www.solarblvd.com/index.php?cPath=1_269

I recommend a pair of 120 watt panels and Morningstar PWM controller. Maybe some parallel MC4 connectors and 80' #10 MC4 wire to bring power down.

I think this is the closest to what you would need.

I have a pair of their 60's flat mounted on the roof, and a 100 portable panel. If I were doing it again, I'd get 3 120's, two mounted and one portable.

Regards,
Doug

I put 245 watts of solar flat on the roof last year, and LED lights. I've been off grid since Dec 5th and have run the generator only to run the microwave or because it seemed like a good idea to run it every week or so. I ran the furnace a little this am (60 degrees in the trailer!) and at 1AM I'm at positive amphours from full.

A good price for solar seems to be $1/watt plus $100 for shipping so if you can pick some up without paying shipping.

Go up on the roof and measure where you would put panel(s) taking shading into account. Then compare the area(s) you have with the size of panels. For me, one 24 volt panel made the most sense, especially since I could pick it up locally.

Once you decide on panels then you know what type controller you need (volts & amps capability).

It is not hard. Lots of good info and help here.

Joel

smkettner wrote:
Call ahead and stop in Norco on your return. (save the shipping)

https://www.solarblvd.com/index.php?cPath=1_269

I recommend a pair of 120 watt panels and Morningstar PWM controller. Maybe some parallel MC4 connectors and 80' #10 MC4 wire to bring power down.

I think this is the closest to what you would need.

I have a pair of their 60's flat mounted on the roof, and a 100 portable panel. If I were doing it again, I'd get 3 120's, two mounted and one portable.

Regards,
Doug

Two 6s have the same footprint as two 24s. They are a little taller though and weigh a little more. You would get 232AH instead of 170AH capacity.

The solar controller can go anywhere, but for best results you want a small line loss between it and the batteries which means fatter or shorter wire (or both) You can have longer thinner wire to the panel and still be ok.

If your existing converter output to DC- fuse panel battery lugs are not especially far from the batteries and the fridge, it can be convenient to drop the panel to controller wire pair down the back of the fridge from the roof and over to the DC fuse panel battery lug area.

You put the controller on the wall by the fridge say. The panel wires go to the controller and then the shorter fatter pair of wires go to the battery lugs at the DC fuse panel. This puts the solar and the converter in parallel both feeding the battery lugs and they do not confuse or bother each other, both can be on.

Do not put the converter upstream of the solar controller where the converter's output goes into the panel input side of the controller! The controller and the converter both feed the battery separately in parallel where the solar wires come in downstream from the converter's output on the way to the battery.

Here is a little more info. My MH is small and at weight capacity now. I changed out the bulbs to LEDs a few years ago. Dropped my amp draw by 15+ amps per day. I have a Xantrex Battery monitor and we use .6amp per hour with no lights, fans, TV or furnance running. We use about 35 amps per day if the furnace isn't used. In snow in Yosemite we used 65amps per day.
I put a ladder up to the MH to look for space. I have an area between the satellite decal for future installation and the A/C. It's about 5X6 feet. The fridge vent is about 2 feet away and is about a foot from the battery cabinet which I can drill thru the floor.
So 1 panel of about 100-135 watts should mount OK there. Where is it recommended to place the controller? I suppose it need easy access. Is $500-700 about right for everything?
Oh, no room for anything larger than the group 24 batteries. Limited space.

korbe wrote:
We use about 20ah per day when in conserve mode. That's a frig on gas, detectors on and LED lights. Spend most of time outside.

With LED's, this is easily doable in my TT.

If you want solar to supplement your generator... a good charge controller capable of 30 to 40 amp hours at 14.4V on the generator will get you to 85 or 90% state of charge. A 120 watt portable solar panel will charge at a 6 to 6.6 amp charge rate, and top charge the last 15%, no problem, in 5 hours of good sunlight, even in the winter, like at Q.

PM me for more information, if you are looking for something that will work perfectly for you. I am local... 118 and Balboa.

Hi,

On a fully featured pwm controller there may be settings for bulk, absorb, float, and equalization voltage. It may have "timers" for bulk and equalization.

The temperature sensor will adjust the voltage, increasing it when the batteries are cold and decreasing it as they warm up.

waynefi wrote:
On a PWM controller, what do the adjustable setpoints adjust?

On a small system with a PWM controller, what is adjusted based on battery temperature?