physical size of solar panels

Clearely a biased ad for their batteries.

Thanks for the useful info. The photo reveals the size and number of solar panels to produce 500 watts but not the weight of a panel or total weight of all the panels on the RV roof. I hear solar panels are very heavy????

Having accurate measurements was important to me when I installed my solar panels. Some panels wouldn’t have let me mount three across the front of the TT that is 7.5 feet wide.

NamMedevac 70 wrote:
Thanks for the useful info. The photo reveals the size and number of solar panels to produce 500 watts but not the weight of a panel or total weight of all the panels on the RV roof. I hear solar panels are very heavy????

its realy quite useless when you think about it. they are all based off one size of solar panel (100 watts) which is real in efficient when you think about it .

a 100 watt solar panel is aproximatly about 47 x 21.3 x 1.4 inches, the 325 watt solar panel I put on my camper is 66.90 x 39.10 x 1.38 in, so much more efficient space wise and cost as I dont need the fittings to combine panels, or the extra mounting branckets and such.. also my panel is only 42 lbs so no they are not heavy I think the 100 watt ones are about 15lbs. thereis also the difference that the 100watt panels are 12V and the larger ones are 24V so the efficiency comes into play also.

what I recomend is people get up on there units with a tapemeasure and see how big the open spots are, what I did was make a cardboard cut out the size of the largest panel I was looking at and went up there and layed it around to see how stuff would fit. if it doesnt you can trim it down to the next size down and try again. going with one or two larger panels over 6 smaller ones is usaly much cheeper, less holes in the roof, and more efficent.

Steve

I raised my panels to go over roof top equipment which also eliminated RV shadows like from the AC in the picture. Most panels are installed close to the roof but it's not necassary.

Larger 24V panels use less roof space/watt, cost less/watt and serial panels have other advantages. MPPT controllers cost more but that can be offset by the lower panel cost/watt for 24V panels.

It should only be regarded as a marketing guideline…I’m fairly sure that harvest in Minnesota is often quite different than harvest in the high Nevada desert where 200+w of solar per 100a/hr seems just a reasonably good baseline…

3 tons

I first installed a battery monitor to better understand my usage. There are many factors that determine solar output and many factors determine power usage. 2/3 of the panel watts for 4-5 hours/day is a reasonable ball park estimate.

CA Traveler,

5 hours a day is the best one can do.

CA Traveler wrote:
I first installed a battery monitor to better understand my usage. There are many factors that determine solar output and many factors determine power usage. 2/3 of the panel watts for 4-5 hours/day is a reasonable ball park estimate.

Agree!

Once we retired everything changed: boondock 7-10 days instead of a three day weekends, travel south in the winter, so less daytime sun, use the furnace every night, readers and laptops to charge, and on and on.

After having a 90 day old set of AGM batteries fail we installed a Victron BMV 712 to see what was happening with our system. Best money spent!

Two years later the 712's history told us our WFCO was occasionally charging at 21 volts, and destroyed a second set of batteries. Found out our furnace can use 20-30 amps at night, just having the battery switch engaged our use can be 12 ah a day, each phone uses .9 ah and were plugged in all night, etc. It helps us control our energy use and shows us items were using more ah's than we realized.

We didn't need more/bigger batteries, although last winter we spent $1,000 on 220 usable ah's and now realize a decent set of Trojan flooded at $3-400 would have easily met our needs. We needed more solar on the roof, so 300 watts was added. We now have no problem keeping our batteries full and have added a 1500 watt inverter to make toast and charge our phones in 15 minutes.

As far as I'm concerned if you're serious, the first item I would add is a battery monitor with history (NOT the Alibaba battery monitor that lacks history). The 712 showed we didn't need more batteries than we already had, but needed more watts on the roof.

Enjoy,

Perry

Thanks for additional USEFUL information. I am glad no longer full timing as it was not really camping. Happy fisherman and part time camper.