Forum Discussion
- CA Traveler,
5 hours a day is the best one can do. - 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.
- 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 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. 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- 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.
- 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????
- Clearely a biased ad for their batteries.
