wbwood wrote:
I like both the mounted and portables. I like the mounted for the simple part that they are always out there. I don't like them that you do not get the maximum use of them. You can't park under a tree and get the effectiveness as you would in full sun. I like the portable because you can put them and point them directly to the sun. I also like the fact that I can get a couple of batteries and keep in my garage and pull out the solar panels to use at home during times that our power may go out. Of course the fact that they are more easy to steal and you will have to constantly move them around during the day for optimal performance, is a pain. Do like technomadia does...800 watts on the roof and 600 watts portable. But then you will also want the lithium battery bank they have...lol
That's definitely the way to go - both permament solar on the RV roof and a portable solar setup ... so that you have the best solar arrangement to deal with all situations. We drycamp in both the shade and the sun, and we find that most of our shade camping is done where noise is a big deal, so then solar is often preferred over use of even our very small and very quiet generator
However, regarding roof solar ... I'll never install it on our RV if holes must be put into the roof. I've thought out an approach for permanent roof solar on our rig that does not require holes in the roof for mounting and will most likely use it in the future.
I'll most likely put together myself a portable solar system so as to get a setup with an MPPT controller instead of a PWM controller, and then install the MPPT controller back at the RV next to the batteries instead of hanging it out on the panel.
