Ready to get my feet wet with Solar power
Thought I would post my idea here and let the experts tell me what I am missing. First off, I own 2ea RV's. 1 is a gooseneck horse trailer with living quarters and the other is a bumper pull prowler....
Forum Discussion
lc0338,
As a really rough guess, assuming 80% efficiencies for both the inverter and converter, you would loose about 36% of your available power doing it this way. Those efficiencies could be a bit off depending on the quality of units you use and the wire diameter between your converter and RV batteries, but I bet they are "in the ballpark". That's a lot of power to throw away, especially when it is relatively (compared to your local utility) expensive per watt power. This power loss has nothing to do with whether you use 12 volt, 24 volt, or 48 volt panels. That's yet part of another loss...that between your panels and controller.
I can understand how using your "solar generator" for other applications might make it more appealing as well as your not wanting to duplicate devices and effort, but I think you will spend more money and effort this way rather than just using panels on each RV (or portable panels). But hey, that's all part of inventing so you need to follow your own road in life.
Good luck,
Steve
As a really rough guess, assuming 80% efficiencies for both the inverter and converter, you would loose about 36% of your available power doing it this way. Those efficiencies could be a bit off depending on the quality of units you use and the wire diameter between your converter and RV batteries, but I bet they are "in the ballpark". That's a lot of power to throw away, especially when it is relatively (compared to your local utility) expensive per watt power. This power loss has nothing to do with whether you use 12 volt, 24 volt, or 48 volt panels. That's yet part of another loss...that between your panels and controller.
I can understand how using your "solar generator" for other applications might make it more appealing as well as your not wanting to duplicate devices and effort, but I think you will spend more money and effort this way rather than just using panels on each RV (or portable panels). But hey, that's all part of inventing so you need to follow your own road in life.
Good luck,
Steve
