Reputable Solar Installers?
Not sure if this is the right board in which to post this, but I was wondering if people could remind me of the really good solar outfitters in the RV community. I know I've seen a couple names...mayb...
Forum Discussion
If you have a daily usage figure in AH that you want to replace daily with solar, the array size per battery bank size in AH doesn't matter.
The daily usage will be a certain percentage of the SOC of the battery bank and you want to operate from 100% back down to whatever and back up to full again.
If you have two batteries 220AH and your daily is 44AH that is down to 80% and back, so you are doing 80-100s. If you have a 440AH bank you will be doing 90-100s
If you can do your daily 44AH with say a 120w panel it will do that whether on the 220AH bank or the 440AH bank, doesn't matter.
The complication is battery acceptance rate at the high SOC where amps are tapered right down. Solar is at low amps but so is acceptance rate at high SOC so that works out.
Since the amps were high enough on the 80-100 to get it done, they will also be high enough on the 90-100, where the acceptance rate is higher on that higher capacity bank, but you are starting at a higher SOC too (90 vs 80), so it is a wash.
So really, the important thing is to have enough array to replace your daily usage and do that at the top end of the SOC range of the battery bank. You can calculate that for your battery bank and then if you add more batteries it will still come out right.
This is not like doing 50-80s where you are trying to operate in the SOC range where the acceptance rate is high so you can do it faster to reduce your generator time and the higher amps charger you own the better.
The daily usage will be a certain percentage of the SOC of the battery bank and you want to operate from 100% back down to whatever and back up to full again.
If you have two batteries 220AH and your daily is 44AH that is down to 80% and back, so you are doing 80-100s. If you have a 440AH bank you will be doing 90-100s
If you can do your daily 44AH with say a 120w panel it will do that whether on the 220AH bank or the 440AH bank, doesn't matter.
The complication is battery acceptance rate at the high SOC where amps are tapered right down. Solar is at low amps but so is acceptance rate at high SOC so that works out.
Since the amps were high enough on the 80-100 to get it done, they will also be high enough on the 90-100, where the acceptance rate is higher on that higher capacity bank, but you are starting at a higher SOC too (90 vs 80), so it is a wash.
So really, the important thing is to have enough array to replace your daily usage and do that at the top end of the SOC range of the battery bank. You can calculate that for your battery bank and then if you add more batteries it will still come out right.
This is not like doing 50-80s where you are trying to operate in the SOC range where the acceptance rate is high so you can do it faster to reduce your generator time and the higher amps charger you own the better.
