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
BFL13 wrote:
44AH is still 44AH and if you are running things as well as recharging that is part of the 44 and it doesn't matter anyway if it comes from a small bank or a large bank, 44 is 44.
I think PT is right - more panels than is "required" by the bank size is still useful, because it will run the loads in daytime when the bank is already full. So it won't really "come out of a bank". When my controller display tells me in the evening that I harvested 44 AH from the panel, this means that I used 44 AH since last evening. About 30 of this 44 goes into replacing the 30 that was taken out of the battery overnight, and 14 goes into running my devices in daytime, and usually - after the bank is full, because my panel brings it to full before noon.
It's nice to have a controller display, btw - pretty much eliminates the need to buy costly monitor like Trimetric. Morningstar TS-30 is far less common than TS-45, don't remember the price, but I suspect that with temperature and voltage sensors, and with remote display it will cost the same if not more than Rogue 3048. TS-45 will sure cost more.
BFL13 is right that if you want solar to replace your daily draw, then the rule of N panel watts per bank size doesn't apply. Again, keep an eye on maximum current that battery can accept, it is often ~25% or 30% of capacity, i.e. 30A for one 100 AH battery. Check your battery manual.
I think at this point this is too much info for the OP to digest. If they just try and work the Flowchart that Don suggested, and answer the most of questions that SMK wrote - this will be enough homework.
