School me on these solar packages

Any panel can be portable. I have two panels, one is 125 watts and the other is 85 watts. Both are 12 volt nominal wired in parallel. When in use, I set them in the sun and connect them to my coach with a 50ft. #10 extension cable. I started with the 125 watt panel then added the 85 watt later.

The Renogy panels referenced by the OP look like a good starting point, two 100 watt panels that weigh 16.5 lbs. each. My 125 watt panel weighs about 30 lbs. and can be a bit cumbersome.

If I were starting from scratch, I would buy two identical panels, wire them in series, and connect them to a MPPT controller.

Here's some photos of my setup:

Hi Shadow,

Ok, you see 35 volts in low light. But--how many amps?????

One of the advantages of a higher voltage system is that it produces usable current in lower light situations. We tend to camp in shady camp sites (kind of come with the mid west) and we have a 66 cell 185W panel with a Monringstar Sun Saver MPPT controller. We camped on the north shore of Lake Superior in a site that allowed only about an hour unshaded light to the panel each day. This powers out Waeco 12V refrigerator LED lights DVD/TV XM stereo... and at the tend of eight days we were at 64% SOC. Typically I see 35+ volts even shaded and 48+ volts in the clear.
Using higher voltages also means you do not have to worry about voltage drop and I used 10ga wire.
What a number of us are saying is that you can do much better assembling your own system with high quality components that will meet your needs batter. You really can't do better than Morningstar quality and customer service, and if you wish I can give you the technical explanation as the the advantages of a high voltage system.

To the OP, if you are going to just keep the pair of Group 27's, and you are looking for bare bones, no engineering, simplicity plug and play portable panels, this is a good start. You will want to upgrade the cheesy wiring they give in the kit with some good 10 gauge wire from the controller to your batteries, or pull the controller off the panels and mount permanently near the batteries instead with a short 3 to 6 foot run of 10 gauge wire, and provide some 14 gauge extension cord (orange construction type like available at Home Depot) for the wire run between the portable panel and the charge controller.


160W folding portable solar panel system.

Hi Katoom,

The second kit looks good--just upgrade the wire from the controller to the battery bank. It may be possible to "beat that price" from other sources--but watch out for shipping charges.


Here is a simple flow chart.

Budget-->Energy Audit-->Battery bank size-->number of watts-->PWM or MPPT.

One rule of thumb is between 60 and 150 watts of panels per 100 amp-hours of storage. The smaller the battery bank the high the wattage needed (per 100 amp-hours). Here is a link to the rather special spreadsheet which includes an energy audit, that N8GS has created to help size solar battery charging systems!

Solar Spread Sheet N8GS

For a nice explanation of solar, try this link: Golden rules of solar

NinerBikes wrote:

I just went down this road. Two group 27's are about 85 to 90 Ah's each, about 170-180 total. Next time, replace them with some 6 volt 225 ah golf cart batteries and wire them in series, not in parallel.

As for solar panels. You just missed out on Black Friday specials at Solar Blvd with some really good pricing.

My guess is that you'll need about a watt per amp. With portable, you'll need to aim the panels, probably 2 of them 2 or 3 times a day at the sun. You should go with a Poly crystal panel, and I'd go with two 120 watt panels. That should be good for about 15 amps /hr. by about 5 or 6 hours in winter, 12 or more in summer, somewhere in between spring and fall. The last things you need are 12 gauge wire, 50 foot sections, maybe 1 or two of them, to run to a PWM Charge Controller rated for 20 amps, about $20 online on ebay, and the shortest possible run of 6 or 8 gauge wires from the controller, which should be mounted as near to the batteries as possible but not exposed to the vented gasses a charging set of batteries puts off. 3 to 5 feet or 6 or 8 gauge from the controller to the battery, to cut the voltage losses down between the controller and battery. A couple of 100 watt poly crystal or 120 watt poly crystal panels should do it.

LINKY

If you kit the pieces together yourself, you'll get a better system. Read up, do searches here, and then decide what is best for you. I am thinking for portability, two 100 to 120 watt panels will do you, 120's if you ride mostly in the winter time when cool with shorter days and less hours to charge up.

X2

KATOOM wrote:
Thanks guys.

For clarification.....what I have is a fairly big TH with a couple G27 batteries. I dont remember the RC at the moment but they're the typical marine/deep cell. I plan on adding or changing the battery capacity but thats latter on the list. I'd rather have a solar system in place first which I can build battery capacity from and not the other way around. I have no plans on mounting the panels to the roof either as I want to make them portable so I can park more in the shade and have the panels sitting 50' or so away in the sun light.

I'm still in learning phase of all this but in saying that, I also have no desire to become a proficient professional battery/solar tech either. I just want a simply easy basic setup which works without gobs or modifications and tons of money invested. I'm OK with spending $300-$400 for something like said, and I'd even consider spending up to $500 but much more than that and I feel the cost justification isnt there for what I need.

I've already added a Wave heater to keep any furnace usage at bay, and have even toyed with adding an interior LP lantern too just to lessen battery usage even more. My goal is so my family can spend about a week out in the woods without worrying about the batteries going out. Through the minimal research I've done on this so far I've heard that 100 watts would be OK but 200 watts would really be best and anything over that is kinda an overkill unless I have quite a few batteries and plan on using an inverter often.

Does that help or change anything?

I just went down this road. Two group 27's are about 85 to 90 Ah's each, about 170-180 total. Next time, replace them with some 6 volt 225 ah golf cart batteries and wire them in series, not in parallel.

As for solar panels. You just missed out on Black Friday specials at Solar Blvd with some really good pricing.

My guess is that you'll need about a watt per amp. With portable, you'll need to aim the panels, probably 2 of them 2 or 3 times a day at the sun. You should go with a Poly crystal panel, and I'd go with two 120 watt panels. That should be good for about 15 amps /hr. by about 5 or 6 hours in winter, 12 or more in summer, somewhere in between spring and fall. The last things you need are 12 gauge wire, 50 foot sections, maybe 1 or two of them, to run to a PWM Charge Controller rated for 20 amps, about $20 online on ebay, and the shortest possible run of 6 or 8 gauge wires from the controller, which should be mounted as near to the batteries as possible but not exposed to the vented gasses a charging set of batteries puts off. 3 to 5 feet or 6 or 8 gauge from the controller to the battery, to cut the voltage losses down between the controller and battery. A couple of 100 watt poly crystal or 120 watt poly crystal panels should do it.

http://www.solarblvd.com/Solar-Panels-&-Systems-12-Volt-Solar-Panels/c1_269/index.html?osCsid=177e91ba68387bf12182791233b30bd5


If you kit the pieces together yourself, you'll get a better system. Read up, do searches here, and then decide what is best for you. I am thinking for portability, two 100 to 120 watt panels will do you, 120's if you ride mostly in the winter time when cool with shorter days and less hours to charge up.

http://www.solar-electric.com/rvkitwi140wa.html

look at this system, buy the panel, charge controller and wiring, skip the rest

Thanks guys.

For clarification.....what I have is a fairly big TH with a couple G27 batteries. I dont remember the RC at the moment but they're the typical marine/deep cell. I plan on adding or changing the battery capacity but thats latter on the list. I'd rather have a solar system in place first which I can build battery capacity from and not the other way around. I have no plans on mounting the panels to the roof either as I want to make them portable so I can park more in the shade and have the panels sitting 50' or so away in the sun light.

I'm still in learning phase of all this but in saying that, I also have no desire to become a proficient professional battery/solar tech either. I just want a simply easy basic setup which works without gobs or modifications and tons of money invested. I'm OK with spending $300-$400 for something like said, and I'd even consider spending up to $500 but much more than that and I feel the cost justification isnt there for what I need.

I've already added a Wave heater to keep any furnace usage at bay, and have even toyed with adding an interior LP lantern too just to lessen battery usage even more. My goal is so my family can spend about a week out in the woods without worrying about the batteries going out. Through the minimal research I've done on this so far I've heard that 100 watts would be OK but 200 watts would really be best and anything over that is kinda an overkill unless I have quite a few batteries and plan on using an inverter often.

Does that help or change anything?

That kit for 347 is similar to what I bought, you will love it.
There is no proof that hi $ name brand. overpriced stuff is any better.
You do not need a programmable controller, unless you are obsessed w/ battery control. And if you do ever want a programmable controller, I bought one for 12 bucks that works perfect, except I din't understand 1/2 of what it does. I dumped it in trade for a $10 non programmable that works just perfect.
And let me add, DON"T let anyone talk you into a big heavy 200 watt panel for portable use !!!!