Solar and battery help
Good Morning. I am hoping someone can provide a simple answer or 4 for me. I just read a post on the TC forum about flexible, light weight 100 watt solar panels and love the look of this, I have a Nor...
Forum Discussion
kjenckes wrote:
My goal with all this is to get my wife out more with me. We both use CPAP (12v ). She is not as comfy with out some of the comforts of home as I am. We live in NH and the State Parks in NH and VT as well as the White Mt. and Green Mt. National Forest sites are almost entirely off grid.
She won't be too happy on solar. Not with 2*100W for sure. "Some" comforts of home can draw more than 70% of your daily solar harvest, and nearly all of those comforts you can either live without or find low-energy substitutes. But when lady wants something, there is no use in reasoning. My friend living fulltime in 5-er with 400W solar has to run a generator every time when DW sits down with her favorite pastime - quilted blankets, it needs big 120V iron.
#3: With nominal 12V panels, i.e. up to 160W each, the controller amps rating = total panel amps + 20%. So with 4*5.7A you need roughly 30A controller. With larger panels like 200W each, controller rating is calculated differently.
I don't know why you've set your mind on flexible 100W - bigger wattage rigid panels are cheaper per watt. Also, more durable. Like Roy said, try getting as much solar up on the roof as you can. It should be possible to put more than 400W on a TC.
#4: The rule of N watts per M amp-hours of battery (roughly 1W per 1 AH) is a minimum wattage, to make sure that battery will get fully charged on a good day. There is no such thing as too much solar, the more - the better. On a dark day a 500W solar will collect as little as a 100W solar on a good day.
And, as soon as you batteries will start showing signs of aging (shouldn't take long) - replace them with proper deep-cycle ones. This is NOT an option.
