Solar and Inverter combo question
hi all, i tried searching but did not find specifically what i was looking for. I have a generator hooked to my inverter which charges my battery. I would also like to connect a solar panel ...
Forum Discussion
"No shore power (off-grid). It is a car hauler and is stored at a facility that has no shore power. So the generator & solar are the only source of power for recharging. The trailer does have a cable in case its ever at a location that has shore power, but that will be very rare. The solar would be charging battery 90% of the time as the generator won't be running constantly"
Ok, so forget the trickle solar set entirely and get a "real" solar set up that will do the job and then the only generator time needed would be for other 120v things that are too much wattage for the inverter. (air conditioner, etc)
You need a rough idea of how many amp hours you draw from the battery bank using the inverter for what 120v wattage things it can run, plus the other 12v things in the RV for a 24 hr period. That will tell you how much of a solar set-up you need to replace those amp hours.
If the sun is not shining enough on a particular day, then you have to use the gen to run the charger in the inverter/charger, but that is normal routine.
Note that while charging low batteries from that charger, there might not be enough wattage left from the gen to run the air conditioner, so you have to be on top of things to choose when to do what for how long. (OP probably knows that, but worth mentioning)
Ok, so forget the trickle solar set entirely and get a "real" solar set up that will do the job and then the only generator time needed would be for other 120v things that are too much wattage for the inverter. (air conditioner, etc)
You need a rough idea of how many amp hours you draw from the battery bank using the inverter for what 120v wattage things it can run, plus the other 12v things in the RV for a 24 hr period. That will tell you how much of a solar set-up you need to replace those amp hours.
If the sun is not shining enough on a particular day, then you have to use the gen to run the charger in the inverter/charger, but that is normal routine.
Note that while charging low batteries from that charger, there might not be enough wattage left from the gen to run the air conditioner, so you have to be on top of things to choose when to do what for how long. (OP probably knows that, but worth mentioning)
