Solar at its Best
The Ultimate in Solar ? It probably don't get no better than this, I was camped near this guy most the week, and he built this himself. He is a retired mechanical engineer. This unit is compl...
Forum Discussion
I'm not trying to be negative or nitpicky, but does the shade from the item in the bottom of the picture affect the incoming current? I've seen even 1-2 square inches of a panel shaded cause the whole panel to lose 50-95% of the incoming energy compared to full sun.
I love these solar setups. I am working on ideas for two (one fixed and mounted on the roof), and one detachable (so when touring it stays at home, but boondocking, I have it available.)
The nice feature for a decent solar setup will be not having to fire up a generator when out in the wilderness unless it is to exercise it. Even my Yamaha makes a lot of noise compared to the quiet of a forest or meadow.
That picture was taken at around 4:00 pm on Sept 8 with the truck and trailer facing north while I was winterizing the trailer. The sun is quite a bit lower in the sky up here in northern Canada as fall approaches. There is a little shade but by this time of day the system has been in float charge for hours. The panels are wired in parallel and still do a very good job. Most of the season when we have sunlight until 10 PM shading isn't a problem with the AC unit. I have not run the genset very much since putting in this system.....never to charge batteries anyway. :)
