Solar Kit
Just received my kit. 2 100w panels with a 30a pwm controller. Hoping it will recharge my 2 GC2's. I am alone in the trailer and power use is min. Any thoughts?
Forum Discussion
pianotuna wrote:
Hi 64thunderbolt,
6 to 8 feet is a bit long unless the controller has battery voltage sense wires. You can get away with it with big enough wire.
The boxers in the ring are the solar purists (me), the generator only folks, and the solar plus generator.
If you recharge using a genny it is important to force as many amps as possible into the battery bank in the shortest possible time. After all "time is money" when running a genny.
I hate to admit that when I went full time I had to get a genny. In hind site I wish I had beefed up the solar until I could run my roof air from that energy source, but I did not have the ready cash to do so.
When I was part time, my solar provided all the power I wanted for seven days at a time.
It is a friendly match btw. Quite Balanced LOL.64thunderbolt wrote:
WOW, didn't mean to start a fire. Just want to cut back on gen run time while dry camping & keep the batt up while stored in the back yard between trips. Like I said I have dry camped for over 16 yrs with no solar and have had good life with my batt. I had no idea there was so much science in this simple addition to my gen. I had 2 grp 27 marine/deepcycle's last 6 yrs. How long should they last?
BTW would 6/8' be too far between controller & batt?
LOL I like your explanation. All intend to do is limit my gen time. If I can do that by supplementing some with a small solar array I will be happy. If I can only run my gen extended times once/twice a week I will be happy. I will always run it for an hr or so every day for high use 120v items. I can top them off when I get home. Going completely solar is not my goal. I do not have room for a large batt bank. If I were fulltiming I would have a different outlook & rig but I am not. Thanks for the reply and the explanation.
