Solar Kit

red31 wrote:

NinerBikes wrote:

red31 wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
The controller only does 14.4

Measure it on a warm day, my $8 version claimed 14.6 but does 14.8 unless it's cold and maxes out at 15.0.

Show us a picture of your charge controller model, and a measure of voltage at the battery terminals some time. Those are good numbers.

The sun finaly came out! Info from someones weather station locally.



Charging vehicle battery w/60 watt panel, 50F



Move probe from controller Vout to batt

So you are getting 14.9V at the battery on a 60w panel, at 3.1 amps? Wow, battery must be low... usually by the time I am close to 14.9V at the battery, the 8.8 Amps my 150w solar panel can put out is close to 2.5 to 3A of current and has tapered back on the amps quite a bit.

NinerBikes wrote:

red31 wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
The controller only does 14.4

Measure it on a warm day, my $8 version claimed 14.6 but does 14.8 unless it's cold and maxes out at 15.0.

Show us a picture of your charge controller model, and a measure of voltage at the battery terminals some time. Those are good numbers.

The sun finaly came out! Info from someones weather station locally.



Charging vehicle battery w/60 watt panel, 50F



Move probe from controller Vout to batt

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.

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?

NinerBikes wrote:

red31 wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
The controller only does 14.4

Measure it on a warm day, my $8 version claimed 14.6 but does 14.8 unless it's cold and maxes out at 15.0.

Show us a picture of your charge controller model, and a measure of voltage at the battery terminals some time. Those are good numbers.

I will do that. It will be a couple of weeks. I will begin cleaning & recoating the roof on Monday. gonna be in the upper 70's next week perfect weather fo that so it will be Wed/Thur before I can start the solar install.

markchengr wrote:
Some solar controllers, like mine, can be damaged by disconnecting the batteries without first removing the power from the PV panels because it gets its control power from the batteries. I installed a marine battery switch in the positive from the panels to the controller because of this. My controller is a SunCharger-30 PWM. There is a stern warning about this in the manual. YMMV. -Mark.

Mine says to hook up the batt first then the panels so a switch will be in order.

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?

NinerBikes wrote:

smkettner wrote:
BTW, 14.4 volts is fine. Plenty of people brag on long battery life with a PD converter that never goes above 14.4 volts.

On a pedestal in a campground with full hookups, perhaps, dry camping, not so much. You don't need solar if you're hooked up to a pedestal 24/7, then it's a non issue.

We are just talking about reducing generator time for the OP.
I don't think OP needs to make any effort to increase beyond 14.4 volts.

Some solar controllers, like mine, can be damaged by disconnecting the batteries without first removing the power from the PV panels because it gets its control power from the batteries. I installed a marine battery switch in the positive from the panels to the controller because of this. My controller is a SunCharger-30 PWM. There is a stern warning about this in the manual. YMMV. -Mark.

red31 wrote:

64thunderbolt wrote:
The controller only does 14.4

Measure it on a warm day, my $8 version claimed 14.6 but does 14.8 unless it's cold and maxes out at 15.0.

Show us a picture of your charge controller model, and a measure of voltage at the battery terminals some time. Those are good numbers.