Solar panals

Hi Renae,

On a bright sunny day, cover the panel with cardboard.

Measure house battery voltage.

Remove the cardboard.

Measure the house battery voltage again.

If the second reading is higher than the solar panel is working.

reddfox77 wrote:
The panel is about 3 foot by 5 foot and connects to a box called a power guard...then to the battery in an under compartment...would like to know how the disconnect works with this also...This RV was very well cared for by an elderly couple and has a lot of bells a whistles added to it...We have yet to figure out how every thing works on it and have had it for two years now...exterior will be getting its zep wax today...I want to thank every one that has helped me along the way....Oh and does the ignition switch need to be on for things to work? Dont want to kill the engine starting battery...lol

Your panel is probably 100 watts or more and will charge batteries. The box is a charge controller, which regulates the power going to the batteries. A disconnect is not required between the controller and the battery. Power guard is made by Aries Industries and they offer several models.

My ignition switch must be on to work most anything in the drivers cockpit, including the jacks and slide. But anything for the "house" while camping will not need the ign sw on.

The panel is about 3 foot by 5 foot and connects to a box called a power guard...then to the battery in an under compartment...would like to know how the disconnect works with this also...This RV was very well cared for by an elderly couple and has a lot of bells a whistles added to it...We have yet to figure out how every thing works on it and have had it for two years now...exterior will be getting its zep wax today...I want to thank every one that has helped me along the way....Oh and does the ignition switch need to be on for things to work? Dont want to kill the engine starting battery...lol

reddfox77 wrote:
Does a switch need turned on to make it work?

What switch, or did you mean ignition key?

Panels over 15-20W would have a solar charger called "controller". You can't connect 30W panel directly to battery.

Solar panels work really well.

In your case, I would like to know about how large they are. I have a 15 watt solar panel on my A/C roof, basically they do nothing to keep the rv battery charged, it is about 12" square.

For a real charge, something in the 100 to 175 watt range is required. This will be about 3' X 4' long, or perhaps 3.5' X 5' long. This will put out about 40 amp hours per day, and be enough to ofset the amount of power consumed by the propane and carbon monoxide leak detectors. Those two detectors and the refrigerator will use up about 35 AH daily. It will require a charge controller, and #10 wires (or larger) to keep the battery charged. This is a real solar system. I have a pair of 120 watt panels and a 75 watt panel. This will make up about 100 - 120 amp hours per day. If I use more than that much power overnight, I can run my generator and 70 amp charger a hour or so in the morning, then let the solar finish the charge all day long.

Fred.

Hi Renae,

How many panels are there?

Give these pages a read:

http://rvroadtrip.us/library/12v_system.php

http://rvroadtrip.us/library/solar_install.php

tiny little panel on top of One of the Roof A/Cs ?

thats there just to keep the self-discharge from killing the battery
IF
you forget to turn off the battery disconnect when you store the RV

NO switches, no controllers

Is it the small 5W deal that a lot of MH's have(I have one of these too)? If so, there's nothing you need to do. Also, that 5W panel is only supposed to combat the parasitic losses. It's WAY too small to do any charging.