Solar panel question for 12v battery charging
I have been considering getting a solar panel for maintaining our 2 12v deep cycle batteries when parked at home. i usually back the TT in behind our garage and plug in the 30 amp shore power cord ...
Forum Discussion
sgfrye wrote:valhalla360 wrote:
What are the amp-hrs of the batteries and what is the draw of the fridge?
Storage: it would be simpler to disconnect the battery.
Fridge the day before: Good chance it kills the batteries before you leave. That's where you need to check the amp-hr and draw. Don't plan on using more than 50% of the rated amp-hr if you don't want to damage the batteries. Probably simpler to run some extension cords for the day before. As long as you aren't running the air/con, household extension cords should be fine even for pretty long runs.
last year to test how the batteries would do powering the fridge.
not sure of the official draw from fridge but last summer in 90 heat with ac not running the fridge ran late afternoon till next morning off the batteries showed 12.5 volts after maybe 18 hours. (nothing but fridge running and other parasitic draws) i didn't want to discharge batteries below 50 percent.
If you are just going to turn it on 18hr early, skip the solar and disconnect the battery until you are ready to cool the fridge down, then flip the battery switch on.
Unless you have another use, it would be a waste to add a solar system. If you are concerned one of the little 10w trickle solar panels could be wired direct to the battery to keep it up when disconnected from the trailer systems but not really needed.
