Solar panels mounted and portable (hybrid?)
Any ideas on the best way to connect my portable solar panel kit to my 5th wheel given my configuration and use case? Here is my situation: I am installing 3 * 250 Watt Panels on the roof wired ...
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The roof panels are poly. It would be real nice if they can produce at least 30 or 40 Amp hours per day when in dense shade to keep up with minimal usage (Fridge, propane detector and LED lighting).
A couple years ago when I was camping in the Adirondacks with my old trailer that had a single 140 Watt panel on the roof, I got essentially zero Amp Hours (according to my Turnigy meter) into the batteries over the course of 10 sunny days. That campsite had serious shading from dense tree cover. I had to use jumper cables from the truck alternator to charge the trailer batteries 2 or 3 times.
It sounds like using a separate pwm controller is the way to go.
The portable panels are in a nice folding kit that includes a cheap pwm controller that I will remove from the kit and mount close to the batteries (after first validating the charging profile is compatible with my agm batteries). If the pwm charger does not have the right charging profile I'll find a cheap 10Amp PWM controller online that does.
My new 5th wheel has a generator so I can easily do rapid battery charging at any time by just pushing the gen start button. But it would be nice to not have to run the gen at all since it never gets hot enough up there to need air conditioning.
Thanks,
Ed
A couple years ago when I was camping in the Adirondacks with my old trailer that had a single 140 Watt panel on the roof, I got essentially zero Amp Hours (according to my Turnigy meter) into the batteries over the course of 10 sunny days. That campsite had serious shading from dense tree cover. I had to use jumper cables from the truck alternator to charge the trailer batteries 2 or 3 times.
It sounds like using a separate pwm controller is the way to go.
The portable panels are in a nice folding kit that includes a cheap pwm controller that I will remove from the kit and mount close to the batteries (after first validating the charging profile is compatible with my agm batteries). If the pwm charger does not have the right charging profile I'll find a cheap 10Amp PWM controller online that does.
My new 5th wheel has a generator so I can easily do rapid battery charging at any time by just pushing the gen start button. But it would be nice to not have to run the gen at all since it never gets hot enough up there to need air conditioning.
Thanks,
Ed
