Still Don't Get It (Solar)

Grodyman wrote:
Thanks all, I'm considering portable. I use most power during winter when running furnace all night. I roughly figure I use about 40-45ah a 24 hr cycle based on my multi-meter readings in my 208ah bank. I read 12.4 first morning (running furnace overnight and watching 2 hr movie that evening off inverter), and after charging with WFCO onboard for two hours on the Honda 2000, ran heater all night and watched a movie again, and read about 12.3 the second morning. My Rockwood Minilite likes the heat it seems. In summer, without the furnace, I figure about half that consumption rate.

I'm thinking a 12 solar panel, maybe 80 watts, or two 60's, and using one of the Morningstar junctioin box mounted controllers.....

Gman

There's your problem! Buy an Olympic Wave 6 catalytic propane heater, some hose, crack a top vent and a window, and turn that blower fan off. Saves electricity, saves gas from your generator too. Your heater fan sucks 5 amps while running at least. I know mine does, and it's annoyingly noisy to boot, at night. The Wave 6 takes no electricity, it does take a little bit of venting, and is far more efficient 96%, with use of propane. Your heater blows 40% of it's heat energy outside out the vent, as exhaust.

TT is a Palomino Gazelle G210.

Before I got the Wave 6 my usage was identical to yours. I bought a 120W portable solar panel. It's for sale, very lightly used. PM if interested. I'm in so cal.



This was first week of Jan 2014, right after the Las Vegas CES convention. I harvested 30- 35 amps that day. By Feb, you will see 40 +, by June 60 amps / day, with aiming 3 or 4x a day following the sun.

I was in Montana and harvested 55 amps on the 3rd day, June 16th, camped on the Madison River, after 2 days of camping without charging and about 75 -80 amps down on my battery. By noon, on the 4th day, I was fully charged again, with this 120W portable solar panel unit. Plug and play.

Edit

jrnymn7 wrote:
Gman,

First off, the numbers don't line up. 12.4Vbatt is about 66% soc. 45Ah usage would only be 22% of C. 100-22=78%. So, either the batts were not even near fully charged to begin with, or the Vbatt reading was with a load on them, and thus lower as a result of peukert effect.

If you can provide the size of wfco you have, we can estimate how many Ah's are being replaced in two hours, from 12.4v/66%soc. Clearly, it's not enough.

You're looking to go portable? In that case I recommend you save considerably on pwm over mppt, and put the money where it counts... proper wiring. Do NOT buy a kit that offers 10ga, or less. And yes, 24v panels are usually much cheaper, but there are deals to be had with 12v. I just paid $1.05 can./watt for 140w 12v panels. And I bought a 30a pwm for $35can. Subtract 15% off those prices for $$u.s.

Moreover, mppt only makes a significant difference on large solar systems. I've crunched the numbers, and an average daily increase of say 15%, using mppt only translates to about 20Ah on a really good day, and much less on a short or cloudy day. And going portable blows those numbers out of the water.

The nice thing about going with two panels vs. one is you can always use only one, if two are getting the bank charged up too quickly. Your needs will likely change with the weather, so it's nice to have options.

I figure I used roughly 90ah over two days/nights all included, with a two hour charge in between, and my batteries ended at 12.33ish (only draw being fridge on propane and co monitor etc. when measuring). Seems fairly accurate.....I roughly figure the 2 hour charge (WFCO 8955) replaced about 38ah.....ending with 75% capacity.

A Trimetric is in the future.

Gman

I wish it was spring. I wanna get going on putting to use all the info you guys have supplied me with!

The solar install will definitely be an interesting project, as I figure out a somewhat universal mounting system for the various situations I find myself in. That smoke you smell will either be a bad connection, or my brain going into overload!

You should have a lot of fun with that solar set-up and your various charger arrangements. Hope to see some "lessons learned" stuff after a while.

Unless things change all of a sudden we are looking at having the same set-up next summer as this past summer! Never happened before. (Started solar in summer 2011) Becoming stuck-in-the-muds. :(

nya-nya, nya-nya, nya, nya! :)

And they were only an hour away, to boot!

lol

What a great deal on those 140w panels "up here." Envy.

Usual prices here are:

http://www.wegosolar.com/categories.php?category=Solar-Panels

Gman,

First off, the numbers don't line up. 12.4Vbatt is about 66% soc. 45Ah usage would only be 22% of C. 100-22=78%. So, either the batts were not even near fully charged to begin with, or the Vbatt reading was with a load on them, and thus lower as a result of peukert effect.

If you can provide the size of wfco you have, we can estimate how many Ah's are being replaced in two hours, from 12.4v/66%soc. Clearly, it's not enough.

You're looking to go portable? In that case I recommend you save considerably on pwm over mppt, and put the money where it counts... proper wiring. Do NOT buy a kit that offers 10ga, or less. And yes, 24v panels are usually much cheaper, but there are deals to be had with 12v. I just paid $1.05 can./watt for 140w 12v panels. And I bought a 30a pwm for $35can. Subtract 15% off those prices for $$u.s.

Moreover, mppt only makes a significant difference on large solar systems. I've crunched the numbers, and an average daily increase of say 15%, using mppt only translates to about 20Ah on a really good day, and much less on a short or cloudy day. And going portable blows those numbers out of the water.

The nice thing about going with two panels vs. one is you can always use only one, if two are getting the bank charged up too quickly. Your needs will likely change with the weather, so it's nice to have options.

Grodyman wrote:
Thanks all, I'm considering portable. I use most power during winter when running furnace all night. I roughly figure I use about 40-45ah a 24 hr cycle based on my multi-meter readings in my 208ah bank. I read 12.4 first morning (running furnace overnight and watching 2 hr movie that evening off inverter), and after charging with WFCO onboard for two hours on the Honda 2000, ran heater all night and watched a movie again, and read about 12.3 the second morning. My Rockwood Minilite likes the heat it seems. In summer, without the furnace, I figure about half that consumption rate.

I'm thinking a 12 solar panel, maybe 80 watts, or two 60's, and using one of the Morningstar junctioin box mounted controllers.....

Gman

It must be warmer there when you have the furnace running. We use about 70-100AH of furnace/day in the colder months and 60-70Ah of other things no furnace in the summer.

Whatever, your portable solar set will do better with the controller near the batteries and not by the junction box at the panel(s) like you get with some of those "kits"

If you are a handyman type, you should just get the panel(s) and controller and wires separately taking advantage of sales and any no-shipping there might be and build your own portable with things where they should be.

I have two 75 watt panels that easily keep up with my two 6 volt batteries' needs.