Going solar
Am considering installing two extra batterys an a 100 watt solar panel a top our Lance 881 . What type of controller an monitor would be needed? Any suggestations on the size an make of the inverter n...
Forum Discussion
There is definitely a lot of good advise from previous posters, I would review all and then do your own homework on the way you want to use your system. For whatever it's worth I have a 300W solar system with a 1750 W inverter two 12V AGM (Optima) these two give me about 135 AH. When we need the microwave I will run the generator when I need A/C I make sure I have shore power.
I run a K cup coffee maker, DW runs an hair dryer or curling iron, we charge our phones and laptops and onece in a while the TV on the inverter. These items only get used when we know that we will have sufficient sunshine to recharge the batteries. On any given day we usually use between 20 and 30% of battery power by the end of the morning. Batteries are 100% by sunset.
If it is cloudy or we are not camped on a sunny site we reduce or eliminate the use of the 120V appliances.
I installed a system from AM Solar they were very easy to deal with. Their installation kits are great, everything is included in the kit. The system is very well designed to ensure that there is very little voltage drop from the panels to the batteries. The voltage drop issue is the most important issue that you will have to deal with.
I run a K cup coffee maker, DW runs an hair dryer or curling iron, we charge our phones and laptops and onece in a while the TV on the inverter. These items only get used when we know that we will have sufficient sunshine to recharge the batteries. On any given day we usually use between 20 and 30% of battery power by the end of the morning. Batteries are 100% by sunset.
If it is cloudy or we are not camped on a sunny site we reduce or eliminate the use of the 120V appliances.
I installed a system from AM Solar they were very easy to deal with. Their installation kits are great, everything is included in the kit. The system is very well designed to ensure that there is very little voltage drop from the panels to the batteries. The voltage drop issue is the most important issue that you will have to deal with.
