Help me buy a solar panel

Dirtpig: Wow, beautiful location. Care to divulge where that photo was taken?

Congrats on the solar panel, btw.

Thanks for the update. Glad to hear you went for it and it's working.

Hi,

It depends on the type of panel and the design of the panel. I get up to 7 amps of charging in leafy shade at solar noon. In full sun I get 17 amps.

GoinThisAway wrote:
Quote: "Shade absolutely kills all charging"

Guess I'll stick with my generator for now. Parking in the shade is highly desirable in the SE during the warm season.

GoinThisAway wrote:
Quote: "Shade absolutely kills all charging"

Guess I'll stick with my generator for now. Parking in the shade is highly desirable in the SE during the warm season.

Ya i guess the alternative would be to park in the shade and carry your panel out into the sun somewhere instead of mounting it to your roof.

Quote: "Shade absolutely kills all charging"

Guess I'll stick with my generator for now. Parking in the shade is highly desirable in the SE during the warm season.

Thank you so much for coming back and sharing your update and success!

b

Just thought i would write a bit of a long term update on the 140watt Kyocera solar panel. Have had it installed since April and it performs excellent, exceeding all my expectations. In full sun in the summer time the panel was able to recharge the batteries by about 930am from the previous evening/nights usage. Also in summer from around 1130-2pm i could see up to 8 amps charging. Even in cloudy conditions we could see about 1.5-3.5amps depending on how dark the skies were. Dark clouds with rain yielded about ~0.7 amps - pretty much nothing. Last week was our first time out using the furnace every night and far more power with extended use of lights etc. We were camping in a spot that was in full sun but here in october the sun is very low in the sky. The panel was still able to produce 4amps of power and get the batteries charged back up by the late afternoon each day but i could see where tilting them would produce better results. It still would not be worth the hassle to me though. The batteries remained fully charged throughout the 4 day trip.

Shade absolutely kills all charging, the only reason i would buy a 2nd panel is to mount it on a different place on the roof in case one panel is shaded by a tree, the other one may not be.

I can happily say that we did not once have to run the generator for battery charging during this entire camping season so we are very happy with the decision to install a solar panel.

Included is a photo from our camping trip last week, notice how low the sun is in the sky and still able to produce 4-4.5 amps. :)

Thanks again for all of the replies. I have decided that I am going to go with one 140watt Kyocera panel. I will install that and see how it goes. If i find that i need more power then i will buy a 2nd one next year. After measuring my roof i have room for 3 of them. Im just going to mount it flat, i have no desire to be tilting the thing or anything like that. I'm really just after a few extra days camp time before having to run a generator.

I think i will also take the advice of converting some of the lights to LED lights.

Hi,

I'm guilty of "antenna abuse". I wanted a simple reliable no fuss system. That is pretty much what I have.

I'd love to have one panel that was vertical to take care of snow fall. That said, this is the first year that build up has been an issue.

That and antennas-Always check our roof when packing but see most any day an antena cutting thru the sky. Cant imagine leaving panle up but its on the list, Im sure it happens. On our camper raised its quite visible. If I raise panel I always take it down in the evening. My biggest concern is wind.

I cant imagine if close enough to have neighbors, anyone being impressed watching someone cimbing up on the roof fiddling with their panels-Probably convinced some they dont want a panle if thats whats invovled..:)
or off loading my scooter or someone unhitching Toad or any thing else we do. Hopefully most would give a yell instead of laughing if you forget to lower your panel(s)? or your Toads tow bar is hanging by safety chains? Taking it down when raining no different than clearing the table-stuffing the chairs under camper, rolling up the windows or any other varied last minuet thing I always seem to be doing out in the rain.

It is nice when I need some extra amps to charge my RC stuff without robbing the camper-or sucking up the last 2 hours of sun on those short cold days. But as noted it is a chore.
Agree for most tilt mounts would be a waste of money-simply cause it wouldnt get used-most wouldnt want to climb up there-and general use not needed. I dont really use ours anymore-but mine were also 'free'. Which as far as mounts, when we installed ours there really wasnt that much available in tilt mounts.

Kinda drifting from OPs question-hopefully havnt wandered to far off & still gleaning info. My opinion is you cant have too much solar. I'd say for most 100 watts would be a minumum & think the 2 100s on TC would be good-cant comment on the brand. The price certainly good.