How much solar?
I am planning to put a 12/110v TruckFridge in my camper. I had a 12/110v Engel that takes about the same amount of juice as the Truckfridge. I got along fine with no solar and could go 2 days and ...
Forum Discussion
First know how many amp hours the fridge needs per day and the demand it will place on the camper's battery. That amount need to be replenished while the sun is shinning by the solar panel. Figure 5 hours of full sunlight for the system.
99% of the solar panels made are too large for camper roofs. The panel needs to be secured to the roof and not shaded by anything else on the roof or it can easily lose a third of its output. The 100 Watt from AMsolar and the 140 Watt Kyocera panels are both very narrow and will fit between vents and skylights, etc. on the roof. I fit two of the 100 Watt AMsolar panels on my camper and it is a short bed type. If I could have fit two of the Kyocera panels I would have done so but they were too long for my planned locations.
Cheapest way to go is with a high voltage panel and a cheap converter. A panel with 34 volts or more output can be used with smaller gauge wires. A MPPT controller provides maximum efficiency and current to the battery but a cheap controller will provide 80% the output and be cheaper to buy and install.
I have two 110 AH batteries and at most have discharged them 20% and the fuly recharge takes two hours on average even during the fall months with the 200 Watts and 11 amps from the panels fed through a MPPT controller. As it turned out a single 100 Watt panel would have been adequate most of the time.
99% of the solar panels made are too large for camper roofs. The panel needs to be secured to the roof and not shaded by anything else on the roof or it can easily lose a third of its output. The 100 Watt from AMsolar and the 140 Watt Kyocera panels are both very narrow and will fit between vents and skylights, etc. on the roof. I fit two of the 100 Watt AMsolar panels on my camper and it is a short bed type. If I could have fit two of the Kyocera panels I would have done so but they were too long for my planned locations.
Cheapest way to go is with a high voltage panel and a cheap converter. A panel with 34 volts or more output can be used with smaller gauge wires. A MPPT controller provides maximum efficiency and current to the battery but a cheap controller will provide 80% the output and be cheaper to buy and install.
I have two 110 AH batteries and at most have discharged them 20% and the fuly recharge takes two hours on average even during the fall months with the 200 Watts and 11 amps from the panels fed through a MPPT controller. As it turned out a single 100 Watt panel would have been adequate most of the time.
