reconsidering recomendataions on solar
so after 1 year using my solar my outcome is a little less than expected. I have 2 100W panels mounted on front slope of roof, and 1 additional panel mounded flat on roof behind the DS panel that i...
Forum Discussion
If you are running your panels in series make sure that they are all completely un-shaded. Personally I have found parallel is better as any shading on one panel doesn't affect production of the others.
I will be running 10/2 cable from each panel to a combiner box and #2 from there to solar charge controller. Using a voltage drop calculator we will be well under 3% voltage loss which is fine. (system being assembled right now) Wire isn't that expensive in the short runs a TC requires or that heavy.
Our old camper had (5) 100 watt panels and that would keep us at a daily 100% SOC on days where we got decent sun exposure and didn't use too much power. On cloudy days not so much. Unfortunately with led acid batteries it is hard to get that last 20% or so as the multi-stage charging reduces (and rightly so) the charging rates.
For some of the reasons you have discovered (like us) I am biting the bullet on LiFePo4 battery bank on this build. They make much more efficient use of the solar charging platform by taking a bulk charge to almost 100% and can be discharged very safely to 80% discharge. (some argue deeper) They also require no need to be fully charged on a regular basis, so you can run along during cloudy days discharged well below 50% day after day with no "memory loss"
I will be running 10/2 cable from each panel to a combiner box and #2 from there to solar charge controller. Using a voltage drop calculator we will be well under 3% voltage loss which is fine. (system being assembled right now) Wire isn't that expensive in the short runs a TC requires or that heavy.
Our old camper had (5) 100 watt panels and that would keep us at a daily 100% SOC on days where we got decent sun exposure and didn't use too much power. On cloudy days not so much. Unfortunately with led acid batteries it is hard to get that last 20% or so as the multi-stage charging reduces (and rightly so) the charging rates.
For some of the reasons you have discovered (like us) I am biting the bullet on LiFePo4 battery bank on this build. They make much more efficient use of the solar charging platform by taking a bulk charge to almost 100% and can be discharged very safely to 80% discharge. (some argue deeper) They also require no need to be fully charged on a regular basis, so you can run along during cloudy days discharged well below 50% day after day with no "memory loss"
