Skylight in carport for solar panel?

skipro3,

I like you idea, just put plug and cable to one side in the camper, and a cable coming down from roof/ceiling from solar panel to Truck Camper.

A small, 5 watt, solar panel will keep your battery float up while in storage. Those are cheap and you can tie it in with your controller. It's gotta be lots cheaper than a skylight unless you are wanting a skylight anyways...

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll abandon the skylight idea. I'll add an outlet there (thanks, reddog, because I hadn't thought of it), but also try it like kerry does.
Mike

You need a battery charger that can condition/maintain the batteries. Just charging them will ruin the batteries.

The skylight will not be positioned correctly for winter and summer months unless you live along the equator. A trickle charger for the batteries is your best and cheapest option.

If I was building a house from scratch I would use the roof of the carport for a solar panel array or at a minimum a solar water heating system for the house.

If you are parking your TC anywhere near the front of carport where its opened you should get enough rays to keep your panels working. Ive been doing this for 3 years. My panels are back in under the opening about 8-10 feet and they still work well. I have solid side walls and back with just the front of the carport opened.

If you're just looking for a maintenance charge for the batteries, there's a chance just having windows close to where you plan to park the camper may be sufficient. Pull the fuses to remove as many loads as possible. I pull a tarp over my camper during the winter and was surprised to see a small trickle still going into the batteries. You'll certainly not get anywhere near the charge full sun would give, but if all you want to do is maintain battery health just a little light is enough for the panels to give a little charge.

I don't like the way it seems all skylights eventually leak. Another option may be a light tube (www.solatube.com). I'm considering replacing my leaking skylight in the bathroom at home with one of these. My hope is rain water will flow around the round solatube better than the pooling that takes place on the high side of the rectangular skylight.

I plug my TC into the garage when stored. It uses so little power, it is hard to see on my utility bill. Personally, having that experience, I would not even consider the skylight. It would be one less thing to maintain over the years.

Wayne

I would think the expense and hassle of putting a skylight in a carport roof would be much more than just buying another solar panel for less than $75 and mounting that to the roof of the carport and running a wire down to the camper. A hole in the carport roof would only let light hit your camper at certain times unless it's a huge hole, where a panel on the roof would get more hours per day of sunlight. Just use a connector that will unplug itself without damage if you drive away and forget to unplug it.

Hi,

I have a solar isolation meter, it measures the watts per square meter. I was using it to measure the light available at 3,800' elevation and near sea level in San Diego CA on a winter day. At 3,800', it was close to 1080 watts per square meter, while near sea level 1 hour later was only 1020 watts per square meter. Inside the van windshield it was less than 800 watts per square meter.

So car widnshields protect us from much of the UV light and also block much of the sun that might charge the solar system. I would guess most skylights will do the same thing, blocking much of the light.


Also consider where you would have to park the RV in order to line up the skylight directly over the solar panel. Sure This RV you can do it, and perhaps if you get another RV, you can park it, then install the solar panels under the skylight to line it up again. However in the summer, the light falls more directly straight down, while winter sun is at a lower angle, so the solar panel would need to be further north of the opening than in the summer.

And to collect solar light more than 1 hour per day, you would need the skylight much wider and longer than the actual solar panel. So for a 39" X 48" panel, you might need a 50" X 72" skylight (and hope that the RV is not parked more than 4" off center or front to back from where you planned it to be centered under the skylight).

So it seems like a expensive skylight to hope it works out, yet probably will not line up with the sunlight for very much time each day. Probably much easier to plug in all winter long.

Fred.