Solar Panels for battery charging
Hi - we have a 1998 Fleetwood Angler 8'. I am wondering if anyone here has installed a solar power kit for charging the battery. I have not put in an auxillary battery and don't like to hook in to m...
Forum Discussion
I think you are finding out what alot of us have gone through already. You just can't do much with a single 12VDC battery. You can put in two 6VDC golf cart batteries in series and get 12VDC at around 220AHs. I have been using a 255AH battery setup here and can do alot of good camping off the power grid.
My setup works great running all of the 120VAC items we want to run off an inverter and the 12VDC items connected directly to the battery bank. with this I can run a whole bunch of things between 6PM and 11PM and still have enough juice left to make the parasitic drain until 8AM the next morning when my 255AH battery bank drop down to around 12.0VDC or appx 50% charge state...
This is when I connect my 30AMP system to my 2KW portable generator and recharge my 255AH battery bank back up to it 50% charge state in a quick three hour generator run time. Now we can do all of this all over again for the next day/night run off the batteries.
We actually run just about everything we would want to run at campground with electric hookup except the air conditioner.
We got away from flashlights and candles along time ago.
Now that we have it all planned out doing it this way it is now the time for us to add some solar panel system to keep us from running the generator so long each day. For us the solar panels will be be used after we use our 2K Generator to get past the high current demand that has tapered down from over 50AMP DC current down to around 8AMP DC current after an hour or so. The solar panels will continue my battery bank charge while in high Sun and get my battery bank back to it 50% charge state before dark.
I am using three 12VDC 85AH Interstate batteries that were installed in 2008 when I got my off-road POPUP trailer. They are just now starting to drop off in performance.
It takes some planning to make it work. You just can't show up with one 12VDC battery and expect it to make though the night. You also cannot expect the solar panels to be your source of power with just one panel. I would make my system work best by upgrading the converter/charger setup and more batteries. Then add solar panels to work in conjunction with a small generator to always start your day/night run off the batteries with at least a 90% battery bank charge state.
This is what works for us at any rate - After doing this since 2009 it is all second nature camping off the power grid now. We know what to expect now and don't even think twice about it anymore...
Replacing my battery after every couple of trips would not be an option for me... Once you drop them below 12.0VDC and not recharging back up to the 90% charge state right away your batteries will be history in a short time.
Just my thoughts here -
Roy Ken
My setup works great running all of the 120VAC items we want to run off an inverter and the 12VDC items connected directly to the battery bank. with this I can run a whole bunch of things between 6PM and 11PM and still have enough juice left to make the parasitic drain until 8AM the next morning when my 255AH battery bank drop down to around 12.0VDC or appx 50% charge state...
This is when I connect my 30AMP system to my 2KW portable generator and recharge my 255AH battery bank back up to it 50% charge state in a quick three hour generator run time. Now we can do all of this all over again for the next day/night run off the batteries.
We actually run just about everything we would want to run at campground with electric hookup except the air conditioner.
We got away from flashlights and candles along time ago.
Now that we have it all planned out doing it this way it is now the time for us to add some solar panel system to keep us from running the generator so long each day. For us the solar panels will be be used after we use our 2K Generator to get past the high current demand that has tapered down from over 50AMP DC current down to around 8AMP DC current after an hour or so. The solar panels will continue my battery bank charge while in high Sun and get my battery bank back to it 50% charge state before dark.
I am using three 12VDC 85AH Interstate batteries that were installed in 2008 when I got my off-road POPUP trailer. They are just now starting to drop off in performance.
It takes some planning to make it work. You just can't show up with one 12VDC battery and expect it to make though the night. You also cannot expect the solar panels to be your source of power with just one panel. I would make my system work best by upgrading the converter/charger setup and more batteries. Then add solar panels to work in conjunction with a small generator to always start your day/night run off the batteries with at least a 90% battery bank charge state.
This is what works for us at any rate - After doing this since 2009 it is all second nature camping off the power grid now. We know what to expect now and don't even think twice about it anymore...
Replacing my battery after every couple of trips would not be an option for me... Once you drop them below 12.0VDC and not recharging back up to the 90% charge state right away your batteries will be history in a short time.
Just my thoughts here -
Roy Ken
