solar

^ Thanks guys. not a hurry this is likely my winter project, I just know that everything I read is conflicting. a pair of golf cart batteries and 100 watts of solar is well within the realm of possible. No intent to keep my current battery, just need a benchmark and that's whats on there now.

Trying to stay with a single group 24 battery is tough.
Even with a single 100 watt panel being sufficient, a single day of rain eliminating the benefits renders your actions near useless.
To go frugal, and have meaningful benefits,,,
If you can, switch to a pair of GC-2 batteries and your single 100 watt panel. When you select the controller get at least a 30 amp unit, so you can add to the system as finances allow.

Your single group 24 only yields about 76 Amp hours of power.
Most sources say you should not routinely draw it past one quarter of that amount, one third at most,
so you have 25 amp hrs available normally before you start damaging your battery.
A pair of GC-2 batteries wired in series will give you a total of about 210 Amp hrs, of which 50% is usable with no damage to the batteries.
4 times the readily available power.
$180 for batteries in conjunction with a single 100 watt panel will give 4 times as much available power as you currently have, as well as the ability to regain much of that power by solar in a single day. You can hit a rainy day or two without running out of power at your old use rate.

Hi Jebby14,

Start with the energy audit.

I'd recommend upgrading the battery capacity. A single group 24 may not be enough.

The bare minimum for solar is 60 watts per 100 amp-hours of capacity. The realistic maximum for battery charging is 150 watts per 100 amp-hours of capacity.

This web link may help:

https://freecampsites.net/adding-solar/

Jebby14 wrote:
how much solar is too much/not enough/just right.

seems like every calc I look at is different. looking for some real world advise.

trying to keep a regular group 24 deep cycle preforming under light load. Fridge controller, water pump for the toilet, co detector and maybe a light for a min or two. plus any parasitic draw.

would be nice to get enough extra that a rainy day doesn't leave me dead in the water.

thinking 100W should be ok, 200w being ideal. <100 likely not worth the time and money IMO