Minimum Solar Power needed for LED lights and Water Pump

[chefdc1]

What is the minimum amount of Solar I could get away with to keep my battery charged enough to run a Class C with all LED lights and a water pump. I do not have, or need an inverter. I would prefer to never use my loud, stinky generator. As is, I can last a few days without charging.

[Harvey51]

We haven’t plugged in the converter since we got a 100 watt panel several years ago. Perfect solution. I don’t understand why it is considered necessary to have more solar collector watts when getting another battery. Surely the extra battery decreases the need for more power because more energy can be saved for the rainy day.

You will need the second solar panel if you use a microwave oven or television.

[valhalla360]

100w will probably do it but you really haven't given us enough information.

What is the amp-hr rating of the current battery bank?
How long/How many/What wattage are the electrical devices you are running?
How many days in a row are you boondocking between time hooked up to shore power?

If the water pump runs 5 min/day and you have a couple 5w LED that run for an hour a day...100w solar is probably overkill.

If the place is lit up like Christmas with 30- 5w LED running from 5pm-Midnight...100w is going to be a bit light.

[time2roll]

About 100 watts would be the minimum for the effort but I recommend 200+ watts for charging while in use.

https://www.solarblvd.com/products/solar-cynergy-180-watt-12v

[Oldtymeflyr]

100 watts with a good controller and good batteries will do the job.
Since you are located in the east 100w may be marginal, so plan on another panel and a little larger controller.


Rick

[PSW]

One of the best decisions I made about rving was to add solar a few years ago. We love to boondock for several weeks at a time and have a couple of golf cart sixes in series. I added first a single 100 watt Renogy panel and a controller from Amazon and hooked them up. After a two week trip camped in the NF I added another 100 before a second multi-week trip. Two panels worked great except for very cloudy days or shade of a big pine. The next year, I bought another 100 and made a simple gadget for it so that it could sit on the ground and be moved and pointed towards the sun as appropriate. I bought fifty feet of 14 gauge landscape wire, fashioned a couple of connectors and now I can plug that into the system when I get camped and move it about during the day. Except on very cloudy days, my batteries stay above 12.3 volts.

One of the panels I used was a flexible panel and I found it to be just as efficient as the more conventional ones. I have less than $500 total in this whole shebang.

You can get very anal and go nuts about this stuff or just keep it simple and make something that works for you. It ain't rocket science. I bought everything on Amazon.

Paul

[evanrem]

Let me start by saying I’m a solar novice. I have two 6 volt batteries for a total of 235 amp hours. I’m able to run lights, watch TV and run the furnace intermittently and my batteries go down to about 70%. About 3 hrs of lights and TV. I have 200 watts of solar and on a sunny day no problem getting back to 100%. I find it pretty cool now tjat I have it all hooked up.

[kerrlakeRoo]

OP is in Coastal New England so shade and weather could complicate life for a 100 watt system.
But if you are doing this, install a controller and wiring capable of increasing your solar in the future without changing anything else.

If you have approximately 200 Amp/hrs of battery available and a single 100 watt you may well have all you need. Shading even 25% of your panel will drastically reduce its power output, so you may find that a second is needed if you dont get more than a couple hours of direct sun daily. Adding a panel is easy if you already have everything else set for it.

[Lwiddis]

Why seek the minimum? Don’t set yourself up to fail at fully recharging your batteries everyday. If you are determined to use this plan at least wire for 400 solar watts so fixing it won’t be too hard.

[SidecarFlip]

2oldman wrote:
100 watts

Exactly what I was going to say....

[2oldman]

100 watts

[Trackrig]

Part of that answer depends on what you have for batteries to store the power - what do you have?

And I think the approach of looking for the minimal solar needed is totaly wrong. The main hassle with solar is installing it. Pay an extra $100 to buy a second panel so you aren't out there redoing everything next year.

Bill