solar panel on a conversion van
I just purchased 100W solar panel. Now to do mount. My problem is that the terminals come out of the panel but have little bendability for bringing into van thru the roof to wire up to the converter. ...
Forum Discussion
I don't know what voltage the panels are. This is just my two centavos, but since a van has such a small surface area, you want every watt that you can get from the panels, so even though a cheapie PWM controller costs $8, I'd highly recommend paying for a MPPT controller. Yes, they are more expensive because a MPPT controller requires an inductor coil. However, with the pictured panels, there are two scenarios:
Scenario 1: The panels are 12 volts in parallel. The PWM controller will just pass 12.0 volts through, which will do nothing to charge the batteries unless the batteries are almost dead. Even then, this would be at best peak times.
Scenario 2: The panels are in series, giving ~24 volts. The PWM controller will "lop off" virtually half of the incoming energy. Since every square inch of space on a van is precious, this is energy loss where it hurts.
Then there are shoulder hours of sunlight, which a MPPT controller is better at handling.
Not to say that PWM controllers are worthless. If one has a bunch of panels on top of a carport, it may not matter that a fraction of the energy coming from it gets lost by the charge controller. However, on a van, it is definitely worth the cost for the better controller, just because it not just adds some more useful energy, but allows a wider time of day the solar panels are usable.
Scenario 1: The panels are 12 volts in parallel. The PWM controller will just pass 12.0 volts through, which will do nothing to charge the batteries unless the batteries are almost dead. Even then, this would be at best peak times.
Scenario 2: The panels are in series, giving ~24 volts. The PWM controller will "lop off" virtually half of the incoming energy. Since every square inch of space on a van is precious, this is energy loss where it hurts.
Then there are shoulder hours of sunlight, which a MPPT controller is better at handling.
Not to say that PWM controllers are worthless. If one has a bunch of panels on top of a carport, it may not matter that a fraction of the energy coming from it gets lost by the charge controller. However, on a van, it is definitely worth the cost for the better controller, just because it not just adds some more useful energy, but allows a wider time of day the solar panels are usable.
