Solar Panels

[NaViDa]

Hi,

I'm interested in installing Solar Panels on my 1998 Holiday Rambler Endeavor soon. I'm wondering if this Solar Kit a great price and way to start my sustainable journey and also what will it be able to sustain in my RV??

15 Watt, 12 Volt Solar Panel

TIA:)!

[Smitty77]

Additional info sharing SP projects, a few are repeats from input by others in this thread:)!

> Take the time to read up on SP in general. AM Solar is another site that has some good layman's terms and reading on real world solar. Jack Mayer also has a Solar section on his thread. And others that have been provided in this thread. (It's OK not to become an expert, I prove that daily, but get informed enough to know some of the lingo.)

> Take and energy audit of your needs. Know what you consume, and then add a 15-20% margin on top of this. (I went overkill, and added 25% margin.)

> Ask yourself if you will be climbing up to tilt panels to get ultimate output? And ask yourself for how long? (A person at 55 may say yes, a person at 65+ may say no...)

> Buy more then you need. The labor is about the same, and the overall cost difference to add a few more hundred watts of panels, is minimal over the full scheme of a new Solar Panel system.

> If budget forces multiple phases on adding Solar, be sure to select components that will support additional Solar Panels in the future. (Wire gauge, controller, etc.)
> Add a good meter, so you know what is going in/out and current situation on your battery bank.

> Quality components, and attention to detail on install - can equate to problem free usage.

Our System, or 'ReDo' of our electronics:)!
> X's 4 L16 AGM Lifelines, for 800AH bank. (Replaced two 8D AGM's)
> Magnum 2800 PSW, with all of the related components, including BMK-Meter
> 1200W of 48V Panasonic Panels. 5X's 240W, high efficiency on angle and temp. (Read the spec details on panels, as you get what you pay for. 100W on a higher quality/spec panel - could be as much as 10-15% more output over the day in less then ideal conditions and locations in relation to Old Sol.)
> Flat mounted, as I decided to not climb up on the roof:)!
> Two roof combiner boxes, to allow for future expansion if I want.
> Each panel runs thru an individual breaker, to allow isolation when trouble shooting.
> Midnight Solar Classic 150 controller (Pretty slick unit with some nice features.

When boondocking, we consume 130-150AH per day. I planned for 200AH, as I knew we were adding more HiFi (Got Tubes:)!) equipment, and at the same time doing conservation inside via LED. I feel the 200AH potential daily usage, gives us pretty good safety margin on what reality will be.

One other thing that we did, as I had the components I bought installed by Temecula Valley RV (Great attention to detail, and I was pleased with the on going communication during the process.), was mount four of these panels raised up off the roof on a traditional home mounting rack. We covered the large shower sunroof, and have these 4 out of 5 panels mounted with no shadow from roof gear. The light still comes in to the shower/bathroom, but shaded so next to zero heat gain from the sunroof. Side benefit is the sunroof is not a drum during heavy rain and hail. And finally the solar panels run a put cooler, as they have good air flow under neath. We're still two inches lower then the AC covers, and TVRV added front and back angle plates as limb guards.

It's been about 7 months since this makeover, and so far all is going well. Learning the system in different times of the year. For example, with 6" of snow on top, even 1200W of SP will not give you any power:)!

Best of luck to all of you on your SP projects. And have fun!
Smitty

[time2roll]

Yes.

Is shows numerical volts and amps (DC) and a bar indicates wattage (AC).
Volts is one decimal, amps is whole numbers.

1 or 2 amps at idle, 160 to ~175 amps running microwave with voltage dropping steadily.

Short boot-up sequence. Can't remember if it gives a fault indication but that has been very rare.

IIRC the display is backlit to be readable in the dark.
Don't pay that much attention, just use it as needed.

[Unyalli]

smkettner wrote:
I charge 4 golf batteries. Run the microwave, hair drier etc. as needed with the Prosine 1800 inverter. Small 300w inverter to run tv, laptop and charge small items.

Never out of battery power but if I need air conditioning I am looking for hookups.

Do you have this with your Prosine? What's the read out look like when functioning?


Jeff

[Unyalli]

One thing to be aware of is shipping costs. The limit for low cost shipping via UPS seems to be 140 watt panels.

Here are some RV/Marine kits from a respected reseller. They also have a very good forum with some real savvy folks. Not that we don't have a few of those around here. 🙂

Jeff

[MrWizard]

the confusion came when i said ac = 120vac
and you said you meant air conditioning

you meant NO A/C, yes for Tv etc..

A/C is air conditioning,
ac or AC is 120vac power

sorry over the confusion

[pianotuna]

Hi snowyegret52,

You won't be able to run portable electric heaters unless there is a massive battery bank, a large inverter (2800 watts), and a way to recharge the bank.

I have 256 watts of panels. When I was a weekend warrior, because I have a medium size battery bank, that was enough to do a great job for me. Now that I'm full time, it doesn't come close to meeting my needs.

500 watts would not be enough, for me, either. I plan on adding 800 additional watts with an additional MPPT controller.

675 watts would be enough if you don't use heaters or the air conditioner.

Here is a simple flow chart.

Budget-->Energy Audit-->Battery bank size-->number of watts-->PWM or MPPT.

One rule of thumb is between 60 and 150 watts of panels per 100 amp-hours of storage. The smaller the battery bank the higher the wattage needed (per 100 amp-hours). Here is a link to the rather special spreadsheet which includes an energy audit, that N8GS has created to help size solar battery charging systems!

Solar Spread Sheet N8GS

For a nice explanation of solar, try this link:

Golden rules of solar

snowyegret52 wrote:
Will be using 2 portable oil/ceramic heaters in winter which use some electricity.

I’m thinking if I want to live in full time, I should get 1 more 12V or 2 –4 more 6V and piggy back them. If I can get 2 banks like that and two 250W solar panels, would that be enough? If I go that route, what kind of charge controller should I get? (I also have the built in Onan generator which works still plus a 5500W portable generator as well). Thanks

[snowyegret52]

Lots and lots of questions asked and answered here in this forum and I still have questions. I’m looking at buying two banks batteries (use one while the other is charging) I won’t be using the air conditioner obviously but I can use fans and/or a swamp cooler instead, took the microwave out (never use one) so that’s not an issue, the other things in the M/H are the normal computer, cell phone, tablet, flat screen, antenna, radio, whatever the frig uses, water distiller, and lights (which I plan to change over to LED as soon as I figure out how) and hot curlers (don’t use hair dryers). Don’t use a coffee maker either (use a press). Will be using 2 portable oil/ceramic heaters in winter which use some electricity.

My RV is an old girl. 1986 Fleetwood Bounder (would post a picture but it won’t let me even though I’ve resized down 3 times). She’s got one deep cycle 12V battery already and I’m sure there’s an inverter in there somewhere but I think I will replace it anyway just because I don’t know how old it is etc. etc. Keep it for a backup. I’m not mounting anything on my RV. I will use a portable setup I can move around as I need to. I’m thinking if I want to live in full time, I should get 1 more 12V or 2 –4 more 6V and piggy back them. If I can get 2 banks like that and two 250W solar panels, would that be enough? If I go that route, what kind of charge controller should I get? (I also have the built in Onan generator which works still plus a 5500W portable generator as well). Thanks

[time2roll]

1BryNelson wrote:
$380 each is best found per panel for the Carmanah 160 watt panels so far from RV Solar and Electric.

So about $1730 just basic materials for 580w.

Using 24v panels and MPPT you could be under $1,000 for 640w.

Not sure the price of GoPower is competitive unless you have special considerations. Once you get over 500w, the 24v & MPPT starts looking better. Also the controller has more programing options.
JMHO

[pianotuna]

Hi gatorcg,

What charge controller did you decide on?

gatorcq wrote:
My total system cost was $2000. 960 watts @45Vdc & MPPT controller.

[gatorcq]

My total system cost was $2000. 960 watts @45Vdc & MPPT controller. This does not include the Magnum 2800 PSW inverter/charger.
960 / 35 = 27 amps dc down to controller.
960 / 13.5 = 74 amps dc to coach and battery bank (Qty 6) 6 volt batteries.

I assume 70% efficiency, this equates to 50 Amps. I have seen as high as 55 amps which is based on my needs at the time.
I did this over a 2.5 year period. Search on Craiglist, Ebay etc.

Solar Calculator

[pianotuna]

Hi mena,

For how long?

I did not say it would not run a microwave. My microwave is a *hog* 1591 watts (what the heck were the rv makers thinking?). That represents a load of 160 amps, or for four six volt batteries 80 amps per cell. They are happier at 25 amps per cell.

Your L-16 batteries will do it with ease, because they have a much larger surface area on the (wonderful) plates--but golf cart batteries are not nearly in that class.

What I was trying to say was that at 2000 watts demand the six volts may exhibit voltage drop (after all that works out to 100 amps per cell, or four times what they are happy with). When they are bursting full--not a problem--but how long can they sustain that demand?

The Peukert corrected amps on a 464 amp-hour battery bank for 200 amps demand is 381 amps. Now each cell is going to behave as if it has a load of 190 amps!!!! If I compare that to 12 volt jars, the (Peukert) load is still pretty high at 95 amps per cell.

Probably warming up a cup of coffee will not be a problem--but doing a tv dinner for 20 minutes is not going to make the battery bank happy (even if it were 12 volt jars). There are simply not enough amp-hours.

[mena661]

pianotuna wrote:

You won't be running a 2k inverter very long on 4 six volt batteries. They suffer far more from voltage drop than 12 volt jars.

Oh PT, you sure can run a MW from 4 6V batteries.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I suggest you look around for a different installer and a different brand of panel.

Here are 120 watt panels for $114 each: 120 watts

This firm also sells many other panels, so search a bit on their web site.

You won't be running a 2k inverter very long on 4 six volt batteries. They suffer far more from voltage drop than 12 volt jars.

The trace c-40 was once state of the art. Now you would be much better off with a more modern product such as the Tristar 45 amp.

1BryNelson wrote:
So as I've said in past been looking, researching this RV solar. This is what I'm going to do. 1st, 12v system, 24 volt waste money on rv, they are meant for residential sending power back to electrical grid. 4 6volt batteries and 4 160 watt panels. Magnus MS2012 2,000 pure sine inverter, Magnus remote MARC50 remote, magnus battery maintain kit, Trace C40 Controller, 4 Carmanah 160 watt solar panels. Tilt-able solar panel brackets (45°). On something like this I'm not DIY. So total with installation is $4163.

[1BryNelson]

$380 each is best found per panel for the Carmanah 160 watt panels so far from RV Solar and Electric.