Solar install question

[tuna_fisher]

Finally installing solar on my TC. Read somewhere that you can hook up power to your electrical panel instead of your battery. Would be great for me and was wondering if you would loose anything doing that. I gather there talking of hooking into the main lug. My panels will be laying flat so I don't want to loose anymore charging.

[time2roll]

This is 10 amps max into a single battery. Connect at the fuse panel is fine. In fact if you have an open fuse position you can insert the wire right there.

Yes it is slightly better to have the controller close to the battery. However in this set up I doubt you will notice. You do not need anything more than #10 wire for 8 to 10 amps.

If you are installing the controller away from the battery to see the display just get a controller with no display or a remote. Basic $6 panel voltmeter (ebay) will tell where you are at.

Be aware some controllers need to be connected to the battery at all times when the solar is producing power. So if you disconnect the battery for service or storage you need to disconnect the source power from the controller first. Install instructions should cover this if it applies.

[Lwiddis]

"Yes I'm a nubie to solar,"

I suggest you do more reading before installing solar.

[hedge]

Below is the link to my install, it may give you some ideas. I came down the fridge vent with the wires and then under the step over to the drivers side, my batteries are on the driver side wall behind the cabinets

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/29071756/gotomsg/29072354.cfm#29072354

[tuna_fisher]

hedge wrote:
Just use larger wire, maybe 6 or even 4 awg... this will reduce the loss and allow you to mount it farther away. We have to make compromises in our truck campers trying to find places for things to fit.

I found a hollow space behind my drawers that works quite well but it's a very difficult place to work.

That's pretty well where I'm at. I'm looking from the colest and going behind the stove to under the sink. Behind the stove is narrow and dark but I'll get it. It's getting up that's tough.;)

[hedge]

Just use larger wire, maybe 6 or even 4 awg... this will reduce the loss and allow you to mount it farther away. We have to make compromises in our truck campers trying to find places for things to fit.

I found a hollow space behind my drawers that works quite well but it's a very difficult place to work.

[tuna_fisher]

I'm just running 1 group 27 battery, I don't have TV, Radio and don't plan on it, just lights, water pump and a 12v DVD player. I'm installing 200W panels so if things change I'm ok and can even add down the road. I want to do a clean job so right now I'm looking on where to run wires. My other question is, due to limited space how close to the battery does the controller have to be, I know closer the better but I have very limited space to be able to mount the controller where it can be read. Where I'm looking to mount it is about 10ft of wire.Yes I'm a nubie to solar, all I do is boondock,no hk ups for this jose. This is a 8'6" Lance truck camper.

[SoundGuy]

RoyB wrote:
Back in the old days we got along just fine with a bag full of D-CELL batteries and a can of white gas for the camp stove and outside lights.

At my age I guess I still prefer "the old days" - no longer have a genset which proved to mostly just sit in my workshop, no solar, just one G27. Mostly we camp on electric sites but on occasion find we have no option but to survive without shore power - and through some miracle of fate we always seem to! :W

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Connect directly to the batteries with a fuse close to the battery bank. A switch in the line may be useful too.

[RoyB]

My way of thinking is the solar panels for we small system RV'ers are just battery chargers... Who of us can afford the very large solar panels and where are we going to install them when camping off grid.

Connecting the Power Inverters directly to the Solar panels has all kinds of problems. You will need a very large solar panel setup producing very large DC current to run the high wattage Power Inverters. The Power Inverters will only work when the panels are in high sun.

Unless you have these hugh solar panel setups the best way in my way of thinking is to have a battery bank large enough to develop the required DC Current for your planned High wattage Power Inverter and then just use the solar panels to keep the batteries charged up in the battery bank. Then when the sun goes down you still have the power stored up in the batteries to continue on...

This is the way I am going to build my solar panel setup...

Because of my roof space being small I will only be able to produce around 20AMPS DC current for 5-6 hours a day if in high sun times using two 100WATT panels on the front of my trailer roof and one larger perhaps a 250WATT solar panel across the back of my trailer roof. I will still be required to have my 2KW generator around as primary battery charger and only revert to solar panels when I have high sun... This is the only way in my case to be able to 'depend on' using my battery bank to run my Power Inverter when camping off-grid.

I probably have a bigger Power demand with my Radio OPS than most of the causal campers that can get by with just minimal DC lights and maybe running a HDTV setup.

It all depends on your style of camping off grid on how big a system you will need to have...

Back in the old days we got along just fine with a bag full of D-CELL batteries and a can of white gas for the camp stove and outside lights.

That's not the case anymore unfortunately haha...

My charging plan will be use my 2KW generator to connect to my camper trailer to run my on-board converter/charger for the first hour to get past the very high DC current demands by the charging batteries then when they start tapering back shut down the generator and allow the solar panels producing 20AMPS DC current to bring the batteries back to their 90% charge state before I loose high sun. This is the only safe way for me to do this. Some days of course will not have high sun available so I have to have my generator available to run for three hours to get my batteries back to their 90% charge state.

Using my generator for three hours a day has been my method since 2009 and just now wanting to add solar panels to cut back on the use of my generator... My goal is to just produce 20AMPS DC current from my solar panels for 5-6 hours a day... Note a typical 120WATT Solar panel will produce 5-6AMPS DC current when in high sun... The solar panel controller will produce the required DC Voltages just like your on-board converter/charger does... Your battery bank won't know the difference if it is being charged by the on-board converter or by the solar panel controller.

I know others have different ideas about this but this will work fine for me...

Roy Ken

[turbojimmy]

mbopp wrote:
You could hook up the output from the solar charge controller to the DC side of the converter or DC power distribution buss. But all the factory wiring I've seen is pretty light, you'll get a lot of voltage drop to the batteries. Best bet is to go directly to the batteries with heavy gauge cable. And if you want to run an inverter you'll need to go directly to the batteries.

What he said. I thought you wanted 120V.

[mbopp]

You could hook up the output from the solar charge controller to the DC side of the converter or DC power distribution buss. But all the factory wiring I've seen is pretty light, you'll get a lot of voltage drop to the batteries. Best bet is to go directly to the batteries with heavy gauge cable. And if you want to run an inverter you'll need to go directly to the batteries.

[tuna_fisher]

I think I didn't word this correct, what I'm saying is do everything but instead of going from the controller to the battery go to the main lug on the control panel, would that charge the batteries?

[turbojimmy]

There are tons of threads on this subject and even more info on the Internet. But in summary you need 4 things:
- panels to collect energy from the sun
- battery(ies) to store said energy and provide power to the
- inverter that you will need to convert 12V DC from the battery to 120V AC
- charge controller to regulate the energy that the panels provide and recharge your battery(ies)

You would plug your TC into the inverter. There are lots of resources on the Internet to help you size how much storage you need (batteries) and how many panels you need to recharge based on your anticipated usage.

[2oldman]

You can't hook 12v solar panels to your electrical panel. Even playing loose slot machines you're going to lose.