valhalla360 wrote:
StirCrazy wrote:
I think 10 to 25% is way low especialy for a stationary place they won't be towing home each time. I would still do double the recomendation for batteries this keeps the cycle depth even lower so better for the batteries and you have even more reserve if you there and you get a week of bad weathet.
I have 10 times my max daily use in battery for my camper, and emough solar to fill my max daily use by noon on a good day. I do a lot of bad weather and shaded camping with that one and two years ago with the normal deep cycles I found with 50% duty on the furnace I was realy getting worried on the 3rd night about the batteries staying over 50%. I was going below freezing each night and only just above in the day and I was camped in the trees while it rained for 3 days :R
No harm to go massive overkill...other than to the OP's wallet.
A fixed location would actually lead me to be less conservative as you don't have to build a system for a wide variety of conditions (Ie: you know up front if there are shading issues on the panels)
ya panels are cheep as heck , its the batteries that cost the money, but you guys south of the boarder are luckey, you could get 8 costco 6V for less than 800 bucks... up here it would be a lot more.
Im more worried in a fixed location of being able to ensure your batteries stay charged up while your not there. I am not sure how cold it gets where the OP is talking about or what kind of winter storms come through.. snow covering of the panels can stop the charging dead if they are low and it gets real cold you could dammage the batteries, where as if they are charged up fast you will be safe for a while. on a moble set up you can just plug it in at home when you get that snow storm (which I had to do last week.) so im not worried about the battery state running low and freezing the electralite when it gets cold. Unless the plan is to bring the batteries back and forth each trip..
the other thing I try to do is eliminate the use of generators in 6 years of having solar I have never even had the desire to have a generator and never had to worry about power. well except once.. but that was during the heat wave two summers ago when it was 48 degree celcius and I was camping... the truck ac was my friend haha...
