Solar panel for TT battery?

[acritzer]

Can someone recommend a good solar panel to use for my TT battery? Just looking for something to keep it charged up on the off chance that we need some juice when away from an electric site.

Thanks

[MrWizard]

From technology corner

[azrving]

Look at the Bogart sc2030 charge controller maybe about a 130 to 150 w panel. That will give you a starting point which can later accept up to 3 more panels if you decide to expand. When you expand or if you want to custom tune the parameters and see how much power is going out and into your batteries add the Bogart rv2030 system monitor.

You will have good stuff if you keep the system small yet if you do expand you wont be rebuying components. Run at least 6 gauge outdoor type cable to the roof and into a plastic junction box. I was able to get 4 gauge into the controller terminals. Later it will be easy to add panels. sc2030= $120.00

I was going to recommend solar cynergy panel at solar blvd but I just checked and they now want $960 for a 130 w panel. I just bought 4 of them for $620 with free shipping a month ago. They had to make a mistake on the ebay listing.

Gold plated?

[time2roll]

For the effort I would get 100 watts minimum.

https://www.solarblvd.com/index.php?cPath=1_269

You will also need a controller.

https://www.solarblvd.com/index.php?cPath=6_48_100

[Sandia_Man]

With no idea of the size/amphours of the battery a good starting point is 100 watts of solar for each battery. Renogy has a suitcase 100 watt panel that comes with a solar controller and is pretty much plug and play. Simple to deploy and easily stored in it's own well padded case, it delivers about 5 amps and can do a decent job of replenishing a single battery with a good day of sun.

[RoyB]

It takes a bit of planning to do it right. Just showing up with a solar panel probably not going to make it happen...

It takes around 14.4VDC at 17-20AMPS per battery of DC CHARGE using smart mode charging to bring back a 50% discharged battery to around 90% charge state in around three hours of charge time.

A typical 120WATT SOLAR PANEL will only give you around 5-6AMPS DC CURRENT in the high sun. Where we camp you only get around 5-6 hours of usable HIGH SUN here on the east side of the US.

Using a single SOLAR PANEL to me would be great to use as a BATTERY TOP OFF CHARGE.

I would look into other things as well to make you use less DC CURRENT when camping off the power grid.

Roy Ken

[Crazy_Ray]

130 to 150 watt. JMO