Solar power
My 2023 Cherokee Wolf Pup 22RR has a factory installed solar panel. Realistically speaking, can the trailer be used with the single battery installed without it dying? I am thinking of installing a...
Forum Discussion
valhalla360 wrote:swimmer_spe wrote:
Op here.
I am doing a test. Just the furnace on, started with 12.7V. 24 hours later and now it is 11.5V
What was the weather and what percentage of the time was the furnace actually operating? Running for 3-5min out of each hour in mildly cool weather is wildly different from running 30min out of each hour in colder weather.
Did you turn off the fridge?
Were any other 12v draws in operation?
Regardless, take the battery down to 11.5v (90% discharged) frequently and it will quickly lose capacity and need replacement. Generally, you don't want to go below 50% (around 12.1v after the load is removed).
A second battery would likely keep you up around 50% after 24hr but I'm not sure if it was a valid test (not knowing the full conditions).
The next question would be how are you replacing the energy consumed. We don't boondock a lot, so a bit of generator time in the morning & evening along with the 50w panel does fine. If we were boondocking a lot, we would want bigger panels.
It was close to freezing.
I do not know how often it was on, but when on, it was only for a few minutes.
Fridge was off.
No other power draws. Lights were off.
My hope was that the existing solar panel could allow me to last 1 week in these weather conditions. Since i can't, I will be bringing a generator and running it for a few hours to recharge and have extra batteries to parallel or swap in/out.
