Solar Ready Camper Help!
Hello everyone, I recently traded in my old travel trailer for a new one. This new one is "solar ready". I never dealt with solar panels before. All they said during the walk-through was buy a pane...
Forum Discussion
Lwiddis wrote:
I’m not tired of you saying this, 2oldman, but it’s not yet time with this RV solar newbie to broach parallel and series. Remember he just discovered he needs a controller.
So let's not make his life more difficult yet :)
#10 wires from panel to controller will work just fine if (IF) he will purchase MPPT type of controller. Or if he decides not to go over 200W of total panels wattage.
First he needs to decide on how much he wants to spend and how much solar wattage he needs.
Wiring panels in series simply means plugging one panel pigtail into another, you can't make a mistake here, 90% of panels have standard MC4 connectors that only go Positive into Negative. And then connect the remaining pigtails to the existing #10 wires.
The problem (very likely) is that such "solar ready" trailer will have an odd 2-pin connector on the roof, not MC4. This obstacle he will have to overcome with most any panel on the market, very few exist with 2-pin pigtails. Or there will be no connector on the roof, just 2 bare wires covered with wire nuts. Who knows the extent of engineering "ingenuity" of people at RV factories...
If he decides to go MPPT route, better deals are to be found in big 24V panels, not small 12V panels - again, no rocket science here, any panel from 200 to 280W or 300W will be it. They will also tell this in specs.
