What can you do with solar?
Hi, Please reply with what your solar system can do to enhance your RV'ing experience. Please list the number of watts, Charge controller, inverter (if any) and amp-hours of battery bank 256 ...
Forum Discussion
The AM panels are more expensive per Watt of power produced but that is true for all small panels. The AMsolar panels are small enough to fit on roof spaces that are too small for any other. The next smallest panel I found was the 140 Watt Kyocera. Most panels are made for residential or commercial use and are 60" long and 30-40 inches wide. Not a problem with a large trailer but impractical for any truck camper and most motorhomes at that size.
I sense in the comments a misunderstanding of how crystalline panels function. The cells will still product power with light coming in from an angle and that is by design. The more light that captured and not reflected out the greater the potential output. It is not that at 90 degrees to the sun that 100% of the light is captured but at 45 degrees only 50% will be captured.
One of the most commonly used roof panels has a fixed 5 degree tilt and it is considered good enough. They do not require a rack and rack anchoring and so the installation cost is a lot lower. In the USA up to 75% of the cost of an installation is labor and racking. Unfortunately with all the fighting in Congress we do not have a uniform set of practices so it costs 3x as much per kilowatt installed in the USA as it does in Germany.
With both my camper and my house solar installations that I did last year the cost of the panels was a small part of the total cost involved. If I priced my labor at even minimum wage the ratio would have been even more out of wack.
I sense in the comments a misunderstanding of how crystalline panels function. The cells will still product power with light coming in from an angle and that is by design. The more light that captured and not reflected out the greater the potential output. It is not that at 90 degrees to the sun that 100% of the light is captured but at 45 degrees only 50% will be captured.
One of the most commonly used roof panels has a fixed 5 degree tilt and it is considered good enough. They do not require a rack and rack anchoring and so the installation cost is a lot lower. In the USA up to 75% of the cost of an installation is labor and racking. Unfortunately with all the fighting in Congress we do not have a uniform set of practices so it costs 3x as much per kilowatt installed in the USA as it does in Germany.
With both my camper and my house solar installations that I did last year the cost of the panels was a small part of the total cost involved. If I priced my labor at even minimum wage the ratio would have been even more out of wack.
