adding solar before trip

[mpoulsen]

So I got a Renogy RNG-100D solar kit to get started,but I have a question,the wall in my 2007 Okanagan says it's prewired for solar what does that exactly mean to me. I have changed all the bulbs to LEDs and have two 6 volt batteries. We're going to the Hauser Geode Beds Wiley' s Well District north of Blythe,Ca. We will be in the Desert for the week before Thanksgiving and then to Deathvalley for Thanksgiving. So i am excited to try out the solar will be installing it this weekend, I think that I will add second panel later, thanks

[mpoulsen]

So we leave for vacation this Sunday, I install the solar kit and was surprised how easy it as the camper was prewired and set up for solar. The label on the inside wall said wire for solar monitor was correct,they had ran the wire from the roof thru made large loop in the wall and then to the batteries.So I cut small hole in the wall, cut the loop and hooked up the wires to monitor. At the batteries on the positive there was a circuit breaker, the wire was not connected, just waiting to be hooked up when t h e system was installed. I will install a second panel and two more 6 volt batteries at a later date, so for right now I have one panel at 100watts,led lighting thru out camper and two 6 volts batteries 2,000 watt inverter. I will give a report with pictures of install and how things went when we get back which will be after Thanksgiving. Thanks for everyone's input and have a great Thanksgiving.

[bigfootford]

Golden_HVAC wrote:
Your 'basic' load on the camper is 35 amp hours a day to run the refrigerator, CO detector and propane leak detector. This is about what your 100 watt solar panel will make on a good day. So don't be to surprised if the solar barely keeps up with the loads placed on it.

Yes the second panel will come in handy to keep it full. Yet even the 100 watt system will keep the battery full all the time if you have the Propane detector off, and refrigerator off. This really helps out and keeps the battery at it's full amp hour rating all it's lifetime. .

Fred.

That is some big draw, 35 ah....

My camper parasitic draw with the fridge running off of propane is an average of...

8ah... during hot weather.


But if I add up all the other stuff here would be my average/day

My tv pulls 4a when playing with a DVD. 2 hrs a day= 8ah

LED lights .2 amps each ... 2 on at night for 6 hrs = 2.5ah

Charge laptop and phones if needed... 2-4 ah. X 1 hr.. avg 3 ah

Heat would be the hog if you needed it... 7amps x 15 min run an hour. 4 hrs with heat = 7ah.. which I do not run because I have a Wave 3 heater.

So if I use all those things then I usually see between 15-25 ah/day.

100 watts from that Renology system is going to be right on the edge for my usage and probably yours.

It can work very well if you do not do TV and no Heater.

I have 200watts of solar...

Jim

[deminimis]

So, I'm a little late to the party. Guess you're probably already on vacation. Did you install your panel yet? We have the same camper. I'm removing my factory installed panel tomorrow (if weather holds) to pull new cable (current system has MC3 connectors and want to go with MC4 connectors) and install a second panel. Gave a quick eyeball last night and it does appear the solar enters with the sat ant, but can verify if need be. Regardless, you'll want to pull new cable. The MC3 cables are no longer UL listed as they can separate and all new panesl comes with MC4. You can get adapters (if, like me, you have panels with MC3 connectors), but that doesn't sound like that's your situation.

[2oldman]

mpoulsen wrote:
So I don't have to remove the panel that the sticker says "prewired for solar"? I assume I should find the wiring near that location

I have a 2002 Okanagan 5er. The solar wiring came up through the roof with the TV antenna cable. The other end terminated in the basement. 2 - #10 wires. I had no panel.

[JiminDenver]

Not really. The 12v portion of the fridge is a control board. I don't think opening the door or not has much affect.

[Bob__B]

I think there would be a big difference between storage power usage and power usage under normal use......Opening and closing the door and adding new stuff to the fridge will add a lot of load.

[JiminDenver]

Before we had solar and such we ran the fridge in the storage lot for a week on a grp 27 battery without it getting to 12.0v. Certainly not 35 Ah a day.

Every rig is different.

[hbski]

mpoulsen wrote:
......I have a 2000 watt,4000 peak,2000 watts is max 18 amps I would like to install it just in case (I like options and gadgets) but it's so large where to mount it?......

As close to the batteries as possible.....If you ever approach pulling 18A AC from it it will draw around 200A DC to provide it. Check the inverter manual for wiring recommendations and you should find that some substantial wires are needed to feed that (2/0 give or take depending on length of run and temp of wire)

On edit:
As a for instance: prosine manual

Xantrex lists 250MCM for a minimum for the prosine 2.0 for a run under 6 feet 250 MCM is the next size larger than 4/0

[JimK-NY]

If you like gadgets, look for gadgets that run on 12v power. Inverters waste a lot of power. I have a small one I run as little as possible just to charge camera batteries. The unit puts out a lot of waste heat.

There is a better alternative to an electric coffee pot. For a single mug, heat water on the stove and pour it through a mini Milleta filter. I use a larger sized filter and make the coffee directly into a thermos.

Someone mentioned a base load of 35 AH/day. That does not fit my experience. An absorption fridge should pull very little power. My CO detector works on 2 AA batteries which last a year. The propane detector likewise pulls very little power. LED lights only pull about 0.3 amps each and hardly count. For many people a base load is only a handful of AHs/day. The furnace is an exception. Mine pulls a huge 7 amps so a few hours of use can start to add up. Most people can do very well with a single battery and a 70-100 watt panel.

[JiminDenver]

In my opinion you will need the second panel if you plan on running the coffee maker.

[billtex]

mpoulsen wrote:
I have a 2000 watt,4000 peak,2000 watts is max 18 amps I would like to install it just in case (I like options and gadgets) but it's so large where to mount it? So where do most of you mount them,it has three 110 outlets. If I used it or try it to see how things did the Keurig coffee maker would be the big one at 14amps

sounds like a small nuclear power plant or flux capacitor may be the way to go...

[mpoulsen]

Thanks for all the replys, I am on the edge as to getting another panel before we leave. But I would like to see how we do with just one, it's just the wife and I and we do pretty good at boondocking. So I don't have to remove the panel that the sticker says "prewired for solar"? I assume I should find the wiring near that location.also for those of you that have inverters, I have a 2000 watt,4000 peak,2000 watts is max 18 amps I would like to install it just in case (I like options and gadgets) but it's so large where to mount it? So where do most of you mount them,it has three 110 outlets. If I used it or try it to see how things did the Keurig coffee maker would be the big one at 14amps I am also awhere that this would put me into getting the second solar panel. So much fun!!! So much to do!! 24 days till vacation!!!!!! O by the way we do have a generator if need be.

[bigfootford]

billtex wrote:

bigfootford wrote:
1 100ah AGM Lifeline battery.

We have led lights, a wave 3 heater, LED tv.... We use 15-20 ah a day.
We only use the furnace for quick warm up, It gobbles battery amps.

We watch tv about 2 hrs a night, read for an hr or more, charge our laptops/cell phones etc.

Unless we are in a dense forest or dead of winter and heavy cloud cover we easily recover our used AH by noon or better.

We do have our honda 2000 if needed.

We do not charge from the truck although I can... Just throw a switch.

Jim

That is a LOT to ask of 1 battery...if you upped your available amp hrs you would be better off.

Well if I were to use over 40 ah per day maybe. But we never use over 25...

There are quite a few of us doing it... Redog1 ran a 1 lifeline 100ah for 7+ years on 130 watts of solar. That battery died and he replaced it with a Universal Power group 100ah...

My Lifeline is now 6 years old and still has spec capacity. It has never seen a discharge past 40%.... I keep track of how many AH my battery has produced since I installed it... +5,000 AH
I does get used!



Last Summer we did 8K miles to Alaska/Prudhoe Bay and back... Never charged on shore nor ran the gen to charge. Lots of winter trips to Portland rain and snow.

Jim

[billtex]

bigfootford wrote:
1 100ah AGM Lifeline battery.

We have led lights, a wave 3 heater, LED tv.... We use 15-20 ah a day.
We only use the furnace for quick warm up, It gobbles battery amps.

We watch tv about 2 hrs a night, read for an hr or more, charge our laptops/cell phones etc.

Unless we are in a dense forest or dead of winter and heavy cloud cover we easily recover our used AH by noon or better.

We do have our honda 2000 if needed.

We do not charge from the truck although I can... Just throw a switch.

Jim

That is a LOT to ask of 1 battery...if you upped your available amp hrs you would be better off.