TC off the grid, and solar question
when we get the new camper, we might try doing 2-5 nights without electric this fall out at the beach. Sure I will have a generator but I only want to use it if AC is needed. So looking at what ma...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
Solar systems may be thought of as a battery charger. I.E. they only fill up the battery, and don't often power anything directly.
The load won't go over 30 amps but that is a moment to moment measurement. What you want to know is the total amp-hours that are used in a 24 hour period.
The load terminal on a solar controller are used to switch on a light at night. The battery terminals are where the charging is regulated. So you can ignore the load terminals for the most part.
The 30 amps is the rated output to the battery terminals.
Here is a simple flow chart.
Budget-->Energy Audit-->Battery bank size-->number of watts-->PWM or MPPT. What ever type of controller is chosen, make sure it has adjustable set points and a temperature probe that is on the battery.
One rule of thumb is between 60 and 150 watts of panels per 100 amp-hours of storage. The smaller the battery bank the higher the wattage needed (per 100 amp-hours). Here is a link to the rather special spreadsheet which includes an energy audit, that N8GS has created to help size solar battery charging systems!
Solar Spread Sheet by N8GS
For a nice explanation of solar, try this link:
Golden rules of solar
Solar systems may be thought of as a battery charger. I.E. they only fill up the battery, and don't often power anything directly.
The load won't go over 30 amps but that is a moment to moment measurement. What you want to know is the total amp-hours that are used in a 24 hour period.
The load terminal on a solar controller are used to switch on a light at night. The battery terminals are where the charging is regulated. So you can ignore the load terminals for the most part.
The 30 amps is the rated output to the battery terminals.
Here is a simple flow chart.
Budget-->Energy Audit-->Battery bank size-->number of watts-->PWM or MPPT. What ever type of controller is chosen, make sure it has adjustable set points and a temperature probe that is on the battery.
One rule of thumb is between 60 and 150 watts of panels per 100 amp-hours of storage. The smaller the battery bank the higher the wattage needed (per 100 amp-hours). Here is a link to the rather special spreadsheet which includes an energy audit, that N8GS has created to help size solar battery charging systems!
Solar Spread Sheet by N8GS
For a nice explanation of solar, try this link:
Golden rules of solar
