jauguston
Bellingham, WA
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Joined: 07/03/2005
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I am a guy that likes to have as many electric and electronic goodies as I can get and I am now wanting to dabble my toe in the waters of solar. I could sure use some constructve advice on good sources for something in the 50 - 80w range. Also any advice in the "Don't do ****, I did it and it was bad" or "I did ***** and it worked great" would be appreciated.
Jim
2005 Coachman Sportscoach Elite 402 40'
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5-Kyocera 130w solar panels SB3024i MPPT controller
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hotrod4x5
Southern Calif
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50-80 watts won't do a lot. I have two 130 watt panels. I got a whole kit from Solar place that included an inverter, two panels, wiring and controllers.
* This post was
edited 04/25/07 08:08pm by hotrod4x5 *
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donn0128
Pronounced Ore-gun
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Being in the pacific NW you will need about double what you think will work. You need to first calculate the load you think you will use per day. Then figure how much battery capacity will be required to achieve that and still have a good margin, say only draw down about 25%. Now, assuming 8 hours a day in direct sunlight ( yea right) how many amp hours will it require to recharge the batteries? Double that number and that is the size of solar panels you need. Oh and don't forget batteries, either 6-6 volt golf cart or 4-12 volt deep cycles is a minimum requirement. Solar aint cheep to do right and not worth doing on the cheep. On top of that it is probably not worth doing at all if you are on hookups 95 percent of the time.
Donn
Finally able to camp again after a two year hiatus.
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mejones53
South Florida
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http://www.rvsolarelectric.com
2007 Toyota Tundra DC 4x4
2003 Trailmanor 2720SL / Kyocera 130 watt solar panel
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RoyC
fremont, CA, \USA
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Quote:either 6-6 volt golf cart or 4-12 volt deep cycles is a minimum requirement
Not everyone would need that much battery storage capacity - particularly if you have a generator as a backup to charge the batteries when you aren't getting enough sun.
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jauguston
Bellingham, WA
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I have a EV4010 Honda 4000w generator and four T-105 batteries. I just want to see how much I can reduce the gen run time to recharge. We seldom use full hookups, mostly Washington State Parks and usually the best and most available sites are non-hookup. The other reason is --- well ----- just because (-:
Jim
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MJG
CANADA
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Joined: 07/07/2003
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From my experience with a single 75W panel, basic charge controller and single 12V battery I see ~3A in per hour. If I'm lucky I'd guess 8 hours max at that rate and the remainder of daylight it tapers off from there. You can do the math on it's effect but I honestly feel it is a great battery maintainer as I don't have enough solar to recover from a hard days use. That's where the Honda comes in and one summer we had a great campsite... but it was treed in and I didn't get a lick out of my panel for a week. Recently switched to 2 6V batt's and can't wait to use them.
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MrWizard
Van Nuys, Ca
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I went over my power uses, many hrs of PC per day in the winter etc..
and decided, i would need about 1000watts of solar or more, or i was going to end up running the generator anyway.
so i said forget it.
Options, always have options, and the journey goes much smoother
....
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Chris Bryant
DeLand, Florida, USA
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Joined: 03/26/2003
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Right now, the "sweet spot" price wise seems to be in the 120 watt area- most bang for the buck, though prices are dropping (not fast enough).
I've recommended Northern Arizona Wind&Sun before, and have had customers buy from them with good service.
-- Chris Bryant
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jerokaz
Salinas, California
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I've got 280 watts of power on my truck camper. I purchased my solar stuff from http://www.solarelectricsupply.com/. Ken is a great guy and will help you anyway he can. He has kits or you can pick and choose. Just my 2 cents.
Ron
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