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Cost of solar


Iflyfish

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I am considering putting solar on my '87 Sunrader. It looks like I will need about 200 watts. Has anyone with a Sunrader installed solar? How much did it cost? I presume I will have someone else install these. I assume I will need (2) deep cycle 6volt batteries. Will I need a new Charger? 

Iflyfishinthesun

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10 minutes ago, Iflyfish said:

I am considering putting solar on my '87 Sunrader. It looks like I will need about 200 watts. Has anyone with a Sunrader installed solar? How much did it cost? I presume I will have someone else install these. I assume I will need (2) deep cycle 6volt batteries. Will I need a new Charger? 

Iflyfishinthesun

What do you intend to use all of that power for?

 

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19 minutes ago, Maineah said:

What do you intend to use all of that power for?

 

Good and essential question. I use a cpap at night and want to be able to boondock. I am not certain how much power I need or if I need to add 2 deep cycle batteries or if a smaller solar unit would charge this up doing the day when I have used the cpap all night. 

Thanks for your interest.

I just ran into this on amazon, incredibly cheap!! 100 watt system. Is there more that I would need to have this installed? Would it charge my single 12volt house battery if it ran dry over night using my cpap? 

Iflyfifshwithsolarflies

Edited by Iflyfish
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Unless you use a lot of other power your cpap machine isn't going to use up all your battery overnight. About 20 amp hours worth.

here's an example of what you will get out of a 100 wt panel on the bright sunny day. Means you have to camp in full sun though

How many amp hours 100 watt solar panel?
This will give you an average of five (5) "peak sun hours" per day. A 100 watt panel produces an average of about 6 amps per peak sun hour, or about 30 amp-hours per day.
 
A small light weight generator run for a few hours would give you more charge and you get to camp in the shade for comfort.
 
No link to the Amazon system so can't tell if it has everything you would need like the charge controller
Linda S
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So I was looking into this today as well by happenstance. Didnt run into anything cheap. BUT, here is the difference, I am contemplating a lithium battery for the house part. These come in two main varieties (there are a hundred differences but for practical purposes you could say two types). First is a drop in replacement. Thanks electric golf carts! And second is a simple battery with charger controllers and all sorts of boondoggles.

Either way, 30ah drop in replacements seemed to be only about 200 dollars. I see this as a good way of putting batteries in the coach without having to use that space under what used to be the sofabed and will now be simply floor space.  A lithium battery, charger, so on can just hide in a small closet in the coach under the dinette or whatever. Or so it would seem.

It doesnt take away the need for solar panels (seems like $100 per 100w), charge controllers and all that battery management stuff.  But it adds to the roomyness of the coach. And they seem to last a lot longer than deep cycle if maintained properly.

Re. solar with just existing deep cycle, or with one 30ah type generic deep cycle a 100w system should come to no more than 200-300 dollars -- install yourself.  Was it much cheaper?

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Put on your Merlin hat its time for magic math.

1. What size is your house battery?? a 24, 27 or 31. That will tell you how many Amp Hours you own.

2. Some where on your CPAP power supply it will tell you how much power it draws, usually amps or watts.  Side note do you run your CPAP off of 12v or are you using an inverter to make 110v and using the normal house power supply??

3. What size is your 110v converter/charger??

My MH is a 30ft Class A and it has electric everything, tv, 2 radios, 2 powered vent fans and 14 light fixtures + my wifes CPAP. I'm using 2 - 31 class AGM batteries for a 200 AH capacity. I really don't know how much power we use, just when the sun goes down my batteries are 100% charged.

After you answer 1&2 then we can talk intelligently about what size solar setup you will need.

#3 will tell you how long you would have to run a small generator to recharge your battery....assuming you answered 1&2.

 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, WME said:

Put on your Merlin hat its time for magic math.

1. What size is your house battery?? a 24, 27 or 31. That will tell you how many Amp Hours you own.

2. Some where on your CPAP power supply it will tell you how much power it draws, usually amps or watts.  Side note do you run your CPAP off of 12v or are you using an inverter to make 110v and using the normal house power supply??

3. What size is your 110v converter/charger??

My MH is a 30ft Class A and it has electric everything, tv, 2 radios, 2 powered vent fans and 14 light fixtures + my wifes CPAP. I'm using 2 - 31 class AGM batteries for a 200 AH capacity. I really don't know how much power we use, just when the sun goes down my batteries are 100% charged.

After you answer 1&2 then we can talk intelligently about what size solar setup you will need.

#3 will tell you how long you would have to run a small generator to recharge your battery....assuming you answered 1&2.

WME

 

Outstanding!!! Thank you!!! Great questions! I like your way of framing this. 

I will check these questions out. 

I use 12 volt for the cpap when not plugged into 110 volt shore power.

Iflyfishandthefirstoneisonme

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1 hour ago, linda s said:

Unless you use a lot of other power your cpap machine isn't going to use up all your battery overnight. About 20 amp hours worth.

here's an example of what you will get out of a 100 wt panel on the bright sunny day. Means you have to camp in full sun though

How many amp hours 100 watt solar panel?
This will give you an average of five (5) "peak sun hours" per day. A 100 watt panel produces an average of about 6 amps per peak sun hour, or about 30 amp-hours per day.
 
A small light weight generator run for a few hours would give you more charge and you get to camp in the shade for comfort.
 
No link to the Amazon system so can't tell if it has everything you would need like the charge controller
Linda S

Thanks for your very informative and helpful response. I appreciate your thinking about this. I purchased a Yamaha EF1000iS, 900 Running Watts/1000 Starting Watts, Gas Powered Portable Inverter and thought this might be a good way of dealing with battery drain using cpap during the night. 

I have been thinking about how long it would take the truck's alternator to rebuild batteries during the day, so far it sounds like 2-3 hours of truck running to charge the 12 volt deep cycle house battery. I have also been considering the relative value of solar to accomplish this and it looks like from your post that it would take about 5 hours of sun exposure to accomplish this via solar. 

Any idea how long it would take the generator, Yamaha EF1000iS, 900 Running Watts/1000 Starting Watts, Gas Powered Portable Inverter to accomplish the task.

I feel rather out of my depth with issues like this so I really appreciate the input. My graduate degree is in Social Work, a 50 year career in the field, and I never took a class on this! 

Thanks again for your very thoughtful response.

Iflyfishinhumilitywithmytoyotafriends

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1 hour ago, neubie said:

So I was looking into this today as well by happenstance. Didnt run into anything cheap. BUT, here is the difference, I am contemplating a lithium battery for the house part. These come in two main varieties (there are a hundred differences but for practical purposes you could say two types). First is a drop in replacement. Thanks electric golf carts! And second is a simple battery with charger controllers and all sorts of boondoggles.

Either way, 30ah drop in replacements seemed to be only about 200 dollars. I see this as a good way of putting batteries in the coach without having to use that space under what used to be the sofabed and will now be simply floor space.  A lithium battery, charger, so on can just hide in a small closet in the coach under the dinette or whatever. Or so it would seem.

It doesnt take away the need for solar panels (seems like $100 per 100w), charge controllers and all that battery management stuff.  But it adds to the roomyness of the coach. And they seem to last a lot longer than deep cycle if maintained properly.

Re. solar with just existing deep cycle, or with one 30ah type generic deep cycle a 100w system should come to no more than 200-300 dollars -- install yourself.  Was it much cheaper?

Thanks for weighing in on this. It's complicated. Looks like I need to do what Linda and WME said about calculating use ergo need. And then calculate based upon that. It may be that a small generator or relying on the truck alternator may be a good way to go and forgo the need for solar....still a work in progress for me. 

Iflyfishconmitoyotaamigos

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you've got the Sunrader and the generator. turn something, like fridge on 12 volt,  on and keep an eye on the battery until it's down to where you think you might deplete it. Then plug into your generator and see how long it takes. Charge time depends on the output of your charger. Don't know if you plan on using the one in your converter/ charger or not but that's the easiest way. Real world is so much better than reading what someone else says. Your looking for 90% charge. The last 10% will take forever or maybe never. batteries are weird like that

Linda S

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15 hours ago, linda s said:

you've got the Sunrader and the generator. turn something, like fridge on 12 volt,  on and keep an eye on the battery until it's down to where you think you might deplete it. Then plug into your generator and see how long it takes. Charge time depends on the output of your charger. Don't know if you plan on using the one in your converter/ charger or not but that's the easiest way. Real world is so much better than reading what someone else says. Your looking for 90% charge. The last 10% will take forever or maybe never. batteries are weird like that

Linda S

Thanks, good call. 

Iflyfishelectronicaly 

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Here is a rough estimate a factor of 10, 900 watts of generator at 100% efficiency could give you 75 amps at 12 volts. Now take into account the stock charger is not going to give you that it  can only do maybe 10 amp no matter if you have a 5KW generator or a .9 KW . Look at you machines they will give you current draw somewhere on them in either watts or amps either way X10 = DC amps or DC watts at 100% efficiency. The Cpap machines don't draw a huge amount of current and should run a good 3 days on a single deep cycle battery without any kind of recharge. A 100 watt panel will give you close to what your stock charger and a generator will connected directly to the battery. Going into this you will need to buy a voltmeter a fully charged battery is 12.7 volts. Harbor Freight has volt meters for less than $10 good enough for what you'll ever use it for. I know this is getting complex but if you want to do this kind of thing you  will need to have some kind of basic ideal of how it all fits together. I have two 90 amp batteries on my camper and as long as the sun is shining I can go indefinitely with a 100 watt panel powering all my camper stuff.

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