Solar power

[Baseball Dad]

Anybody have a good set up recipe for solar power ?Please be detailed  from what what size wire ,battery's and how many watts are you storing  ,solar charger controller battery charging regulator ,solar panel, how many watts are your panels and Thank you for taking the time to do this.I've been back and forth on this.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Baseball Dad

[WME]

It all depends on roof space. For your setup 

IMHO 100w minimum panel, 100AH battery minimum, MPPT controller, 6ga wire. Plan on finding a way to run wire through the roof with minimum HOLES

If you plan on running a microwave from an inverter you are looking at 20 min of micro wave and 1.5 days of solar to recharge the battery.

My rig, normal usage (vent fans, lights, water pump, tv) and wifes CPAP.  200w panel, 220 AH AGM battery bank, MPPT controller, 4 ga wire (long runs) my panel leads run down the refer vent. No inverter, to run microwave I just start the generator.

 

 

[jmowrey]

I've never really understood the idea of mounting a solar panel on the roof. If you are parked in the shade, which is the primary objective most anyplace you go, you are going to get little or no use out of a panel on your roof. We carry our panel inside, mounted conveniently on the bathroom wall, then take it out and connect it to a long set of cables that unwind from out of the shore power access door. That way we can follow the sun around throughout the day and get maximum benefit from the 100 watt panel. We sit comfortably in the shade and can move our panel as much as 50ft from the coach to catch the rays.

 

 

[WME]

Depends on where you camp, I'm dealing with sage brush not much shade there. The few times I have shade the panel still keeps the power monitor green. 

[bicoastal eric]

Solar panels work fine in the shade, just not full capacity. I'd rather just get a second panel on  the roof to get the same power output than have to store a big panel in the bathroom and have to fabricate and set up a stand and run cables every time. Depending on how/where you use your camper, that might not even be an option. Also, one of the biggest benefits of solar for me is that it's always working, keeping the batteries charged and ready to go even off season or unused.

I wouldn't say 100w is a minimum, but it's a good size and should be more than enough for most needs. It is also one of the cheapest sizes $/watt making it an economical choice. $100 on eBay.

100ah 12v deep cell battery is standard and is also plenty sufficient for most needs. If you have space for two than that's great. $100 at Walmart.

In my opinion, the benefits vs paying 4 times more for an mppt controller to use with a panel that is designed for 12v is just not worth it. $10 on Amazon for a pwm solar charge controller.

10 gauge power wire is more than sufficient $10-20 at home depot or Amazon.

I also recommend getting a crimper tool that does mc4 connectors and a few extra connectors on eBay or Amazon $25

 

Make sure your panel has mounts or buy some separately, or I made some out of scrap aluminum angle.

Run the wires through a sewer vent tube into the coach.

Convert all indoor lights to led $15 Amazon

[Totem]

I Agree with Bicoastal eric 100%, but in my case i have no microwave and only a 800 watt continuous inverter.

I also agree with jmowrey; mounting panels on the roof doesnt allow for you to seek shade nor will it allow optimum angling for direct sun path.

I use 1 group 27 deep cycle marine battery in my setup and its charged just fine using 3 (15) watt harbor freight panels and the pwm controller it comes with for a total of 45 watts. My lights are all LED. On the roof i climb up and setup the mount that came with HF kit and i put suction cups on it to that it sticks down to the roof and I run the wires through the electrical port where the 30 amp service line would normally exit.

Never had a problem deer camping it as such when all my buddy needed to run generators non stop.

That being said, I'm thinking about getting lazy and semi permanently roof mounting my panels so that they charge the cab and truck batteries as i have a bleed in the system that seems to kill the truck battery if i don't disconnect it. I don't want to drill holes in the sunrader so I am looking at epoxies vs other methods to mount.

[bicoastal eric]

On my sunrader I used a flexible self adhesive panel.       

[markwilliam1]

What type and make is it Bicoastal??

[picklebill]

Hi,

We have an 18 foot Sunrader which is only capable of handling one group 24 (80 AH) coach battery, We use a 120 watt folding panel consisting of two 60 watt panels that fold up against each other so the assembly is the same size as the 60 watt panel only twice as thick. They are hinged on one side and have a handle and latches on the other side which makes them easy to carry. We store them on the overcab bed. They have fold out legs to hold them at about a thirty degree angle when they are deployed. We carry about 20 feet of cable so that we can move them around to keep them in the sun. We use Anderson Power Pole connectors which work well. The charge controller is a cheapie 15 amp PWM type. Maybe we will upgrade the controller to an MPPT type in the future but don't know if it is worth the price.

We have converted to all LED lighting and have a Fantastic fan for cooling. It takes about 3 hours of sun to replace the energy used the previous evening. Since we do mostly boony camping in the desert we think this is one of the best upgrades we have done.

Bill

[markwilliam1]

Bill, could you be specific to the model and price please? I'm interested in solar but don't know where to start or where to purchase. Thanks!

[picklebill]

Hi,

I bought the folding panel off of Ebay about a year or so ago for $225 and free shipping from China. As I recall, the seller's name was Ecoworthy. The price seems a bit high but for the most part the unit uses pretty high quality parts. If you go to Ebay and search for "folding solar panel" it will probably show up. At that time, there were 3 sizes available - 80,100 and 120 watt. Hope this helps

Bill

[Maineah]

Home made frame tilts and of course it can be turned and stores flat. Controller is mounted on the frame work the connector is an Anderson 50 amp power pole over kill but it will except #10 wire. There are charge connections both ends of the camper and two group 24 batteries. I can go indefinitely unless it rains for a week and then I plug the connector into my truck battery and charge it with a 130 amp alt. and a 250 HP engine not efficient but it works.

[markwilliam1]

Thanks so Much p & M!! Gets me started now!

[Totem]

Ive read that the self adhesive backed flexible panels companies went out of business, due to delamination failures and that they wont put out more than 50% of what they did brand new in 2 years. Can't remember the exact brand though. They are next to impossible to find new even on ebay its all old stock as the company went bankrupt.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Totem

[linda s]

Uni-Solar and yes the company went out of business. A friend of mine though installed some of the closeout panels on his Sunrader about 3 years ago and he loves them. Still working fine

Linda S

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1311.R4.TR4.TRC2.A0.H0.Xunisolar.TRS0&_nkw=unisolar+panel&_sacat=0

[diskwizard]

My system is 100 watt Renology solar suit case with a 30 AMP PWM Controller and 10 gauge landscape wire.  Used 45 AMP Anderson Pole connectors to plug it together. I run the wire out the shore hatch to allow me to put the solar panels as much as 25' away. Renology has a bunch of good calculators on their website to help size wire and such. I also have a chain with a Alarm lock attached between the toy and the solar panels.

[Maineah]

The stick on panels suffer from heat they are not as efficient as frame mounted panels they allow air flow

.

[linda s]

100 watt frame mounted 16 pounds plus weight of mounting rails. Have no idea how much they would weigh

100 watt flexible that can be glued to roof 4 pounds.

The old Unisolar were very non efficient and they had to make them very big because of that. The new flexible ones are almost the same outside dimensions as the heavy frame mounted.

Linda S

[RedEmerald]

Just my two cents thrown in here. I have to agree with "bicoastal eric". I have lived in small spaces full time for over 15 years now. Five sailboats and three rvs later I can verify eric's thoughts that lots of money is lots of waste. Period. I have always had a solar system and always used a small 500 watt microwave (walmart). I have used one 200 watt (or smaller) panel, cheap controller from West Marine (sunforce), 10 gauge wire, 4 matching marine deep cell batteries and a 1500 continual 3000 surge watt inverter. That's it. Easy peasy.

A couple of notes: unless the roof is rotten the weight of the panel will not be a factor. A solar panel will charge in the shade. The distance from panel to battery needs to be withing 10 feet to be efficient. Portable panels have dramatic loss of efficiency unless you just like toting your battery(s) around. Solar systems are only difficult and expensive if you make them that way. 

Final note: my systems have always be able to run a small (-3.5 cubic feet) mini fridge also without the thermal fan kicking on. The microwave was always the biggest gobbler so only used it sparingly. I always used only led lighting.

[jmowrey]

4 hours ago, RedEmerald said:

Just my two cents thrown in here. I have to agree with "bicoastal eric". I have lived in small spaces full time for over 15 years now. Five sailboats and three rvs later I can verify eric's thoughts that lots of money is lots of waste. Period. I have always had a solar system and always used a small 500 watt microwave (walmart). I have used one 200 watt (or smaller) panel, cheap controller from West Marine (sunforce), 10 gauge wire, 4 matching marine deep cell batteries and a 1500 continual 3000 surge watt inverter. That's it. Easy peasy.

A couple of notes: unless the roof is rotten the weight of the panel will not be a factor. A solar panel will charge in the shade. The distance from panel to battery needs to be withing 10 feet to be efficient. Portable panels have dramatic loss of efficiency unless you just like toting your battery(s) around. Solar systems are only difficult and expensive if you make them that way. 

Final note: my systems have always be able to run a small (-3.5 cubic feet) mini fridge also without the thermal fan kicking on. The microwave was always the biggest gobbler so only used it sparingly. I always used only led lighting.

My 100 watt solar panel output drops off by about 80% in the shade. Even more if it's a cloudy day on top of being in the shade. And I have not noticed any drop in efficiency with the 30 foot cables I use. I even have an additional 25 feet of cable which I've used on occasion, and again, no significant drop in charging ability when the panel is properly angled in direct sunlight. I use the heavy, code rated cables and connectors. The connectors are soldered, not just crimped.