Ace57 Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 I'm thinking about installing solar, if so do I need to shut the solar down when I'm driving or when plugged in to shore power? If it needs to be shut off, how do I do it? Where should I mount the controller on a 1984 Dolphin, The battery is under the hood. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 No need to shut any of it down. Not any more. In the "old days" of solar, 20 years or more, solar panels would drain power from a battery and kill it when the sun wasn't out. No more. They mostly all come with "blocking diodes" built in. Just wire the panel or panels in. Anything over 20 watts needs a controller. Hook it to any battery you want and it's done. Doesn't matter if the same battery also gets charged by the alternator, shore-power, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace57 Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 Thank you Jdemaris, I was hoping that I didn't have to, now can the controler be ten feet from the battery? I was reading that the closer the better but where I would like to have it is 10 feet away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Distance doesn't matter if the correct wire is used. All depends on how many watts worth of panels, voltage, and distance. Usually when a long distance is involved- high voltage solar is used. E.g. taking ten 200 volt solar panels and wiring them up to make 600 volts. Not usually an issue with an RV. My house has the solar panels 120 feet from the controllers and is hooked up with 400 volts DC. In an RV I assume you want to use 12 volt panels and 12 volt controllers. Note -you don't have to. Cheaper controllers require the input to match the output. I.e. 12 volts in and 12 volts out (charge voltage is actually 14 volts). More expensive controllers allow the input to be different then the output. So you can take four 12 volt panels, wire them in series to make 48 volts - and hook to that controller to charge a 12 volt battery bank. Back to your RV. A single 120 watt solar panel will probably never make more then 5 amps of current at 16 volts. I have solar on the roof of my Minicruiser. Distance from the solar panels to the controller is less then 10 feet. With a 10 foot run - you can have three 120 watt panels connected to just one controller with 12 gauge wire and be fine. One 120 watt panel needs this: 30 foot run - 12 gauge wire. 20 foot run - 14 gauge wire. 10 foot run - 16 gauge wire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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