Solar... what do I need?

[KachFam]

I'm suddenly obsessed with the idea of boondocking. Up until now, our idea of boondocking has meant not having sewer hookups Now that we've been RV'ers for a couple years, I think I'm a bit bored with our close-by hookup camping options. There is a gold mine of FS campgrounds and dispersed areas available around us.

I'm interested in setting up a solar charging system (at least for when the weather cooperates). I will have a generator for backup (at least initially), but my goal is to keep thinks as quiet as possible around camp without giving up too many creature comforts. I know LED lights are a good idea. I probably don't need microwave or AC, but will need the furnace at times. TV would be nice to have the option, but not continuously. Other than that it's just the basic stuff. Maybe charge the cell phones sometimes?

Any suggestions on where to start with panels, controllers, inverters, etc? Lots on the net about all this, but I'm having trouble sorting through it and interested in hearing about what's a good value and any success stories!

Thanks!

[Rustic Eagle]

IMO, start out with an adequate "true" deep cycle battery bank, not the standard RV/Marine battery.

I haven't crossed over into solar yet for my boondocking (presently use Yamaha genny), but have made a number of up-grades that will be compatible with a solar system (2-6V Deep Cycle batteries, LED's, TriMetric battery monitoring system, up-graded Converter/Charger, etc.).

Battery up-grade: http://www.jaycoowners.com/showthrea...ate+deep+cycle

Battery Monitoring System: http://www.jaycoowners.com/showthrea...c+installation

I'm sure JOF members that use solar will chime in.

Bob

[Tricky6]

I am interested in solar also & would like to know where to begin. Please holler if you get any good info!

[max2bob]

first off, start with a good plan. where are the panels going to mount on the roof? determine where the controller will be inside the camper . determine where the solar wire will go through the roof to the controller.then determine how to get the power from the controller up to the batteries. rustic eagle is right on getting a couple of really good batteries first. for me with my 23fb i have 3 panels, two are up front and one is postioned in the rear. that way maybe one or two panels might not be shaded by nearby trees or what have you. also be mindful of the air conditioner, that can shade a panel and also the tv antenna can partially shade a panel. the two front panels get wired to the back panel and from the back panel i take the wire through the fridge vent which is adjacent to the rear wardrobe. that is where my controller is. not a real convient placement for the controller but it works for me. from the controller i drop down to the outside storage area below the wardrobe and out though the low point drains in the outside storage area. then i run my solar wire up to the front of the trailer to the 2 6 volt batteries. i got tired of fooling with the cheap controllers and bought a good one finally cheap ones kept failing . i have a morning star. we tend to trade trailers every few years so i do not like to hack the whole trailer up might want to keep that in mind. with a good plan it is not to bad and you can always start with one panel and add as money permits. 2 panels are good and 3 are even better. we can go for a week at a time and keep charged. that is running the furnace and lights and charging cameras and stuff but no television. and it stays light here untill almost 10 at night so that helps a lot. good luck

[LilBigfoot]

Originally Posted by Tricky6

I am interested in solar also & would like to know where to begin. Please holler if you get any good info!

Go here....every thing you need to know about solar.

http://www.amsolar.com/

[KachFam]

Good info - thanks everyone. I looked at Costco today and found 6v golf cart batteries for about $84 each. Rated 208 ah over 20 hours each (I think I almost understand what that means...). Would 2 of these be a good start. I am new to boondocking, so just getting to generator supported (without the genny running constantly) would be a big step.

Thanks again!

[rwilley]

I have one 150 watt solar panel. I modified the rear bike rack and mounted it there so when I need it I just slide it out and tilt it. I'm currently using a cheap controller. If we conserve power and have adequate sun we can boondock 2 weeks without using the generator.

[rotjovi2269]

Need?

Sunlight.....

[KachFam]

Bringing back my own thread... Christmas present to the family is going to be some trailer upgrades this year!

Does anyone carry their panels not mounted to the roof? How much distance from the trailer would be acceptable when running this way? I'm thinking here in WA I might be able to eek out a bit more power from some of these semi-shaded campsites by moving the panel to more sun (and not necessarily a spot I can get the trailer to). Yes, I did come up with this thought while sitting in my camp chair watching the sunny spots in a shaded campsite!

[RoyBraddy]

You might want to do what we did here first. We made everything as "GREEN" as we could with our on-board lights and other low power usage. Upgraded the battery banks first as this is where your solar power does best. You have to have a place to store the solar energy that you capture during the day when the sun is out. You just can't run things from the solar panels only. They are there to re-charge your batteries during the daylight hours when the sun is high in the sky. Then your charged-up battery banks runs all your things you want running during the night...

Making your trailer survive camping when not using the power grid takes a lot of planning to be successful. I have been doing this for over five years now and have learned all the tricks to live off the batteries successful now. We run all of our 120VAC items we want to run off of an Inverter and 12VDC items directly off the batteries and then re-charge our battery bank the next morning using our 2KW Honda Generator (when allowed) using our on-board smart mode converter/charger unit. Only take three hours of generator run time to get the batteries back to their 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again for the next night running off the batteries.

Now that we are successful doing this its time for us to go to the next step of installing solar panel to be able to utilize the sun during the daytime hours to keep us from having to run the 2KW generator as much. The solar panels will bring our battery battery bank back to the 90% charge state before the end of the high sun day. My plans are to install a 240WATT panel on the rear of my POPUP roof and two 100-120WATT panels on the front end. You will only get 5-6AMPS DC from each of these panels when in the high sun so getting to a totals output of 15-20AMPS will be necessary to re-charge your batteries in the 5-6 hours of high sun. Even with this we may still have to run the generator for about an hour to get the high current capability out of the way to allow the 15-20AMPS to complete the charge cycle during the day.

In my case if I can't get to the 90% battery state charge before 4PM each day using solar panels I may be in trouble being allowed to run my generator to get my battery banks back up to the 90% charge state so I can make it through the night.

My on-board battery bank is currently three 85AH deep cycle batteries (Total 256AHs) in parallel and we can go all night running the 120VAC AC and 12VDC things we want to have on but will have to re-charge the batteries the next morning...

This is what I work towards if it was me... It does take good planning... You just can't setup into the woods off the power grid and be successful without good planning...

Just my thoughts...
Roy Ken

[Seann45]

Originally Posted by KachFam

Bringing back my own thread... Christmas present to the family is going to be some trailer upgrades this year!

Does anyone carry their panels not mounted to the roof? How much distance from the trailer would be acceptable when running this way? I'm thinking here in WA I might be able to eek out a bit more power from some of these semi-shaded campsites by moving the panel to more sun (and not necessarily a spot I can get the trailer to). Yes, I did come up with this thought while sitting in my camp chair watching the sunny spots in a shaded campsite!

Not roof mounted has positives and negatives.. the positive is you can usually always place the panels in the sunlight.. HOWEVER the negatives far out weigh the positives. Your panels can grow legs and walk away, they can get blown over in the wind and damaged, some jealous idiot can take a hammer to them. My 4 panels (515 watts total) are mounted on the roof in a way that lets me tilt them for max sun. With my system I can use everything except the A/C.

[Mustang65]

The one thing you want to watch when not mounting your panels on the roof is the length/gauge of wire used. For every foot of wire between the panel and battery there is a voltage drop, so you need to keep the distance between the panel and batteries to a minimum. You can Google voltage drops and it will give you the specifics. This should give you an idea as to how far you can go.

I opted to mount the panel on the roof of the TT. We traveled 6000+ miles this summer and never had an issue with batteries being run down over night or not fully charged by end of day. As our camping life style changes, I will be adding an additional 250Watt panel and 2 more batteries before we head out next spring.

As Roy mentioned, batteries are probably the most important item on the list. Your dry-camping will only last as long as your batteries can keep up with your families camping life style. So you will want to invest in some GOOD deep cycle batteries. The more the better (watch their weight), but that brings you to the issue of keeping them charged. With more/larger batteries, comes more panels or a generator.

As mentioned in other posts, the first thing you want to do is reduce your electrical consumption, and there is no better place to start than replacing ALL your bulbs with LEDS. You will still want to watch how many you have on at any given time. There are a lot of GREAT posts regarding SOLAR on this forum, with a lot of good information and ideas.

Once you know its limitations and how to deal with them, you will love going SOLAR!!

Don

[3'senough]

Originally Posted by KachFam

Good info - thanks everyone. I looked at Costco today and found 6v golf cart batteries for about $84 each. Rated 208 ah over 20 hours each (I think I almost understand what that means...). Would 2 of these be a good start. I am new to boondocking, so just getting to generator supported (without the genny running constantly) would be a big step.

Thanks again!

There good but you want to look at 75 AH rate for the better rating. Get the 120 minute rating ones for more life, larger plates and better recovery. You will want to store the energy while the sun is up and having the larger plates will allow for this. They run about 20 bucks more, but are better.

[advrider]

Originally Posted by 3'senough

There good but you want to look at 75 AH rate for the better rating. Get the 120 minute rating ones for more life, larger plates and better recovery. You will want to store the energy while the sun is up and having the larger plates will allow for this. They run about 20 bucks more, but are better.

KachFam said the batteries were rated 208 ah over 20 hours and you replied that the 75 ah were better. What am i missing?

Jack

[RoyBraddy]

I think 3'senough was referring to the battery performance rating.. The battery specs usually list the battery capacity in minutes @25Amps-@56Amps-@75Amps... You want to get the most minutes here.. i.e. a TROJAN T105 will produce 6VDC @25Amps for a whopping 447 minutes (7.45 HOURS) before being discharged down to 10.5VDC (0% charge) Two of these 6VDC batteries in series will produce 12VDC for that long.

You of course don't want to run this number below the 50% charge state before re-charging otherwise you will do damage to your batteries. I re-charge back up to their 90% charge state when my batteries get down to 12.0VDC (which is around 50% charge state). I can do 10-12 of these 50% to 90% charge cycles before I have to do a full 100% charge state. I can re-charge in a quick three hours of generator run time using smart mode charging technology but having to do a full 100% charge state takes more time which is around 12 hours or more. Sometimes the camp grounds don't allow you to run the generator for that long of time so the solar panels really come in handy here - silent running while they re-charge your batteries...

For me TWO GROUPs of two 6VDC GC2 CostCo batteries in series would be great giving me around 440 AHs capacity which would produce 12VDC @25 Amps for a good 7 hours and not drop my battery bank below 12.0VDC...

When I am camping off the power grid my parasitic drain is just over 1 AMP all night long. Then in addition to this I usually run around 20 AMPS drain from the 12VDC battery bank between 8PM and 11PM with the home entertainment items, extra exterior lights, keep computer and cell phone recharged, maybe a electric blanket on the lap, running a few of Ham radio items, etc.. All of this relates to around 300 Watts of 12VDC being consumed during this time which is probably abit higher than the usual boondocking usage most campers do off the power grid..

My current 255AH battery bank drops to around 12.0VDC the next morning doing all of this each night and this is when I use my 2KW Honda Generator to recharge my battery bank back to its 90% charge state starting around 8AM in the morning when allowed to run my generator. After three hours of run time I am good to go for the next night run off the batteries. I always brew up my coffee for the day when I am running my generator...

This just gives you an idea what to plan for in your situation. You can adding solar to this picture will allow you to silently re-charge your battery banks back up during the high SUN DAY and not be having to use the loud generator that much. This is my game plan at any rate...

Just takes good planning on what you want to be doing and not end up doing damage to your battery bank keeping up with the 50%-90% charge cycles.

Roy Ken

[Mustang65]

Here is a chart (for 6 volt batteries) that should make it easier to understand. I hope it displays ok. For RV use, I believe that the 25 amp category relates best to our usage. Our usage is somewhere between 1 and 25 amps.
Trojan has a chart for 12 volt batteries also.
Don

[jaycojls]

Read this: http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/t...ging-puzzle-2/

It has a lot of useful information and do's and don'ts when installing solar.

[Big Sky]

Handy Bob is the best source I've found on understanding solar/battery charging set up. Read all of his writings, and let us know your thoughts.

Originally Posted by jaycojls

Read this: http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/t...ging-puzzle-2/

It has a lot of useful information and do's and don'ts when installing solar.