Great article. From a practical perspective, how much power does 200 watts give you? I've been thinking about adding solar to my X-215, but I don't have a good idea what to reasonably expect from a 200 watt configuration vs. a 400 watt or larger. Is 200 watts really just for keeping the battery charged, or can it do more? Can larger wattage configurations be wired directly to an inverter to run the larger appliances? Any feedback would be helpful.
Well 200 W X ~6-8 hrs of sun = 1000 WH or around 85 AH of charge to the battery. This should allow me normal use of the camper (sans AC of course) and lets me run the furnace at night, pump for the water when necessary during the day and the lights at night, bathroom vent fan and other 12V accessories (i.e. charge my portable devices during the day/listen to the radio. Really this was all I wanted to do with my system...I did buy some small (inefficient) inverters to do stuff like charge my laptop and power the TV.
Note the panels are not 120V and not intended to directly run appliances. They are 24V Open Circuit (12V NOMINAL) and are wired to a charge controller that changes my batteries. While I haven't actually measured charging current it's close to 15-20A. My battery after normal nightly use are topped off with an hour of sunlight.
Any and all loads should be hooked to the batteries. This is not a cheap trickle charging system (Like the way over priced 45 W system harbor freight sells). I haven't hooked up a detailed charge monitor yet but may in the future. Right now it does the job as-is.
On a side note....Renogy has great customer support. I contacted them with a technical question and they got back to me within a couple hours. I took the plastic off of the charge controller and it's internally fused as well...although the ATC style fuses are soldered to the board. It looks like a pretty robust design.
I didn't know it was a 12v system. Perhaps you did say it was and I missed it. How much did this system cost you? Any reason you didn't want a generator?
This is tempting to me because we like to camp at places where even an inverter generator is noticeable. I have a Champion 2000W generator and even on the other side of the trailer, next to a wheel and exhaust pointed away, it was impossible to forget it was running. Found myself toying with the idea of making a box for the generator to make it even quieter, but then it occurred to me that after solving for those engineering challenges, I'd still have to carry it and the box around, while solar could be transparent and unobtrusive. My biggest hangup is drilling holes in my perfectly good roof.
__________________
2021 GD Transcend 261BH
2019 F250 SRW SWB CC 6.2
Formerly: 2016 X213 & 2014 F150 CC 3.5EB
There are links at the end of the writeup to Amazon to order the kit and parts I used.
Total Cost about $350-$370 (There are some extra wire and the crimp connectors etc). It actually didn't take long to install once the plan on where to mount the panels was slept on for a couple nights.
As for a generator...I hate the noise. They do make quieter ones but they cost more and some campgrounds prohibit the hours they can be run anyhow (usually a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the evening). To have something large enough to run all the appliances in the camper (including the AC) your looking at a 400 to 2K for a Cheapie 1500W "quiet" to a 3KW Honda Quiet Inverter Generator.
You might need to run that 1500W generator for a couple hours to top off the battery (The charger in my camper isn't that efficient)...and then you have to haul gasoline around (along with the heavy generator). It would be pushing it to run the microwave any how and the AC with the 1500W would probably be a no-go.
My biggest hangup is drilling holes in my perfectly good roof.
My biggest hangup as well....Just make sure you use Genuine Dicor Sealant recommended for the material on your roof. There are a couple kinds...depending on if you are 2015 or later on your trailer.
The only holes I needed in my roof were for the mounting brackets. Drill pilot holes. Slather with dicor. Place Pannel. Screw in screws (even did some testing on these). And cover top of bracket and screws with dicor.
Have had a couple good storms come through with no leaks.
My concern would be a snow load on the roof with permanent install. I like the Idea of the panels tho. I always pack my boat or dirt bike and generator, weight is not a concern for me. We normally stay where no one else is so we can make all the noise we want or
To sites with hookup. I have a 3000w inverter Gen it does well. I had my Ac running full out and used the microwave and hot water turned on. I have been looking into solar panels but only to charge my 2 12v deep batteries at this point.
I'm not concerned about snow....the same weight will be on the roof as before...and snow tends to clear off the panels before the rest of the roof. At least on the panels I've seen mounted on houses here in the northeast of the US...not sure how much more snow you get in Vancouver. You could always get several of the less efficient flexible panels - those would carry the same load as the roof - and no holes!
My goal is to be able to hit a bunch of the state/national parks which do not have hookups...but that also means being friendly to my neighbors
My pump is so quite now I can Stand next to it and barely hear it run. Mounting the pump to the red rubber then the red rubber to the floor totally solved my issue.
I mounted the pump to the red rubber then the red rubber to the floor. It totally solved my issue. I made sure the bolts connecting the pump to the red rubber didn't touch the floor.
I'll put that on my project list, I want to look at the pump mounting anyway. On our first dry trip with the X213 the pump was audible but not obtrusive. On the second trip it made the kitchen faucet shake and was much louder. Purged the lines on every faucet, including the outside shower, but no improvement. I'll make sure it's mounted well, try your method, and maybe even grab an accumulator since they're so easy to attach and are not expensive.
__________________
2021 GD Transcend 261BH
2019 F250 SRW SWB CC 6.2
Formerly: 2016 X213 & 2014 F150 CC 3.5EB
Bosco...thanks for putting up the pictures of the front end headspace mod...now my wife is asking me to to this to ours. Was the paneling easy to pull off without causing damage to it?
I was able to pry open gently and slowly without any damage. Cut the one edge first, I lined the edge with duck tape so my saw blade wouldn't scratch anything. The liner inside is paper thin white plastic I put in. The gas struts I bought are rated for 60nm or lbs. They came from Online Shopping for Cool Gadgets, RC helicopter & Quadcopter, Mobile Phone, Fashion at Banggood.com ($10 for the pair).the area is 8'x23"x30" tons of room for kids toys.
Linear Mode
