Solar install

[Newk]

looking to put solar on Seneca FS 2018.5. Any suggestions on kits would be helpful. The house batteries will need to be replaced, they are Harris rc 160s. Not sure what there ahs are. Not interested In lithium so im thinking AGM. Thanks

[ependydad]

I'm not a fan of kits. They're often overpriced versus buying parts.

Have you decided what your power needs are? What do you want to run? How long do you want to run those things? And how many cloudy days do you want to be able to tolerate?

That all defines the batteries and solar needed.

[Newk]

Just starting to do my research. Mostly just want keep the batteries topped off and be able to have tv , lights and heat at night without having to run the Gen.

[Newk]

Not sure if it matters but im from the pacific north west. Lots of cloudy days.

[RogerR]

Before you get a kit try to figure what number of amps you will need to recharge whatever batteries you have or get. In my case I need only enough to run my furnace on cold nights, lights, water pump, computer and phone recharges plus maybe some TV time. Past experience said maybe 25 to 35 amps a day. Based on that I went with 200 watts of Renogy solar and an efficient MPPT to recharge my lithium 100. Found a sale on a 200 watt kit and all I needed to buy was a gland, shut off switches to make it work. I like the Renogy MPPT and battery as they Bluetooth battery and solar status. I caught a sale on the kit plus a discount coupon. If you know a Renogy owner they can refer you for a 7% discount.

[Newk]

Was thinking about getting 4 of the Renogy 100ah batteries. The Seneca is pre wired for solar, but im not sure how much solar its wired for. Im looking through my manuals now.

[Rustynuts]

I started with a Renogy kit, 400 watts which worked good for about a year, but then started having issues with the Renogy equipment, the charger and Bluetooth capability and after having terrible experience with customer support and going through 2 Rover chargers, they refused to warranty the second one, I made changes. I would not buy a kit, it’s not hard to piece things together, cheaper, there are plenty of schematics out there to go by. Your 2018.5 should be prewired just like mine was and should be 8ga from the roof jacks down to the compartment by the inverter so it’s the rest is pretty easy. Yiu should figure out you minimum needs but also being the PNW, figure high or just add what you can afford, I have never heard anybody say “darn, I installed to much solar”

Knowing what I have learned, I would suggest buying Rich Solar panels, using Blue Sea disconnects and breakers and a Victron MPPT charge controller and Victron Smart Shunt. Depending on if the panels are wired in series, parallel or a mix of series/parallel will help determine the size of charge controller you will need and how they are wired can depend on the limits of the 8ga solar prep and panel ratings. With your 8ga, you can easily run six 100 watt panels wired two sets of 3 panels in series and then the two sets connected on parallel and using a Victron MPPT 100/50 charger. Before I switch to Lithium, I did a was using Lifeline AGM batteries and they worked great and are very well built but on the high end price wise.

I started with 400 watts and added 200 for a total of 600 on the setup I just described but recently added three 200 watt Rich Solar panels and now have a total of 1200 watts running through 2 Victron 100/50 chargers. I did also upgrade the wiring from the roof from the 8ga to 6ga welding wire as Jaycos solar prep wiring winds around the coach and I estimated the 8ga prep wire runs about 60’ to get to the compartment bay, my new run is down to 22’. Here is a prewired panel before it went into the coach.

Here is a good panel/charge controller calculator.

https://www.diyrenewable.com/charge-...er-calculator/

[Rustynuts]

Here is a picture of the original install with the Renogy Rover charge and after 2 failed units and Renogy refusing to warranty the second it switched to the Victron charger and smart shunt with Bluetooth built in.

[Newk]

Thanks for the input Rusty . Ran across you original build post last night. Very detailed thank. And thank you to everyone else for your input.

[Newk]

Thanks for the input Rusty . Ran across you original build post last night. Very detailed thank. And thank you to everyone else for your input.

[repeach]

What Rustynuts said.
I did my first install with some cheap flex panels. Put them in the trash in less than a year. I replaced them with Rich Solar and could not be happier.
I went with 510 watts (3 panels 170 watt) and a 40 amp controller. I want to add another panel and I am kicking myself in the butt for not oversizing the controller. I wish I had put an 80 or 100 amp controller in.
I made my own mounting brackets out of aluminum purchased at Lowes. 90 degree angle on the roof and 1 inch plates for the mounts to the angle. I made extra mounts with different holes for different angles. Everything is sealed with LAP caulk and some Eternabond tape. Instead of drilling a bunch of holes in the roof to secure the wires I just used a blob of LAP to hold all the wires in place.
It has been functioning perfect for 3 years now.

[EricM22]

I have a Renogy system, no problems after 2 years (fingers crossed?). I would recommend oversizing your MPPT controller for future expansion. Once you start seeing the benefits of solar you will probably want to upgrade your capacity.

I started out with three 100w panels, later added two more for 500 watts total. Now I want to go to 800 or 1000w later this spring when it warms up enough for installation to be a bit more pleasant to do all the re-wiring for series/parallel. Solar is SOOOO much better than occasionally running the generator.

Also, use Rustynuts' example - wire everything to a board and THEN install into a compartment for final wiring, so much easier that way.

[ScoobyMike]

In winter, tilted panels produce 3x more power than flat panels.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by ScoobyMike

In winter, tilted panels produce 3x more power than flat panels.

I can imagine there's an improvement, but 3x seems like a lot. I see about 60-70% of my panels rated output when flat mounted on my roof with no shadows. So of my 4100 watts, I'm seeing 2,500-2,900 watts coming down at any give point in full sun.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the "3x" claim.

[ScoobyMike]

It depends on the time of year and your latitude. I camp in the SoCal desert on Thanksgiving. I have a 100W panel flat on my roof and a 100W portable panel that I can tilt. I get 2 amps to the battery from the roof panel and 6 amps from the tilted panel.

I agree that it seems high. Lamberts law says the irradiance falls off as the cosine of the incident angle, indicating a falloff of around a factor of 2 however there are at least 2 other factors:

- first surface reflections increase dramatically with angle of incidence

- lens illumination falls off cosine raised to the 4th power (affects panels with lenslets)

Bottom line, tilting panels dramatically increases solar efficiency.

[440 scout]

There is a data information label on the back side of most solar panels. 100 watt solar panels are usually rated at 5 amps max output and 200 watt panels are around 10 amps output. Of course thats in June on a cloudless day when the sun is closest to directly overhead. I have seen 52 amps (when my batteries were depleted) from my roof mounted 1000 watt system (5 Rich Solar 200 watt panels) at the end of May and 27 amps in December. I put a larger than average system on the roof because I don't want to deal with having adjust tilt, etc and because of the lower charging amps November through February. Also I was able to use 8awg solar cables from the roof to the solar charge controller but had to drill out the inlet side MC-4 connectors so the 8awg solar cables would fit inside the Mc4 connectors. Then crimped and soldered each one. 10awg solar cables fit into my Mc4 connectors just fine but thats about their limit unless modified.

[Rustynuts]

Originally Posted by 440 scout

Also I was able to use 8awg solar cables from the roof to the solar charge controller but had to drill out the inlet side MC-4 connectors so the 8awg solar cables would fit inside the Mc4 connectors. Then crimped and soldered each one. 10awg solar cables fit into my Mc4 connectors just fine but thats about their limit unless modified.

I have found that certain brands (cheap Amazon ones) can run smaller for the ID, they also can be listed for 8ga or 10ga. It did t used to be an issue but with more and more knockoff connectors, it can be an issue. Also a big debate over soldering connections on vehicles due to failure where the wire/solder joint ends due to vibration, I do not solder anything on vehicles.