Quote:
Originally Posted by Mjgibbs
Does anyone have info on using portable solar panals to keep my two 12 volt batteries topped off during dry camping?
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- How long are your dry camping outings now? Weekend (2 days)? Week? Weeks?
- Do you plan on doing more dry camping?
- What size battery(s) do you have now (Ah ratings)? Do you plan on expanding you SOLAR in the future?
I would not recommend any SOLAR panel setup less than 100Watts for any dry camping use. The reason for this is that you only get a few hours of MAX sunlight on any day and with the panels less than 100 watts, the output drops rapidly when you lose the DIRECT sunlight (between 11 and 2PM). Yes, the panels will be supplying output but will not be enough to charge your batteries from the previous nights use.
The reason I ask if you plan to do mostly dry camping, is that you may want to design your basic system so that it is economical, expandable and has the ability to mount permanently on your roof, as you will become tired of lugging the SOLAR kits in and out of your TT. You do not want to have to purchase all new equipment to expand your SOLAR in the future.
An inexpensive system that is expandable and gives you the most WATTS for the buck is the Renogy system. You can design it as a basic system with a larger output SOLAR charge controller (to accept future panels)... you can then mount them on the roof, when you get tired of pulling them out and putting them back. Don't get me wrong, I think there are a lot of good systems out there, but I tend to go with the quality products with the best price per watt. The dollars saved can be used to expand the system to handle more power demands.
I also recommend that you purchase an Electronic Digital Voltage Display so that you can keep an eye on the batteries and shut down when the voltage hits the 12.0VDC level to keep from damaging them.
As Seann45 mentioned there is a lot of good information on the RVing with SOLAR community group. It covers SOLAR of course, batteries, mounting and general questions/information.
Good Luck,
Don
My Registry
RVing with SOLAR
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