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Old 09-15-2019, 04:01 PM   #1
sjturbo
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Another solar question.

I have been thinking of doing a small solar setup. Not mounted but portable.
My question is, will it be enough to help my battery bank. Which consists of four series parallel Trojan T105's. We are not connected to shore power much but have a eu3000 for micro wave and hair drying. DW like to watch Sat tv so that is the biggest draw on our 600W inverter. My thought is two Renogy 100W
panels and a Renogy Rover 20 or 30 amp charge controller. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Old 09-15-2019, 04:20 PM   #2
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Another solar question.

I’m not a solar expert, but I’m thinking 200W is underpowered.
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Old 09-15-2019, 04:38 PM   #3
roadglide
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You have 420 amp hours of battery power that is enough use a toaster with the right pure sign 2000 amp inverter ,I would think 600amp inverter would be ok with 200 watts of solor panels . What size camper do you have 4 105 amp hour batteries?
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Old 09-15-2019, 07:46 PM   #4
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We have a 200w Zamp portable that works well for us. That said we're only trying to refill two, group 24 batteries. The solar will act like a battery charger. A 200w system in full sun will output 14+ volts DC at around 10 amps. Depending on how many amp hours you used the night before, your charging might not catch up with your discharge rate. Evenso, you will certainly extend your days in the field by recharging to the extent you can. 80 to 90% charge should be possible under sunny AZ. skies if the discharge wasn't too great.
One other thing; our 200w portable is heavy. I'd say around 50 pounds. Any larger system might not be as "portable" as you'd like
With the generator as backup (that's how I do it) I think a 200w will be a good option. IMHO
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Old 09-16-2019, 07:49 AM   #5
Stircrazy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjturbo View Post
I have been thinking of doing a small solar setup. Not mounted but portable.
My question is, will it be enough to help my battery bank. Which consists of four series parallel Trojan T105's. We are not connected to shore power much but have a eu3000 for micro wave and hair drying. DW like to watch Sat tv so that is the biggest draw on our 600W inverter. My thought is two Renogy 100W
panels and a Renogy Rover 20 or 30 amp charge controller. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I have 4 235Ah 6volt batteries in my 5th, so I am similar. I started out with 320ah of mounted solar panels and it worked, but I recently upgraded it to 480 watts and I am very happy with it now. I would thing at 200 amps you would be fin in the summer if you didn't use many appliances like your toaster or microwave and are fairly energy efficient. it will extend your battery time but I doubt it would keep it charged right up, especially when it gets colder and you are running the furnace. with my 480 watts of panels I can camp at about 40 degrees leaving the furnace on and using my Keurig to make coffee in the morning and limited microwave use.

I always say get as much as you can afford, if you want to do it in stages make sure your going to get a pannel that is going to be around as you should stick to the same kind.

Steve
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Old 09-16-2019, 09:03 AM   #6
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Thanks for the responses. For additional clarification: Our rig is a 2010 Laredo 316RL. We have 4 T102's in series parallel. The converter is a PD9260 and the inverter is a 600W Pure Sine. The only thing we use the 600 watt PS inverter for is to run the tele, the SAT receiver and charge phones. The EU3000 Gen is used when we, (DW), uses the hair dryer or we use the microwave. All lights are LED. No other appliances are used.
We do some cold weather boondocking but if I need to I can always crank up the gene and let the converter (with charge wizard) do the work. I was interested to get opinions on 200W solar as a trickle alternative.
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Old 09-16-2019, 10:15 AM   #7
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I think with the limited 120VAC use you mention a 200w unit will work just fine to keep your battery charge level up. Our usage and camping style are very similar. We're just not set up with as much battery storage capacity. We've done a week of dry camping with out taking the generator out of the truck. Solar charge only. Stove top percolator coffee and a griddle for a toaster. Works fine for us
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Old 09-16-2019, 01:57 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjturbo View Post
Thanks for the responses. For additional clarification: Our rig is a 2010 Laredo 316RL. We have 4 T102's in series parallel. The converter is a PD9260 and the inverter is a 600W Pure Sine. The only thing we use the 600 watt PS inverter for is to run the tele, the SAT receiver and charge phones. The EU3000 Gen is used when we, (DW), uses the hair dryer or we use the microwave. All lights are LED. No other appliances are used.
We do some cold weather boondocking but if I need to I can always crank up the gene and let the converter (with charge wizard) do the work. I was interested to get opinions on 200W solar as a trickle alternative.
I'm useing 3k inverter with 2 250 watt panels and 345 amp hour battery agm . You will bennifet adding a volt meter inside the trailer that will be the best way to find out if you have enough panels to keep you battery good.
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Old 09-16-2019, 04:55 PM   #9
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Here is some simple math that I think is close to accurate.

Say you have 4 6v batteries, with a total of around 400 AH capacity. You use it for 24 hours and drain it to 50%. That means you need 200 AH for charging. 2 panels can give you up to 10 amps charging per hour and say you have good sun for 4 hours, for 40 amps, and 4 more hours of poor sun, for another 20 amps. That totals 60, and you need 200....

I have two panels totally 200watts, they can give me about 60ah charging at the most on a good sunny day, my parasitic draws and lights are about 15-20 amps a day, so if I get good sun, I can recharge and still have enough for some water pump and maybe the furnace just in the morning for 20 min to warm the rig up.
Turn the radio on, charge all the mobile devices, turn the fan in the bathroom on, and I’ll probably max out my solar help and will need to get the generator out for an hour or so.

Running a residential fridge on an inverter while Boondocking , and your foods going to go bad quickly if you don’t get power soon.

Plenty of Experts here, correct me if My math is wrong.
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Old 09-16-2019, 07:05 PM   #10
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I think your math is spot on. According to the OP, his overnight amp draw is minimal. Pretty sure 200w of solar can keep up. If the batteries get too low say 70% (12.3) volts then the genny can bring them back to 100% pretty quickly.
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Old 09-17-2019, 04:53 AM   #11
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'help my battery bank' sure, no problem.



just run generator once a day for a while and your'e all set, gosh you have 4 batteries.
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Old 11-18-2019, 07:12 PM   #12
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I would put at least four 100 watt panels on your roof. The solar panels themselves are cheap. Once you put them on you can forget them. You can try chasing the sun with your portable panels but that sounds like a hassle. I like your battery bank. I have the same amount of batteries in my camper. I never have to worry about having enough power.. This way have at least 200 Amps of usable power.
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Old 11-18-2019, 07:22 PM   #13
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I camped in Colorado this summer for two weeks. Never once took the generator out.
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Old 03-18-2020, 05:46 PM   #14
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I have 2 - 100 watt Newpowa panels with a Epever 20 amp charge controller. Also have a 1000 watt inverter to power my tv's and cordless impact. 2 - 6 volt deep cycle batteries are my power supply. We are always in the bush when we camp so we are never connected to shore power, and a lot of our trips are 9 or 10 days. We don't use a lot of power. We're camping! We're outside most of the time! But there is still the water pump to run, lights at night, Fantastic fan, stove fan etc. The biggest draw we have is when the weather turns nasty, as that is movie day. I have a 28" LED TV with a built in DVD player that runs from 1 to 3 movies a day if it's pouring outside. Even with overcast conditions and above power draws, we have never run out of power. My system is more than adequate for what I need, but every system needs to be built to sustain your needs. IMO, 200 amp is lots.
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Old 03-18-2020, 06:09 PM   #15
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In addition to the solar you might consider a second battery charger... Your PD9260 has a 60amp charger in it... Add a second 60 amp charger next to the battery that you plug directly into the generator and an hour of generator time will give you 120ah... (Double check your batteries max charging and make sure they are wired in such a way to allow the 120a to be evenly distributed)...

Here is an excellent article on how to make sure your charger is evenly distributed...

https://www.impactbattery.com/blog/t...s-in-parallel/

Also check out this video...

https://youtu.be/6kgF_RlZyR4
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