100W Simple Set Up

[john61ct]

Aha, yes then you're likely fine.

Are you driving enough between Day1 and going home to make it worthwhile charging from Alternator?

 

[FosterWV]

Aha, yes then you're likely fine.

Are you driving enough between Day1 and going home to make it worthwhile charging from Alternator?

I wired it to charge towing, but I always charge once home to full charge. We have a 4 amp NOCO onboard charger when we camp and there’s electricity.

 

[FosterWV]

To follow up it’s floating around 13.8V and 2.5/3 amps at 7:30am sunrise. Around 9am 14V+ and 4-4.5 amps. Being a newb to Solar not sure how great this is but…. from my math if we can get 6-7 hours a day should be worth it. Total investment $230. Hope this info helps other beginners.

 

[67cj5]

Thanks I’ll double check when wiring up the connectors, I’m still looking at other options to pass thru a wall and be able to disconnect etc

I’ll check voltage output etc as well

First off you would need to fully charge those batteries from a Wall outlet before you begin your Trip, Second you need to forget the PWM Controller because it will waste too much power and take too long to convert the power the panel can make during peak hours and on cloudy days you will be flayout making 20w an hour, I got my brother to test his two 260w panels in series on a very cloudy day and all he manage to get was between 18w and 29w from a total of 520w coming from 2 panels,

Your Batteries are just too big for that panel, Taking the above in to account you are going to struggle to replace the power you use over night without getting close to what you use during the day,

Maybe you need to add a second panel and store it while travelling and put it in series when you are around Camp, For batteries of that size you need 200-400w just break even of Bright sunny days,

Good luck and I hope your successful.

 

[FosterWV]

Appreciate your info and it makes sense

I’m new to Solar but not wiring etc. but my goal was to extend my batteries out longer. After 3 days the batteries were at a place where the fridge low voltage kick off was making me nervous when it would cycle/kick on. I was concerned it would turn its self off.

I always leave home w fully charged batteries and while being towed it’s maintained by the Jeep.

Testing it out today the controller went into trickle mode, panel was at 20V + and 13.8V battery was receiving like 1ah when I turned on fridge the meter showed a 3ah pull then the solar control kicked up to 4.5ah. Correct me if I’m wrong but that seems to be covering the fridge. The faucet, lights, fan will pull more of course during non daylight hours but fridge will run less due to less opening closing and lower temps. Should balance out.

Again new to Solar so if this is completely wrong take on this I’m open to advice.

I’ll add I completely understand if I was needing to be off grid indefinitely for long periods of time I’d need to find room for atleast another panel

Thanks again for everyone’s input

 

[67cj5]

Appreciate your info and it makes sense

I’m new to Solar but not wiring etc. but my goal was to extend my batteries out longer. After 3 days the batteries were at a place where the fridge low voltage kick off was making me nervous when it would cycle/kick on. I was concerned it would turn its self off.

I always leave home w fully charged batteries and while being towed it’s maintained by the Jeep.

Testing it out today the controller went into trickle mode, panel was at 20V + and 13.8V battery was receiving like 1ah when I turned on fridge the meter showed a 3ah pull then the solar control kicked up to 4.5ah. Correct me if I’m wrong but that seems to be covering the fridge. The faucet, lights, fan will pull more of course during non daylight hours but fridge will run less due to less opening closing and lower temps. Should balance out.

Again new to Solar so if this is completely wrong take on this I’m open to advice.

I’ll add I completely understand if I was needing to be off grid indefinitely for long periods of time I’d need to find room for atleast another panel

Thanks again for everyone’s input

The reason I got my brother to test those 2 big panels on a cloudy day was so we could see what the worst possible results we could expect to get, baring in mind these 2 panels are 2 x 24v, He was getting 29v+ from one and 30v+ from the other with both hooked in series,

So you might want to do your testing on cloudy days because then any improvements in the weather you know you are going to make good power,

Another thing that will have a bad effect on your power production is if it rains during the night and when the sun comes up the next day you will also get a drop in power production because the solar panels don't like high humidity because the sunlight gets refracted on the water droplets in the atmosphere, This is why most of us get a little excessive when building our solar systems,

Then there is your Fridge power draw, On really hot days you can expect it to chew up to 50A in a 24 hour period and if it is hot and humid then you will struggle to replace the power used on the following day,

At the moment just do lots of testing so you really know what to expect from your system and once you have done that then you will know how it is performing,

Good luck.

 

[FosterWV]

The reason I got my brother to test those 2 big panels on a cloudy day was so we could see what the worst possible results we could expect to get, baring in mind these 2 panels are 2 x 24v, He was getting 29v+ from one and 30v+ from the other with both hooked in series,

So you might want to do your testing on cloudy days because then any improvements in the weather you know you are going to make good power,

Another thing that will have a bad effect on your power production is if it rains during the night and when the sun comes up the next day you will also get a drop in power production because the solar panels don't like high humidity because the sunlight gets refracted on the water droplets in the atmosphere, This is why most of us get a little excessive when building our solar systems,

Then there is your Fridge power draw, On really hot days you can expect it to chew up to 50A in a 24 hour period and if it is hot and humid then you will struggle to replace the power used on the following day,

At the moment just do lots of testing so you really know what to expect from your system and once you have done that them you will know how it is performing,

Good luck.

That’s a good test for cloudy days, I’ll see what it does next overcast day. I tested the fridge at different running temps and outside temps and it averaged 14ah in 24hrs middle summer at home and on the river in the mountains it’s typical much cooler and low humidity. If I had the space/availability I’d def go w overkill w an extra panel.

Thanks again I’ll keep checking it on random days/weather etc

 

[67cj5]

That’s a good test for cloudy days, I’ll see what it does next overcast day. I tested the fridge at different running temps and outside temps and it averaged 14ah in 24hrs middle summer at home and on the river in the mountains it’s typical much cooler and low humidity. If I had the space/availability I’d def go w overkill w an extra panel.

Thanks again I’ll keep checking it on random days/weather etc

So at 14Ah your using roughly 179wh per day, 14Ah x 12.8v = 179.2w.