Solar power for camping/overlanding trips installed 6 27 2009

[Hudson]

Corey, funny, I live just up the hwy from you, and just bought a fridge (national luna 50) and now looking at options to power it on 2-3 day camp trips. I had thought about doing a dual battery setup up, but it's not portable. The solar panel option completely intrigues me, but it does add significant cost (looks like about $800 plus the cost of a good battery and controller). The Goal Zero Extreme PP option seems very interesting too, and is very portable.

I'd like to have one (preferably portable) battery charged directly from a solar panel to run the fridge for 2-3 day trips. Any thoughts on the Goal Zero 350 extreme running on Goal Zero panels vs. a a Goal Zero Extreme 350 running off a foldable panel, vs. your original setup (foldable panel powering 2nd battery)?

 

[Corey]

Hey Hudson, I take it you are up further in South Auburn or Enumclaw?
You might see me tolling around sometime.

I know a 60 watt panel like I have is enough to power the fridge by itself, and the Extreme 350 battery pack should work.
However I would think you will need lots of sunlight during the day to keep it topped off so it can run the fridge at night too.

My rigs batteries obviously have more reserve capacity in them than the Extreme.
expdtnoffroad might know the answer to this.
Pretty sure my ARB fridge pulls around 1.7 amps when it is running.

Oh, I got the adapter cable too from expdtnoffroad, so I can now recharge the Extreme battery in the field via my Powerfilm 60 watt panel.
Very cool setup.

 

[Hudson]

Snoqualmie, actually.

The fridge pulls about 1.8 amps. Idea would be to have it run during the day from a high capacity aux battery, probably an AGM Type 31, which I could place in my dirt bike trailer's nose box. Battery would recharge from the panel during the day.

I like the portability of your setup, but since I do a lot of dirt bike camping, I'd hate to leave such an expensive piece exposed while recharging. Maybe better (and cheaper) to get a large 80 watt solar hard panel, and craft a mount, either on my roof rack or maybe on the trailer where I could position it better for max sun exposure.

From your post, I think I am talking myself out of the Goal Zero setup since its battery capacity is limited.

 

[Corey]

The current 60 watt panel I have hooked up directly to my main starting battery has not let me down when dry camping for five days at a time.
Even before I got the solar I camped weekends without starting up the rig at all and it fired right up when using the fridge and the tent light.
Also one time at home several years ago I ran the fridge straight for about five days with no starting, and it fired up when it was time to go to work.
A hair sluggish cranking over, but it still fired up.

That was with the stock factory Panasonic battery from July of 2006, and I am still on that battery today.

 

[lala412]

I know this is an old thread, but:

I'm getting an Air Top RTT. I've had an ARB 50 fridge for about 9 months. It has drained my battery twice, once on an old battery (6 year old battery) and once at Thanksgiving when I visited family and it was plugged in for about six days because I got sick and never went out in the freezing cold to unplug it after the indoor refrigerators were cleared out a bit. I want to use the fridge when I take a road trip after I get the tent, but not without backup. The foldup panel sounds great, but is there no way to mount a panel to the roof of an RRT? I'm going to guess not or it would have been done. I know it would completely mess up the aerodynamics, but I didn't know if there would be a way to do it without hurting the shell.

If I had a larger vehicle, I would try to mount it to the roof rack along with the tent. However, I'm guessing I am going to lose my skylight as it is by putting the tent on there - no way there will be room for a solar panel up there, too.

Laura

 

[jonyjoe101]

You probably need to look into the flexible solar panels. youtube has videos on how to install them on boats and rv's. They are lightweight and can bend to the shape of your roof. There is probably a way to mount panels on your roof. I see some people just velcro them to the roof and then take them own when they drive.

For the danfoss compressor 12 volt fridges, those do require at least 5 amps when they first start and then settle down to about 3 amps. Over a 24 hour period it might average out to a little over 1 amp. I measured this with a dc wattmeter on my edgestar fp430.

60 watt would be the bare minimum to keep the battery topped off, I actually had a 120 watt panel (7 amps of charge power) on the roof of my van and eventually replaced it with a 240 watt panel (12 amps of charge power).

 

[Corey]

Personally I would not mount a solar panel to the top of a roof top tent, and the main reason would be sun tracking.
You may want to park your rig in the shade, and a panel like the Renogy below would be a good option to set on the ground.

I still use the folding solar panel to keep my main starting battery topped off while camping as that is the battery the fridge is plugged into too.
But a cheaper alternative for you would be the Renogy 100 watt folding panel.
I also have that one, and I use it to keep my ArkPac charged up.
Huge thread here, but the Renogy is talked about later in the thread.
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/114484-100W-Portable-kit-on-ebay

This is the model I have, and it is very easy to reposition it to track the sun.
http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Foldab...F8&qid=1425810412&sr=8-6&keywords=renogy+100w

Nice thing about it is it is way cheaper than my folding setup which I had to add an under hood charge controller to it, and various wiring.
The Renogy kit is plug and play.
Hook it to your main battery or whatever battery the fridge is hooked to, and it will keep it charged up while camping.

Here is a good video I posted at the end of the above thread, and it is the same Renogy 100 watt panel I have.

 

[rayra]

Does that folding sheet panel have any sort of grommets or loops on its edges or corners so you could stake it out or run guy lines thru the edges to stake it out taught?

I have a smaller wallet-size folding panel that recharges AA batts and has a USB jack for powering small devices, it came with corner grommets that make it real easy to tie to a pack or tent wall.

 

[Corey]

Yes, my folding one does have grommets.
I have secured it before to my awning when the windshield of my FJ was out of the sun.

 

[shdwkeeper]

Powerfilm 60W with ARB 63qt

I just spent 7 days in the Sequoia National Park, and we have Bear bins that we need to keep our food in. Since the weather was 85+ degrees during day those Bear Bins had to be well over 100+ degrees fahrenheit in there. My setup is a dual battery system, with the 2nd battery being an Optima Yellowtop 27 in a portable battery case that I can move out of truck to be stand alone. When its in the truck it is getting a good charge from the alternator and the ARB plugs right into this 2nd battery and everything is fine.

When camping in Bear country you can't just take your fridge with you, it has to be locked up in these Bear bins, so I lock this ARB up in these bins and leave the battery sitting next to it, connected to the battery is a 60W Powerfilm (http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/?&show=product&productID=271511) foldable solar panel, which than hooks into a Brunton 12v solar controller (http://www.brunton.com/products/solar-controller) Given the size of the trees I fought with getting sun the whole week, probably got about 4-5hrs of sun a day. After 3 days my battery could not keep up with the ARB (had it set to the Lo setting), I constantly found myself unhooking everything and running the battery over to the truck to charge it up again for 30mins, this is a pain in the AZZ. Can this Solar panel not keep up with the demand of this ARB? Do I need a better solar controller? Just purchased the Morning Star Sunsaver 10L to see if this would work better than the Brunton. When this panel is in the Sun its pulling 17-20v, once the ARB kicks in you can see the load it is putting on the battery and the volts just start dropping and the Solar panel in FULL sun can't keep up with the battery. Because of the heat this fridge is turning on quite a bit. Do I need a bigger Solar panel? Any suggestions?

Todd

 

[AndrewP]

Your problem is the refrigerator operating in such a hot, closed, environment. It likely runs nearly continuously. So, 3 amps x 20 hours per day is 60 amp hours. Your battery is a 75 amp hour battery, but you can realistically use only 50% of that and expect it to last, so given your current set up, your battery is too small.

A 60 watt panel can make maybe on a good day, with adjusting to sun angle every hour or so, in full sun 3.5 amps for 6 hours. So that's 21 amp hours. So in any given day, with your set up, you are falling behind by roughly 40 amp hours. So yes, your system is way to small for the loads you have. A different charge controller will make no difference unless yours is broken.

60 watts is not much power, and only in perfect conditions (well vented fridge in the shade, moderate temps, etc) would I expect it to keep up with a fridge. If you really need to operate your system like this, you will need to add, at minimum, a second 60 watt panel. Then you can put 7 amps x 6 hours into your battery and would have a better chance of keeping up with your loads. The Sunsaver 10 is a good controller, I have one. Just be aware that if you damage the temp sensor (the blue thermocouple on the front) the controller will not operate at all.

If you don't yet have an inexpensive power meter like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Amps-Power-An...8&qid=1435583559&sr=8-6&keywords=rc+amp+meter

you should get one and it will very accurately tell you your load in amp hours. That in turn will tell you how much battery and solar you need.

 

[dstock]

I just spent 7 days in the Sequoia National Park, and we have Bear bins that we need to keep our food in. Since the weather was 85+ degrees during day those Bear Bins had to be well over 100+ degrees fahrenheit in there. My setup is a dual battery system, with the 2nd battery being an Optima Yellowtop 27 in a portable battery case that I can move out of truck to be stand alone. When its in the truck it is getting a good charge from the alternator and the ARB plugs right into this 2nd battery and everything is fine.

When camping in Bear country you can't just take your fridge with you, it has to be locked up in these Bear bins, so I lock this ARB up in these bins and leave the battery sitting next to it, connected to the battery is a 60W Powerfilm (http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/?&show=product&productID=271511) foldable solar panel, which than hooks into a Brunton 12v solar controller (http://www.brunton.com/products/solar-controller) Given the size of the trees I fought with getting sun the whole week, probably got about 4-5hrs of sun a day. After 3 days my battery could not keep up with the ARB (had it set to the Lo setting), I constantly found myself unhooking everything and running the battery over to the truck to charge it up again for 30mins, this is a pain in the AZZ. Can this Solar panel not keep up with the demand of this ARB? Do I need a better solar controller? Just purchased the Morning Star Sunsaver 10L to see if this would work better than the Brunton. When this panel is in the Sun its pulling 17-20v, once the ARB kicks in you can see the load it is putting on the battery and the volts just start dropping and the Solar panel in FULL sun can't keep up with the battery. Because of the heat this fridge is turning on quite a bit. Do I need a bigger Solar panel? Any suggestions?

Todd

I know in Yosemite that you must store everything in the bear boxes(and they make you sign a document to that effect) but I thought in places like Sequoia and Mammoth, its ok to have it in the vehicle as long as it is covered up. Is that no longer the case?

As far as a fridge in a bear box, it's a losing battle due to the lack of ventilation. For sure, as AndrewP stated your system is too small for your loads.
I went through a similar process after a trip to Death Valley, here's the thread I started, you can skip to the end for results.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/126732-100-ambient-Temp-ARB-50qt-100-watt-solar-panel-Not-enough

 

[shdwkeeper]

I know in Yosemite that you must store everything in the bear boxes(and they make you sign a document to that effect) but I thought in places like Sequoia and Mammoth, its ok to have it in the vehicle as long as it is covered up. Is that no longer the case?

As far as a fridge in a bear box, it's a losing battle due to the lack of ventilation. For sure, as AndrewP stated your system is too small for your loads.
I went through a similar process after a trip to Death Valley, here's the thread I started, you can skip to the end for results.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/126732-100-ambient-Temp-ARB-50qt-100-watt-solar-panel-Not-enough

Bear Bins are required in Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

We actually had Bears in our camp for 3 days and they got into some folks food, candles, etc... I think I'm going to upgrade to (2) 100W Solar panels with an MPPT controller, this should give me enough amps/watts to put back into the battery with some left over. I can't imagine this fridge is puling 3 amps and 27 watts/hr, but if that is the case I think 11-12amps of solar should keep me topped off.

Thoughts?

 

[dstock]

My solar controller is mounted on my panel and switching to 10 gauge wiring really made a difference in efficiency, something to keep in mind when you re-vamp things.

 

[shdwkeeper]

My solar controller is mounted on my panel and switching to 10 gauge wiring really made a difference in efficiency, something to keep in mind when you re-vamp things.

What controller do you have (weatherproof)?, and what solar panels?