How many watts of solar are you running and what kind of batteries?

[SternWake]

1 Kyocera 130 watt framed panel with junction box on panel
1 Unisolar pvl-68 watt adhesive flexible panel(mc3 connectors)
In parallel, Flat on roof, though the Kyocera can be tilted 90 degrees toward either side of Van, but almost never is.

130 watt panel has ~ 17' of 8awg to controller input
68 watt has ~17' of 10 awg to controller input
Controller has 4awg to battery through a 30 amp circuit breaker.

Max amps at solar  noon June 21 is about 13.5.  Now in September, about 11.7 amps.

Solar Controller is a BlueSky sb2512i MPPT with the optional IPN pro remote battery monitor which allows for custom voltages and durations.

Kyocera and Bluesky components installed in '07, Unisolar-68 panel added a few years ago.  The Unisolar is good in low light and low sun angles increasing total solar  harvest more than expected.
Right now this 198 watts feeds only a single 90AH Northstar group 27 AGM battery which is both house and engine starting battery.

4 cycles to 50% are OK on solar only recharging, the 5th night the voltage under load  while discharging decreases noticeably, after this point it needs a high amp recharge from the most depleted state.  Alternator or my Power supply feed it 40+ amps and restores performance and makes for a happy AGM.  Solar only recharges after 5 or 6 deep cycles makes for an increasingly unhappy AGM, and then getting  amps to taper to 0.42 @ 14.46v takes much much longer, and if 14.46v is not held long enough, then full performance is not restored.

I consume 35 to 65AH from this 90AH battery each night 4 to 5 nights a week.  I suspect its true capacity  is closer to 105AH but I will not be running a true 100% discharge capacity test over 20 hours to test that guess.

It still easily starts my engine at 65AH from full and then can gobble up upto 110 amps from my heavily cabled  alternator if the engine RPMS are there and the V belt is not too slick with condensation.

I'll acquire a 12v 150AH flooded battery for a house battery by mid autumn, before winter definitely, and the Northstar will go back to the easy life.

If I had to do it over, I'd mount a single Kyocera 335 watt panel on the roof, and reinforce the frame edges and support the center of the large panel and get a MPPT charge controller capable of handling it.

I'd still get a 150AH Trojan T-1275 Flooded battery for deep cycling, and while the AGM is overkill for engine starting only, It is nice to have a battery capable of excelling at both.  I would not be confident cycling flooded battery to 50% or deeper, if it was also my engine starting battery.

My SB2512i is MPPT, but cannot handle 24 or 36 volt nominal panels .
In 2007, my 130 watt panel cost 750$ delivered.

 

[ZoNiE]

Funny, a lot of us have the Kyocera panels...

Fortunately, I paid only $65 per panel, New Old Stock in the box from a guy on CL who did pay $700 per panel. Ouch. I Should have bought all six, as eventually I bought a fourth used one for $65.

 

[Anans1]

500W in two panels, charging a pair of 8D batteries giving ~500ah of storage. Runs a mini fridge and tv/computer. I'm thinking about replacing my batteries soon though and upgrading to a trio of them.

 

[flying kurbmaster]

you guys use a lot of power, can you run microwaves and toasters with 4-500 watts...??? I would like to have a toaster, My currant set up is one 12v deep cycle house battery not sure of the amp hours, not particularly expensive,maybe 100 bucks, I have had it for at least 4 years now, I use very little power so I manage to keep it charged with a 40 watt panel, I can charge my laptop, run all my LED lights, 4 of them if needed, the fan for the heater, extractor fan, and a couple of movies a night on the TV. I don't have a compressor fridge yet so I use an ice box, that can be plugged in to 12 volt but I don't, as it is very power hungry but mostly it is noisy with a fan running all the time. I do have two 68 watt unisol panels that I have not installed as of yet as I am waiting to get a proper fridge, still haven't found the right one, so I see no need for them until I get the fridge so they are sitting in storage,To sum it up, at this time my phone and computer get charged,I run my cd player/ radio, Ipod player, fans, run when I want to, I can run three hours of tv with the dvd player hooked up to a 75 watt inverter, and the battery is never below 12 volts, everything is 12 volt except the dvd player, so I guess it all depends on how much power you want to use because you can get away with very little if you want to or your power needs are low, most of the time my phone gets charged at work. the last time I charged the battery from a charger was 4 months ago, I heard that it is a good idea to give it a bit of a boil once in a while.

 

[jimindenver]

There are single slice toasters that pull around 460w I believe. They are called bachelor toasters.

Last year we had 490w. We used the microwave, coffee pot, hair dryer and vacuum but the system couldn't run them directly. The battery had to pull the bulk of the load and the system helped. Once the load stops the system would replaced what it didn't cover pretty quick.

I could run a toaster oven with this years system.

 

[psytechguy]

Full timer here.

240 watt Samsung high voltage panel
Morningstar Tri-Star 45 MPPT controller (overkill for this application, but it sure works great and leaves lots of room to expand. I'd originally bought it for an off grid cabin, but plans changed)
110 AH Sunsaver 12 volt AGM battery

I run all LED lights, an ARB 12 volt refrigerator/freezer, a TV and media player, USB charging ports, water pump, Fantastic Fan vent fan, a couple of O2 fans, and various radios and computer toys with this setup.

This is all in a slide-in truck camper.

In just under 2 years of use, I've never gone below 80% of charge in a days use. Usually charged back up to 100% by noon.

I have another of these panels, but haven't felt the need for it or any additional batteries.

 

[SternWake]

110 AH Sunsaver 12 volt AGM battery

Is this the Concorde Sun Extender battery?

http://www.sunxtender.com/12_volt.php

Concorde makes Lifeline AGMs too.  I think(opinion) the Sun extender and Lifeline are the same exact product with different stickers and Sun extender does not list the standard 20 hour capacity rate.

I was very impressed with a Lifeline GPL-31XT battery I got to break in for a friends project, But Lifeline AGMs are amp hungry when discharged to 50%.

Only Discharged to 80%,  it is likely very happy with your 245 watts, but if you can, feed it higher amps from its most depleted state and see if the voltages on the next discharge are held a bit higher.

My Northstar AGM loves high amp recharges after a bunch of low and slow solar recharges, but I cycle mine to 50% or below regularly.

I wish I had more solar, though I never wish I had more battery.  I only have the Northstar at the moment too.  90AH to power all house loads and still start my engine in the morning.  Never a problem in the 3 months of doing this over the summer.  Winter is another  story.

 

[psytechguy]

Is this the Concorde Sun Extender battery?

http://www.sunxtender.com/12_volt.php

Yessir, "Extender," not "Saver!" My bad!
It's the PVX-1080T.

It's a little on the expensive side at $300 or so, but I wanted to go with a high performance sealed battery since it's in the living quarters with me. I've been very pleased with it.

ETA:
I have an Iota charger that I use to give it a really good charge every couple of months or so. Whenever I have access to shore power.

 

[SternWake]

Nice plan, and nice battery. 300$ for that battery is a good deal. The Lifeline gpl-31XT (125AH) I got for a friend's project was 410$ with tax and core charge but fresh from the factory in West Covina.
Iota's 14.7v is a little higher than Concorde recommends, but as long as it is not 85 degrees or hotter it should be Old Kinderhook.

Ideally, you want amps to taper to 0.525 amps at 14.4v whenever you recharge, before the controller drops to float at 13.2 to 13.4 for this battery.

Discharging to 50% or deeper is where the higher amp recharges at 20%(21 amps for that 105AH) + is required for best cycle life.

Page 19 and 20:
http://www.sunxtender.com/pdfs/Sun_Xtender_Battery_Technical_Manual.pdf

 

[jimindenver]

The Sun extender batteries appear to be the same as my Lifelines, is there a difference in price?. I wonder if the different label is just to attract solar users. As it is, even as big and heavy as my 8-Ds are, I would not trade my Lifelines. It's so nice to wake up to 12.8v after running the furnace at night.

I didn't give the details of my system.

Three 250w Navajo poly panels.
The Lifeline 8-D AGM at 225 Ah each.
Morningstar TS-MPPT-60 controller with remote display.
Wiring is 1/0 welding cable using a 16 ton crimping tool to terminate the custom lengths with tinned pin or ring lugs.
A Tripp-lite 1250fc industrial inverter.

The trailer does have its own Interstate grp 27 battery for while on the road and the portable system consisting of a Schott poly 230w panel and Eco-worthy 20a controller.

The only things listed that are not made in the USA are the two controllers and the crimping tool. The system is designed to handle the 5000 BTU A/c direct and be able to carry us through a week of cloudy weather. Even then the panels can deliver up to 25 amps in overcast conditions. As Bob says, it is built for the worse case scenario and can laugh it off.

What we do with it is treat the trailer like a rolling cabin on the grid. We are limited to the little A/C but other than that we use electric to cook, heat water, heat the bathroom, watch TV all day and half the night, We will add a residential mini fridge for extended trips in the future. So far the lowest the bank has seen is 12.5 resting, that was after 48 hours of clouds and no backing off the heavier loads.

It is a lot of weigh, hassle and cash for the system, having your own power plant on the road is priceless.

 

[akrvbob]

To me the lessons we're seeing here is that size your system to rarely go below 80% and your batteries are going to be very happy and last a long time.

I don't believe my batteries have gone below 90% all summer and I use my microwave at least 4 times or more a week.

My Dometic CF25 compressor fridge died so I've used ice all summer, but I'm totally confident that even with it I'd never go below 80%
Bob