So... Solar panels... yeah?

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SinnTek

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http://www.amazon.com/WINDYNATION-C..._sbs_lg_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DNYHHX5W29EEM93Q3DE

So I am looking at buying this for my van setup and was wondering... What else do I need?

I mean I know I need a battery, but what all goes into setting up a good solar power source?

I am not planning on using this as an all day thing more of when I'm not working or when I can't sleep at night.

The items I will be using this for are :

Nintendo DS
Toshiba EnergyStar Laptop

and

Possibly a Smart TV.

I don't know the exact amperage, but I am probably on average only going to be using these things in the van if I cannot sleep.

I do eventually want to get a AC unit installed though as I don't plan on staying in the midwest forever.
 
while I now nothing about that company or that set up, that looks like a pretty complete system. I would give up on running an ac off of a battery. hopefully more members will chime in about this system. highdesertranger
 
So lets talk a bit about solar as part of your rig before you buy anything.

Solar is part of a balanced system including knowing your needs on a daily average, having enough battery to cover those needs for a bit when the sun doesn't shine, enough solar to bring that battery back up in a reasonable amount of time when the sun does shine and finally a back up means of charging when the sun doesn't shine long enough that the battery runs out.

Knowing your power is nothing more than finding a way to total your consumption in a 24 hour period. You seem to have a pretty set list so you can just look at the plates and see what they say it uses. In 12v items if it says it uses 1 amp, it uses 1 amp a hour. With 120v devices you have to convert to 12v and account for loses in the inverter used to make 120v power. Either way you can roughly estimate that you will use this TV that takes X amount of amps a hour for four hours and do it with each item. The total is how much you use. The info is often listed in spec sheets or websites so you don't have to have the items like if using voltage drop or a amp hour counter.

So say you are going to use 25 Ah a day. Since you can only use a battery down to 12v before it has to be charged, a battery that has 100 ah of storage is only good for 50 ah in reality. How long you want to be able to go is up to you, your budget and space available. Some can go a week, others can barely make it over night.

Now the solar part comes in. Once you understand how much power you use and how much battery you need to last however long you want between charging, you will know how much solar panel to get to keep it happy. One watt to one and a half watts of solar panel to each Ah of battery is one rule of thumb so that 100w of solar is good for 75 Ah to 100 Ah of battery. That's a grp 24 or grp 27 marine battery.

The back up

Now you never want your battery to get too low, it can damage or even kill it. You also don't want it sitting around partially charged or charge it but not back up to 100% every so often. Doing so will reduce the ability of the battery to hold a charge. Your 100 Ah battery may become a 80 Ah battery without you even knowing it. So either you have to have a generator with a charger or the ability to connect it to the alternator when the sun doesn't play fair for too long. In the end if thei is only going to be a once in a while thing, having the generator may make more sense than the solar.

So do a bit of home work so that you know the solar system you are looking at is what you will need. As you do so read up on solar so that you understand what you are buying too. That way you spend your money in the best way to meet your needs.


BTW

Air conditioning on solar can be done. We use the equivalent of 7 of the panels in the system you are looking at to provide the power. The are on the ground so they can be kept pointed at the sun for full power while it runs. There is a 160 lb 250 amp hour battery that isn't needed for running it but it is needed to handle the huge starting surge of the compressor. All of that is to run the smallest AC unit I could find pulling around 400w at 120v.
 
jimindenver said:
So lets talk a bit about solar as part of your rig before you buy anything.

Solar is part of a balanced system including knowing your needs on a daily average, having enough battery to cover those needs for a bit when the sun doesn't shine, enough solar to bring that battery back up in a reasonable amount of time when the sun does shine and finally a back up means of charging when the sun doesn't shine long enough that the battery runs out.


Wow, that was an extremely well written paragraph! Kinda said it all!! :)
Bob
 
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