Solar Power

We would like to have installed in our new Landmark, after the purchase, a solar system, and were wondering if any of you have had a good experience with a particular system or have any advice on an installer. We can not find anyone in our area so will have to travel. Have considered a generator such as we have in our present rig, but are not totally happy with a generator because of the carbon monoxide that is omitted from the exhaust. Makes me nervous to sleep with it running as we have been awakened several times by the carbon monoxide detector.

Don I have two solar panels. 15w each. I just got back from a 4 day civil war reenactment (no electric). the two panels keep my two 12 v batteries charged for the four days. I set them on the truck sliding cover and run the wiring into the 5er.

The panels I ordered from the mfg. "Sunsei". they have a web site.

Hope this helps?

Ron

Don,

It depends, on how much power you need and how much money you want to spend.

In our area, we have found that the Kyocera 125's are a very popular panel. We have 3 and run 4 6v trojans. For us that seems to work out quite well.

You can always add panels, if you find you need more, as long as you wire accordingly and get a large enough controller.

Here is a link to the place in Arizona where we got our stuff; http://www.windsun.com/ There is a lot of good info on their site, and they were very helpful, with info.

TimK

Thanks for the reply Ron and Tim, I am thinking of a using four Trojans and three to four 125 watt panels.

Don

Don,
You wont be sorry with the 4 trojans. With 4 125 watt panels, you would behave an awesome system.
TimK

I would like to renew this thread and get some more specific information on installing the solar panels and wiring them into the coach electrical system. I believe that timk and pulltab are both using over 500 watts of panels and would like to hear about their installation, cost, inverter size, maintenance and ability to operate the different electrical appliances. Thanks in advance for any information that you can provide.

John

I am also curious, I am sure that you have to buy accessories for installing and making the proper connections........

The number and size of solar panels you need depends on how much power you need. At Quartzsite out with the ham radio operators we see none to 8+ 125 watt panels. Some people run 2- 2000 watt inverters to run microwaves, tv's, coffee makers and other hi draw items. Some others use very little .
If what you use takes 5 amps on ac you current out of the battery will be about 50amps dc. This is a rough kiss figure. Someone will have the "true" figure.
Be realistic in your calculations of power usage, and hope for nothing but good solar days.
Rand

Cost is probably in the neighborhood of $1800 in panels for me (540 watts) but I started buying panels 5 years ago and then the per watt cost was much lower.(Solar now runs about $4.5-$5 per watt) I bought a refurb xantrex 2000 watt inverter off ebay for about $800. 30 amp controller and Emeter cost about another $350. So all togther I have about 3 grand invested. But I can run nearly anything. I have 6 6v batteries. We run the microwave, the wife uses the sweeper, the hair dryer plus we use the tv, satellite internet and other normal items. You just have to be careful how much you use each day. Obviously the Microwave is a killer so we limit use to about 15 minutes a day. Normally when we boondock we use in the area of 120 amp hours of power by morning. That is normally completely recouped by the next evening. If you are going to run a good size system and do any serious boondocking you need to buy the Emeter which is a gas gage for the batteries. It tracks all power going in and out and gives you the standing result. You have to remember to put the fridge on gas only and turn off the electric water heater along with unplugging your converter. All those will drain you quickly. Especially when the converter is trying to recharge the batteries off the power they are providing. If the day is cloudy we have to watch how much we use or run the generator enough to boost the batteries back up by night.

I used 8ga multi stranded wire from panels to controller. Best to install wire for future expansion so you don't have to redo. I also installed a transfer switch to switch from solar to shore. A note about this is if you use the transfer switch for solar, it has to be the primary input side and the shore is secondary. Normal hookup is shore is primary and generator is secondary. Using solar as primary if the switch does not see it providing power it automatically switchs to secondary which happens to be shore power. It all has to do with how the contacts work. (I ran the wires down one of the vent pipes into the basement.) Sometimes you can use the fridge vent if it is local or easy to get to from where ever you mount your inverter.

The connection to the electrical system I wired direct to the breaker panel. If you do this you have to remember to turn off the breaker for the AC and water heater. That way there is no issue with them being turned on. The ac most likely would kick out anyway but the water heater will heat till batteries are dead. I choose this method so I have electric to all my outlets in the coach. Prewired inveter units from factory normally only provide power to certain outlets.

Don't forget to wire with ample size wires with the appropriate size fuse when connecting to the battery bank.

This is the 3rd unit I have transfered the solar to and love it.

Guys, Not sure where to start.

Rand is right, it depends on how much juice you plan to use. Our last rv was a 23ft trailer and with one 125 watt panel we had all the power we needed. Surprisingly with the Bighorn, we use over twice as much power. More space to light, more tvs, more gadgets etc.


In the next few days I'll get my stuff together, and get you some pics and info on my system. I think somewhere I have a spreadsheet of amp draws for all the stuff we use.

TimK

Tim, the draw is an excellent point as this is how you need to size the system. I bought one of those watt meters you plug your appliance into and it measures it's draw. Got from camping world for about $20 but they can be had cheaper. It's a great tool.

Ok, here’s the scoop on my system.

Inverter is a Xantrex rs2000 http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/40/p/1/pt/29/product.asp I think I paid something near 1000.00 for it. Do be sure to get an inverter that has a built in charger. You can put near 100 amps per hour back into the batteries, depending on how big your battery bank is. If I were doing my system over, I would look for something with less fixed overhead (5 amps for the Xantrex) , and really I don’t think you need the full sine wave inverter for most things. We actually have two inverters, but that’s another story.

We have 4 6v Trojans 60-70 bucks ea.

You need a controller, so you don’t overcharge the batteries. 300.00 or so.

We have 3 Kyocera 125-130 panels about 600.00 ea. http://store.solar-electric.com/kc-120.html

Then you need about a hundred pounds of wire. You’ll be surprised at how much and how large the wire needs to be. The bad news is its ez to spend a hundred bucks on a little bit of wire.

Now for your usage it all depends on how much stuff you need to run. I have attached a spreadsheet of some amp draws that I did a couple of years ago on my small rv. The individual amps are about the same, but with the new rig use more. The calcs are pretty simple amps in and amps out. Its like a glass of water, you put some in and take some out.

With the 4 Trojans, you have about 440 amp hours to use, but only plan on about 220 as a max usage, if you want your batteries to last forever. With our 3 panels the max we normally see is about 20 amps output. So on a 10 hr solar day I would expect something under 180 amp hours per day to be put back in the batteries. But in the winter months shorter days, it could easily drop down to 50-75 amp hours back to the batteries per day.

Also one of the most important goodies is the amp hour meter, we have a link 10, but I don’t think its available anymore. But there are others available. It lets you monitor the batteries like a fuel tank, very helpful item to understand what’s going on.

One other problem, once you get all set up, you run the risk of becoming a solar snob. You just hate to see someone come nearby with a generator, or god forbid a construction generator.

timk, nice set up as usual. Just an aside but xantrex also sells refurbished inverter / chargers. I paid more to install my unit than the unit with the link control.........

When I got the inverter it was a bit of an impulse thing. It was the only thing that camping world had at the time. Patience isn't one of my virtues. Good to know, for next time.

Gentlemen;
Thanks for an excellent description and presentation. Anyone interested in putting in a solar system has the information needed to start the process. This is what this forum is all about.

Thanks again,

John

Tim, excellent choice on all the equipment! I have the exact same controller emeter (link 10) and inverter charger! Great minds think alike!

Aw shucks

Just my take on sine wave. I have the Xantrex 3000 modified inverter. Wont run the micro wave. I think it is enough power but the micro doesn't like it. Think I could have bought an 1800 pure sine wave and it would run anything I need and I would have been happier.

tim there is no need to blush.... great set up

Bill, some microwaves don't like the modified sinewave as you know. The one we had in the Fleetwood didn't. If you set it for 30 seconds it clicked it off in 15 just like it was running on 120 cycles. The one in the bighorn works fine though. Go figure.