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Originally Posted by LenS
I would think that: 1. being able to point panels at sun. 2. being able to avoid shade That half of that capacity would be adequate for a van........say 100w ish of PORTABLE solar panels?? Assuming few cloudy days though.
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Just a bit of "one-source and only over two months" data: I added a pair of 100 watt Grape flexible panels to my rig in early June. I had been resisting portable panels (meanwhile planning a large rooftop array of "hard" panels) because I couldn't figure out where to put them when traveling. Plus I like to be ready to roll and didn't want stuff to fuss with prior to that.
Then a visit to a friend who lives off grid prompted me to put together something quickly. And I figured out that the two 100 watt panels (they are each around 21" wide, 42" tall, and 1/4" thick) would fit standing up right behind the driver's seat in my rig. I wired up a temporary (but well wired) system with the two panels in series and away I went.
I only have two 12volt cigarette outlets running on the system right now. Into one is plugged my Waeco CF50 cooler (Danfoss 35 compressor refrigerator), and into the other is a "power strip" that takes 12v cig plugs plus USB plugs. I use that for laptop, phone, AA batt, iPad, etc. charging.
Well, it has worked so well that I'm now planning to reduce roof panelage and keep this as a permanent part of the system. Right now I'm parked in deep shade and the panels are cranking away in full sun (while my camping buddy had to park in full sun with only roof panels). I do still want some roof solar too though so that if only stopping for a day or two I don't have to deploy the ground panels.
Of course it's the best time of year for solar, and pretty much every day has been sunny, but the panels are more than keeping up with my minimal loads. Still up at 12.8 or so at overnight resting voltage most nights (over 95% SOC), and back up to full each day. I do have a proportionately large battery bank right now, because I sized that for the eventual more solar (375 amp hours of AGM). My plan was/is that I would have turned the refrigerator off if it had started really drawing the batteries down because I don't know that I could ever have caught back up with the smaller array (don't have alternator attached to this bank yet, just solar).
Anyway, I've been really impressed with how well it has worked. I don't expect a really long life from the panels (they just look kind of wimpy compared to glass panels, physically), but I couldn't do this with glass panels, and we'll see what's on the market when these die. Maybe something like Aurinco or Solbian will have come down a bit in cost. Oh, and I didn't even know about the Overland Solar when I bought these, so obviously that is another good option.
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