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Old 10-19-2014, 01:58 PM   #31
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Re: How do you Mount your Solar Panels?

Quote:
Originally Posted by prally

Any photos of this? I am considering the same setup on the Aluminess roof rack.
Well I'd think Aluminess still has the plans. I had mine made out of smaller tube to reduce weight. OCSMB also did a rack similar to mine. You can see a number of pictures at my web site:

http://autoramblings.com/sportsmobile/

But here is a pic to give you an idea. Myself I feel roof top storage is much more important than having extra panels but you could get 4, maybe 5 up there if that is your goal.

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Old 10-19-2014, 07:47 PM   #32
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Re: How do you Mount your Solar Panels?

Quote:
Originally Posted by daveb
Quote:
Originally Posted by prally

Any photos of this? I am considering the same setup on the Aluminess roof rack.
Well I'd think Aluminess still has the plans. I had mine made out of smaller tube to reduce weight. OCSMB also did a rack similar to mine. You can see a number of pictures at my web site:

http://autoramblings.com/sportsmobile/

But here is a pic to give you an idea. Myself I feel roof top storage is much more important than having extra panels but you could get 4, maybe 5 up there if that is your goal.
Perfect, that is exactly what I had in mind as well! Love it, and still room for stuff up there!
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Old 10-23-2014, 09:46 AM   #33
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Re: How do you Mount your Solar Panels?

tecnodave's thoughts on tiltable panels, over-paneling and use of the Midnite Solar "Kid" MPPT solar charge controller vs PWM controller (incl soon to be released "Brat") in an rv:

"Over paneling depends on many factors, in my case I have enough to make it through several days of fog without running a generator to top batteries. A kid at 24 volts can safely handle 800 watts but I have seen 942 watts from one kid on my motorhome with 1020 watts of panel. It was maxing out at 30 amps. That is a bit over paneled. To be more conservative of my equipment now I am using two kids to power motorhome. 1020 watts on two kids is very conservative but I can run on one alone if need be. I have installed extra breakers so system can be two separate controllers or bully mode or follow me mode.

The main panel racks for the motorhome covers the entire roof except the cab over area. The rack is built from awning arms mounted to the roof so that they can tilt to left or right. they are 7' X 8' each and mount three Sharp 170 watt poly panels in top row in portrait orientation and four Siemens 55 watt mono panels for the 12 volt system in landscape orientation on each half.

I have a total of 1460 watts on the roof and an additional set of Suntech 280 watt panels 560 watts total on a ground mount for a total of 2020 watts in.

This motorhome is not used on the highway........it lives in the country as a mobile house....maybe moved twice yearly. This is not a huge motorhome....it's a Tioga Class C 24 foot on a Chevy van C-30 chassis. Main battery set is 500 pounds and standby is 250 pounds.

I just love the kid controller, in the past I had used a MPPT controller that could not be set to match the battery set. That caused me to have to top off the batteries with the generator set which is the most wasteful time to use the gen but the non adjustable controllers just cannot top off anything but the most common batteries. I almost ruined a good set of L-16's using non adjustable controllers and at this point if I cannot set every value to fit my system then I don't want to mess with it. The Brat comes from good lineage but it is limited in that it is not adjustable. I'm sure that it will have a better charge profile than the competition which is Chinese or the Chinese Morningstar.

I'm using an old standard PWM controller on my 12 volt system rather than newer MPPT controller because the old Trace C-40 can be set to the voltage I need and my much newer and more efficient Chinese Tracer MPPT controllers can not be set. They leave the battery at 1.220 s.g.... To me that is dead! I want to see 1.265 s.g.

I am a technologist and I need to control my entire system to the nth degree....I need a lot from it
I demand a lot from it.....I built it!

I think that if I had a retail Kid with 600 watts of panels on a 12 volt system that I would be sure that the Kid has plenty of ventilation and maybe set the current limit down to maybe 25 amps or so unless you really need all that power, in that case two kids teaming together would be way more conservative design and would be more reliable in the long run as you would not be running at max all the time.

If the panels are flat on the roof then 600 watts panels corrected for angle would be more like 400 watts output max so one kid can handle that without a problem. I don't like the idea of running at max power for extended lengths of time, it does not lead to longevity.

td"

from:

http://midniteforum.com/index.php?topic=2108.15
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Old 10-25-2014, 04:28 AM   #34
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Re: How do you Mount your Solar Panels?

Quote:
Originally Posted by E350
boywonder: Before I go off to do home improvement, hopefully completing a bathroom which I demo'd 7 or so year's ago, I just wanted to say:

GoodOnYaM8!

(And to ask you to post more pictures and the tooth number and favorite make and model blade you use for cutting aluminum, since you probably have it at hand and since I don't think you posted the tooth count last year.)
FWIW I use that same non-ferrous blade in my 12" Delta CMS and its pretty amazing for that use, well worth the $120 paid a few years ago.

I also use "stick wax" to lube the blade---seems to make enough of a difference to off-set the $10 or so it costs.
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Old 10-25-2014, 07:53 AM   #35
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Re: How do you Mount your Solar Panels?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JWA

FWIW I use that same non-ferrous blade in my 12" Delta CMS and its pretty amazing for that use, well worth the $120 paid a few years ago.

I also use "stick wax" to lube the blade---seems to make enough of a difference to off-set the $10 or so it costs.
I think that the 10" blade in the picture was $39 at Home Depot about 10 years ago. HD online now only shows the teflon coated version for $60

These also work good for cutting plastics.

http://www.homedepot.com/s/freud+saw+blades?NCNI-5

http://www.amazon.com/Freud-LU77M010-10 ... reud+10+80

http://www.toolorbit.com/freud/freud-tk706.html
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