Just ordered 200w of solar - Project is Completed - Page 2

LenS · 06-30-2015, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arctictraveller

I just installed this same kit. I mounted it to two cross bars on my roof rack using two pieces of wood running from side to side. It seems plenty strong enough and is off the roof by a couple inches. The biggest issue is branches getting stuck under the panel, so i plan to make some type of deflector. I ran the wires through the third brake light hole in the roof.

Did you wire then in series or parallel? How long have you had it installed now? If you are talking about snagging branches I figure you will be using in wooded areas.

E350 · 06-30-2015, 01:15 PM

artictraveler: I had one of the smaller versions of these fairings on my 91 CRX Si when it was stolen. It was quite sturdy even though it looks a little winky in their photo. I still plan to put some type of smoked-glass (plastic) fairing attached to the Thule/Yakima tracks in front of my front solar panel.

http://www.thule.com/en-us/us/products/ ... xt-_-870xt

arctictraveller · 07-01-2015, 11:44 AM

Did you wire then in series or parallel? How long have you had it installed now? If you are talking about snagging branches I figure you will be using in wooded areas.[/quote]

I wired them in series since I got the MPPT controller. It automatically detects the voltage and reduces it to 12v. By putting them in series, you reduce the wire size to half with no loss of power. They have been on for just three days of use, and seemed to run my refer all day in 100 deg heat with no loss of pwer from the batteries. As for snagging branches, we spend 99% of our time camping in remote areas that often times require crashing through the brush. When i got home, I immediately discovered a lot of vegitation jamed into the space between the panel and the rack, but then I expected this. I simply didn't have time to do a better install as we left a day after the panels arrived. So far I'm pretty happy with them, but did discover that my refer want's to run non stop in the heat. Yesterday I pulled it out and added insulation and a second fan to remove heat from the area behind it. No time to test though as I'm off to work. I think you will like them.....

rallypanam · 07-01-2015, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arctictraveller

but did discover that my refer want's to run non stop in the heat. Yesterday I pulled it out and added insulation and a second fan to remove heat from the area behind it. No time to test though as I'm off to work. I think you will like them.....

I had my van parked in 105-110 degree heat last weekend and was gone for 12 hours riding.. and the fridge ran a lot! Temperature inside fridge was only high 40s when I got back, and battery was down to 85%, which was previously unheard of in a single day.

But I'm not too concerned, not often my van will be sitting in that heat all day.. with no shade.

LenS · 07-01-2015, 07:42 PM

Here are a bunch of pics showing how I chose to mount the 2 100w solar panels on my vans penthouse top.

larrie · 07-01-2015, 09:39 PM

Slick installation. I had not thought of using wood as the mounting substrate.

LenS · 07-10-2015, 08:17 AM

Refrig with solar update (looking good):

Have basically run the van refrig (nothing else though) off of the 200w of solar I installed a week ago. I get about 1.5 hours of direct sun each day. Sun gets above the east tree line about 11:30am and sets on the west tree line about 1:00pm. I did take the refrig off line for 2-3 hours over this 7 day period to chk some voltages and current draws. Not enough sun to really top off the house batteries but they are still getting at least 90%+ of charge by early afternoon.

Glad we got 200 watts and a MPPT controller. Have to play around some more but I don't think my battery charger and the Renogy 20A controller want to be friends but have only put them together for a few minutes to date. Have to run them both at the same time a lot more and figure out what is happening.

Our 3.2cf 110v AC refrig. requires our inverter to be on all the time: 24 hour day: 0.9A x 24 + 4.1A x 5.5 = 44Ah per 72F day. One of the 7 days the refrig only drew 31Ah because of cool day and cooler night.

Of course in hot weather more sun would be needed for the solar to keep the house batteries charged for the refrig.

rockbender · 07-10-2015, 12:07 PM

That is great Len! Good job on getting your duty cycle to roughly 25% - that is impressive.

I think your overall battery usage sounds similar to a comparably sized 12V compressor fridge. Granted our temps have been a little warmer, I am seeing about a 22ah deficit running the 130 size truckfridge overnight. Our single 100w panel in full sun all day has been able to get us back to full by the end of the day running the fridge full time. Hopefully the shorter sunlight hours in spring/fall will correspond with cooler ambient temps and still allow the single panel to keep up. Given your exposure data and comparing to what you would get in a real world camping spot show that 200w is probably about the magic number to shoot for when designing a system to run a fridge 24/7.

thanks for the update.

arctictraveller · 07-19-2015, 12:56 PM

Mrs A/T just got back from a five day camping trip. Sadly, I had to work, but she reports that even with the van parked in partial shade, the panels continued to provide enough charge to the batteries to keep them up while running the refer and lights. Temps were in the high 80's every day, so the refer ran a lot and was on 24hrs a day. I didn't expect the panels to charge much if not in direct sun light, but it seems they still work pretty well. This has been a great upgrade and I'm really looking forward to having cold beer in Baja. .........

LenS · 07-27-2015, 10:30 AM

Results of our first trip with our new 200 watts of solar panels. Wired in series and using an MPPT controller.