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Old 12-12-2017, 10:51 PM   #1
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2750w Solar Panels, I made it!

How big is big? In terms of solar panels, in my opinion, it'll never be too big.

I had been using 2160w system for over a stretch of 3 years. I started with 5 Sunpower Grade B, 240w panels; a year later I added 4 Sunpower Grade A 240w panels; total 9 panels. In summer time, it output a decent amount of juice to charge my C-Max Energi, a plug-in hybrid as my toad, and batteries. But in winter time, it's merely able to catch up with the demand from the house batteries for daily usage, let alone the toad.

I blamed the under-performance from 5 Grade B panels. When I bought those, those were cheap. I metered their outputs, in the same light conditions, they were about 10% less than the Grade A panels' though both had the identical specifications.

Recently, I acquired 11 Sunpower 250w panels, model no. SPR-X20-250, premium grade, 20% efficiency, very hard to find. I measured my rooftop spaces, 11 was the maximum number of panels I could install without affecting the access to all equipment/devices on the top.

It's a painstaking job - moved down the old and moved up the new, by one man with two ladders. I patiently kept going, got it done in 2 weeks.

Now the new ones look great! At this time of the year, December, I am seeing 80A charge rate to the batteries at noon, so charging my toad is of no problems. I am expecting 100-120A downflow in summer time.

Phew! A sense of accomplishment .


(birdview from rear)
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Old 12-13-2017, 02:43 AM   #2
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I agree big is the way to go. I had 600 on previous coach. Now 1500 on current coach. Your capability sounds great.

What is your controller setup?
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Old 12-13-2017, 08:55 AM   #3
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hi vince,
i use 2 controllers -
(1) midnite classic 150, accepting juice from 8 panels in parallel.
(2) a 60a mppt chinese controller non branded, for 3 panels in series. this controller was purchased when i first started the solar thing 4 years ago, it worked consistently well so i am still using it. my original plan was to connect 4 panels in series on this leg. i noticed sometimes the voltage was hanging in 180-200v range, exceeding 175v limit of the controller. hence i stepped back to 3.
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Old 12-13-2017, 09:00 AM   #4
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Impressive.....

Brian
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Old 12-13-2017, 09:41 AM   #5
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Quote:
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hi vince,
i use 2 controllers -
(1) midnite classic 150, accepting juice from 8 panels in parallel.
(2) a 60a mppt chinese controller non branded, for 3 panels in series. this controller was purchased when i first started the solar thing 4 years ago, it worked consistently well so i am still using it. my original plan was to connect 4 panels in series on this leg. i noticed sometimes the voltage was hanging in 180-200v range, exceeding 175v limit of the controller. hence i stepped back to 3.
Nice.

I also have a midnight solar classic 150. Works quite well. Three strings of 500w each to a midnight solar combined box with circuit breaker for each string.

Plus another 200w string of two panels made portable that I can set out if needed (shading, low winter sun, etc.). These were a carry over from previous RV with 600w on the roof. I find I seldom use them with the 1500w setup.

Enjoy!
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Old 12-13-2017, 10:33 AM   #6
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:01 AM   #7
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tell me where you are, don, i'll fly over for yours

here is a side view of the panels:
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:05 AM   #8
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That is cool.

Will it run your air con?
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:27 AM   #9
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Impressive!
1st MH; Its the inverter, not the solar, that would 'run' the A/C. With enough battery capacity, the inverter could run A/C for a few hours before depleting the batteries. Then the solar would have to recharge the batteries. So If you want to cool off on a hot afternoon, yes, you could run the A/C for awhile, but eventually the sun goes down and then you have depleted batteries. Solar is a battery charger, that's all.

https://www.gonewiththewynns.com/off...r-conditioning
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:31 AM   #10
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Gosh darn it!!!! The Forum should have rules against posts like this one... Now I'm in 'panel envy' mode!

WOW! That is quite an impressive array of solar panels...

I admit that I read this, and then spent about 30 mins reviewing our 2013 install. I had always thought I'd only add one more panel 'down the road', so that I could set up three pairs in series.

We currently have X's 5 of these relatively efficient panels:

http://directwholesalesolar.com/wp-c...Data-Sheet.pdf

I can still pick up one of these form a few sources. Which would bump me up to a total of 1440 watts. With added bump by going from the parallel we have now, to the X's 3 pairs of series.

The MidNite Classic 150 has the capacity to handle this.

Even in winter, and traveling in northern states, we found the 1200W would do a good job of bringing our 800AH bank back up to 100% SOC during the day. (We do live on the top 200AH of this bank, usually at ~75% SOC in the AM, after coffee brew is complete.) If we find we're in a spot where we have less then ideal solar panel output, we'll run the generator in the AM while getting ready to go for about an hour.

When my bank of X's 4 L16's Lifeline's are ready to replace (And not in any rush for that!), we'll go to a lithium bank. So I suspect that while we're ~90% of the time supported to 100% SOC via our 1200W solar only recharge now - with lithium charging faster, the current bank of panels should support us well...

That being said, adding one more panel, and going to the three pairs in series - would help us that much more.

I also admit that my DW and I are still in a transition phase on how we RV. We're not boon docking near as much as we were in our first few years. So I have no immediate rush to go do anything now. I like the size of our Panasonic's, and suspect they'll be harder to find as time goes by. So maybe I'll buy one more, or perhaps three more (We have four mounted to a conventional raised rail that you see on a home install. With one flat mounted. If I go for a total of 8, I'll add another raised rail to mount the four two, and do 4 pairs in series.) I have room to store them in the sticks & bricks, and then when we shift to Lithium we can do the upgrade at that time.

========

So CountryFit. Salute to your system, and I suppose thanks getting me thinking down this path again... My ramblings were just me thinking out loud about what I may do down the road. And had no bearing on what you have accomplished... I suppose it will be easy to find you, as you will be the CC with all the lights blaring at night, as you have plenty of power!

Thanks for sharing the install, and pictures.

Best,
Smitty
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:35 AM   #11
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1stMH, yep, bill made it clear.
when i ran a/c, it drew 153a at 12v nominal.
my magnum ms2812 inverter handled it fine, while kept other energy hungry equipment off (microwave, coffee maker, hairdryer, toaster, induction cooktop - those are in my rv). fridge and ceiling led lights had no impact to that.

my primary purpose of this setup was to charge the plug-in toad. i love free miles .
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:36 AM   #12
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That is cool.

Will it run your air con?

I think/hope you knew the answer to that.
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:40 AM   #13
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I think/hope you knew the answer to that.
Yes I do.
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Old 12-13-2017, 11:45 AM   #14
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Oh, and one part I left out of the equation-$$$$-
The Wynns recommend 800-900 amp hrs of lithium batteries as a minimum size battery bank for operating A/C from solar. Lithium batteries, right now, cost about $1,000 per 100ah, so if you have $8-9k cold hard cash laying around.........But there is that 30% tax credit if you do it all at once.......
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