solar panels in the woods?

[Breezeway]

I just ordered a Travelstar 19ck and I am considering putting a Siemens 75watt solar panel on the roof. 80% of the time we are dry-camping in or around the Rocky Mountain forests. My question is....will a solar panel be worth it if it is only getting full sun for a small part of the day and tree filtered sun the rest? Or should I buy a 1000watt genny and charge the battery for a couple of hours? Both the panel and the genny are very close in price. Personally I would much rather go with the solar panel as it is much less hassle.

thanks in advance for any advice.

[Breezeway]

I just ordered a Travelstar 19ck and I am considering putting a Siemens 75watt solar panel on the roof. 80% of the time we are dry-camping in or around the Rocky Mountain forests. My question is....will a solar panel be worth it if it is only getting full sun for a small part of the day and tree filtered sun the rest? Or should I buy a 1000watt genny and charge the battery for a couple of hours? Both the panel and the genny are very close in price. Personally I would much rather go with the solar panel as it is much less hassle.

thanks in advance for any advice.

[Erich]

Depending on the amount you're draining the batteries each day, a 75W panel might give you 5 amps if you're lucky. If you run into a couple of cloudy days+under the trees, I don't think you'll be happy with the solar. With the 1K Honda you can run the smaller wattages appliances when you want and when the furnaces quits at 0300 and the suns not there...just my preference.

[Guvnor]

Breezeway,

Multiply your anticipated hours of absolutely full sun and full illumination of the panel, times your rated amperes of solar panel output and then perhaps you can see if the AH output will meet your daily system electrical requirements.

Solar panels are notoriously poor in their output when even partially shaded. If only one of the individual cells that make up your your panel is shaded, the panel output is reduced to perhaps 10% of what your panel rating is supposed to be, even though the other 20+ cells are in full sun.

Your panel will put out some current even on a cloudy day, but the amperes will be dramatically reduced from what your panel is rated at.

Solar is great for no noise, no polution, but you will have to size the number of panels to give you the appropriate daily AH capability to fulfill your camping requirements.

[Breezeway]

Unfortunately our preference for sites is usually based on privacy rather than wide open spaces. We would drive another 200 miles rather than stay in one of those parking lot campgrounds. So most times privacy equals foliage. I am leaning towards taking the cost hit now for the solar panels and see how the season goes. We are trading up from a pop-up and could usually make it through 3 nights in the late spring on a battery where having a furnace run at night is almost a necessity in the mountains. The only other power we use is the water pump and low use of lights.


2005 Travelstar 19ck
2000 GMC Sierra
2 dogs, 2 cats (cats stay home to guard house)

[Cruzer]

The 5 watt figure previously mentioned is correct. And that's only for a few optimum hours in the sun. That would give you a bit over 200 watts of chargeing power for the day, assuming you are parked in the sun. If you have a 100 amp converter you could run your genset 10 minutes to accomplish the same results. If your converter is smaller, factor it accordingly. It sounds to me like your woods style of camping would just not be very compatable with solar power. Solar power is great under the right circumstances but you have to design a fairly big system and it's not a miracle fix for running your batteries forever. I have a 440 watt solar panel array with a 50 amp charge controller on my Bus and it helps keep them charged (if in the sun) but you still need the genset. Solar panels probably are not cost effective unless you boondock in Arizona but a large enough system in a sunny locaton can add some extra time between genset recharges in the proper conditions.

[bill h]

When I camp in the woods, I see other folks with their panels on tripods set out in the sun. This not only avoids the shade, but allows perfect adjustment for maximum efficiency.

[Ken Lenger]

We have had solar on both or our trailers and camped in Colorado a lot. We usually tried to find a spot where there were fewer trees to maximize the solar. It worked out OK. Even in full sun, a single 75 watt panel will be pretty limited if you using very much power. The best solution would be to get both the solar and a small generator. Use the generator to bulk charge the battery in the morning and then let the solar panel top it off all day long. Being that your funds are limited, you might consider the generator first and add solar later.

[Breezeway]

Ken....in the weeks since I posted the last message, we have decided to do just that. We're going to pick up a 1000w Yamaha generator for our needs and see how that goes. Maybe next year we'll consider adding a panel. Thanks for your comments.