Best Solar Installation shop

[Moira]

Hi Guys,

I am getting ready to put 400w on my roof. I would like to do a little boon docking this year. I have an LP fridge.

So I think I have everything except maybe the right wire coming from the roof to the controller and the solar panels. My DH really is not into all this so I need someone to install 3 panels (I already got one 100w) or two 200w panels for me.

Can I get some recommendations on where to get this done? We are centrally located. Any recommendations on the panels themselves would also be helpful?

thank you so much
moira

[CountryFit]

tina, the "wheelingit" blogger, wrote a series of articles about their solar install and upgrades. there was the name of the installer they were using being mentioned in her blogs, sounded very good. i can't remember his name, but google "wheelingit" if you have not heard of it, and you can find his contact info there.

many people travelled to eugene to have "am solar" install theirs.

other people chose to do it by themselves. they believed in the saying "the best doctor in the world is yourself". if you want to go this route, many people here are eager to help you. good luck!

[4x4]

My vote is for AMSolar in Oregon. Great job and great people.

[Gunny068]

Originally Posted by 4x4

My vote is for AMSolar in Oregon. Great job and great people.

My vote also....they did a good job and really nice people

[snowman1]

AM Solar, Eugene, Or. Dropped it off and picked it up a week later although it was ready in a few days. Professional install, all the wiring runs in looms, tucked out of the way, top shelf components. They take you up to the second floor in their building where you look out into the shop at your rig. They lay templates out on the roof showing you how the different configurations could look on your roof and if those will work for you. They recommend the best one. When it's ready, they go over the entire system front to back showing how everything works including the menu systems in the controller.

Only issue with them is they are booked out months in advance for new installs, sometimes 6 months or more.

[snowman1]

Here's the final install in their spotless, everything in it's place shop:

[Moira]

Wow thank you so much,

it sounds like the best thing for me is a mobile install. OR is really far away cause we are in Memphis TN. And I don't think I can wait for an appointment.

I really don't think this will be hard. I seem to have everything, even a combiner box on the roof. I think I can get some good quality panels, two 200w if available, or three 100w. Then as long as I got the right size wire coming down to the controller, I think Ill be ok. Having a solar monitor would be nice but I have a trimetric and that will be good enough for now.

What was interesting to me on that blog was they went with a 24v system but I don't understand why. And how does that change to 12v. I don't know how to even ask that question. Anyway check out my roof!!!

Oh by the way. My home shop charged me 500 bucks to install the trimetric. I had a heart attack. They went from the battery compartment straight up into the bedroom sink cabinet and out the side of the vanity mirror. man o man

[Smitty77]

AM Solar has had a long solid reputation.

So has Starlight Solar (BatteryPro - Poster here in this section, has helped many of with his knowledge.).

I'd suggest you look to buy a kit, so that all of the components are appropriately matched. I'm assuming your coach either has a few 8D's 12V or sets of GC2 6V for your house bank. You've added a monitoring system, which is good, so you should have a pretty good idea of the average AH's usage while boon docking per day? (If not, get your house bank up to full charge. Then unplug from shore power and simulate a night of camping. (TV usage, lights, maybe a bit of microwave, wall warts, etc.) and see how many AH's you used overnight. I say overnight, because either with Solar or Generator, you should ube 95 - 100% SOC as the evening activities start.)

Having an idea of your average nightly AH usage, will help when you choose a kit to 'replenish' what you've consumed.

We have a relatively like size coach at 40', we now have residential Samsung fridge, we did change to LED's, but we do no attempts of energy conservation at all. Our energy audit over about 6-8 different nights, fluctuated between ~110 - 135 AH's (Before we swapped out the Norcold 1200 to Samsung Residential.) So I added some safety buffer, and energy consumption growth (As we were considering the Samsung at that time.) and I used 200AH's as my target overnight usage amount. We distend out solar and modified our house bank, to support the overnight usage of 200AH's. (800AH of Lifeline X's 4 L16's, and 1200W of Solar (1000 would have been more then sufficient, but I got such a good price on the panels, and our Controller had the capacity at 96A, I went ahead and had the 5th panel installed. I did not want to tilt, and wanted extra capacity for shady days.).

AM Solar has, or had, kits for sale. I also suspect if you were to call and talk with Larry and Debbie (Starlight Solar), they'd also be able to help you with a kit too. (They're reverse snowbird's, so our out RV'ing now, but suspect they'd respond to Emails or return phone calls.)

The advantages of a kit, is then you are just hiring an installer to do the physical install, and setup of a 'kit of properly sized components and panels' to meet your needs.

Enough rambling by Smitty! Best of luck to you,
Smitty

[Moira]

Thank you Smitty,

We have not had an opportunity to do any boon docking yet so we really have no idea how much we are going to use. However, when I was looking into this in 2016, we ran one led over the table and watched a LED or LCD TV for 2 hours and our four 190ah AGMs were dead the next morning.

So thats when I got four 220ah AGM Lifeline batteries. But it was the end of the season and I didn't get to play with them much. From what I remembered I had some juice left in the morning but not much more.

I basically need a light over the table so I can read and my husband likes to watch satellite TV at night. If we could do that, we would be happy.

I don't mind how long it will take to charge back up cause I know I'll have to turn on the generator to cook dinner. So if it takes all day that's fine. Then Ill fire up the gen and cook in the toaster oven. Then I can shut off the gen and have a nice peaceful night.

Do you think I'll be able to do that with 400w on the roof?

[harryn]

There are plenty of very decent solar installers out there. We do solar installs locally as well.

IMHO, the best one is the one that is local to you so that you can stay in touch after the deal is done in case something needs adjustment.

Personally I think the biggest challenge of the entire business is that people underestimate the value of using the components that the installer is familiar with and uses regularly vs their own personal concept of what is "perfect".

As an example, I have some very good standardized setups that we have pre-tested, know they work, and we have spare parts in case something goes wrong.

Try to find someone local to do the work, maybe use craigslist.

These projects are fairly straightforward when using components that a person is familiar with. The complexity comes from the end customer wanting to use cheap components vs quality ones, or deciding to spec out the entire system and just have the installer do the labor.

If someone cannot get to your project within 4-6 weeks - move on to someone else. It is ridiculous to wait 6 months for a solar install.

[harryn]

Originally Posted by Moira

Wow thank you so much,

it sounds like the best thing for me is a mobile install. OR is really far away cause we are in Memphis TN. And I don't think I can wait for an appointment.

I really don't think this will be hard. I seem to have everything, even a combiner box on the roof. I think I can get some good quality panels, two 200w if available, or three 100w. Then as long as I got the right size wire coming down to the controller, I think Ill be ok. Having a solar monitor would be nice but I have a trimetric and that will be good enough for now.

Oh by the way. My home shop charged me 500 bucks to install the trimetric. I had a heart attack. They went from the battery compartment straight up into the bedroom sink cabinet and out the side of the vanity mirror. man o man

Attachment 206984

The typical shop has a rate of $140 - 150 / hr and months of backlog. it is actually very easy to burn up a lot of time on an install and make things look nice. A good, local installer can do it for much less.

Personally, I think it is a mistake to pick out your own panels. As an example, I have 5 slightly different sizes of panels - and use them depending on what the RV roof is like.

Also, some panels work much better if regularly in full, dry sun vs overcast / humid / wet conditions. It is a subtle thing, but very real in terms of output on an ongoing basis.

[harryn]

Originally Posted by Moira

So thats when I got four 220ah AGM Lifeline batteries. But it was the end of the season and I didn't get to play with them much. From what I remembered I had some juice left in the morning but not much more.

I basically need a light over the table so I can read and my husband likes to watch satellite TV at night. If we could do that, we would be happy.

I don't mind how long it will take to charge back up cause I know I'll have to turn on the generator to cook dinner. So if it takes all day that's fine. Then Ill fire up the gen and cook in the toaster oven. Then I can shut off the gen and have a nice peaceful night.

Do you think I'll be able to do that with 400w on the roof?

I have a customer with a similar battery bank size and 420 watts of solar on a sprinter conversion. She likes to cook using microwave, pressure cooker, etc and does just fine.

I should tell you though that part of the reason it works is that the panels are optimized for her weather conditions and it is a 48 volt bank.

The panels and charger controller were not cheap ones, but actually very optimized for the expected use.

She has a generator for air conditioning use, but otherwise doesn't need it anymore.

24 and 48 volt battery setups are really good for inverter use. It isn't as important if the uses are almost entirely 12 volt, but there are still benefits.

[Moira]

Originally Posted by harryn

24 and 48 volt battery setups are really good for inverter use. It isn't as important if the uses are almost entirely 12 volt, but there are still benefits.

And this is where I get lost. I didn't explain that they are four 6V batteries, each with 220ah. So where does that leave me? I have no idea what the difference is for a 24v system or 48v. I have a 3000w pure sine inverter and a 12V controller. How much does a controller cost just curious?

Using the microwave/convection oven would be nice but I figured I would need the generator for a/c and cooking. My goal is to go where a/c is not needed and try to cook outside more. Optimizing a system maybe a little hard cause I don't know where I will be.

I live very near Memphis TN. I don't think there are any installers here. My home shop has never done a solar install before.

I assume I'll be somewhere in the west, low humidity, not hotter than 80 degrees, a lake to swim in and a flat place to ride a bike. This year we are going up to Utah and Idaho.

This shouldn't be hard.

[harryn]

Originally Posted by Moira

And this is where I get lost. I didn't explain that they are four 6V batteries, each with 220ah. So where does that leave me? I have no idea what the difference is for a 24v system or 48v. I have a 3000w pure sine inverter and a 12V controller. How much does a controller cost just curious?

Using the microwave/convection oven would be nice but I figured I would need the generator for a/c and cooking. My goal is to go where a/c is not needed and try to cook outside more. Optimizing a system maybe a little hard cause I don't know where I will be.

I live very near Memphis TN. I don't think there are any installers here. My home shop has never done a solar install before.

I assume I'll be somewhere in the west, low humidity, not hotter than 80 degrees, a lake to swim in and a flat place to ride a bike. This year we are going up to Utah and Idaho.

This shouldn't be hard.

The decision to go with 12, 24 or 48 volts really needs to be done before you buy an inverter. The reason is that the inverter is the biggest load and one of the more expensive items to replace - and it has to match the battery voltage.

In other words - you have an existing, working 12 volt input inverter - the decision is already done. You are staying with 12 volts - at least until your inverter needs to be replaced.

It isn't rocket science to install solar panels, but it is time consuming to do it well, and frankly time consuming to learn how to optimize it.

Controllers can vary quite a bit - 400 watts in 3 panels going into a 48 volt battery bank are $100 - 150. Going into a 12 volt battery bank takes a more sophisticated controller - could be $3-500 depending on how it is done.

For the installer, the main issue is really the liability of having a roof leak or them coming off in a strong wind. Many RVs have relatively light duty roofs.

I have some ideas though - will send a PM to you.

BTW - Utah in the summer is not 80 F unless you are talking about 9 am.

Harry