Community Forums

bluepill · 01-10-2013, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YC1

Complicated?

Two wires to controller, two wires to batteries. Buy as much panel as you want or can affort. More panels is just using a bigger hose to fill a bucket.

Saving the life of batteries is the most important use of solar for me. Constantly running batteries way down sure shortens their lives.

Well stated. It's actually more complicated to set up a home theater - and that's with HDMI. Before that it could be 20 or 30 cables - 5 for each "component" connection and 6 or more for the speakers.

The back of my old set-up looked like a full rack at a data center.

The one on the left.

nuttcaze · 01-12-2013, 09:25 PM

Does this look correct? I'm just getting into solar systems myself but wanted an easier way to explain it to my friends so I made this picture.

az bound · 01-13-2013, 05:30 AM

Nuttcaze; You got it, its that simple. Remember the basic rule of thumb and size the controler accordingly.

MandG-Fun · 01-13-2013, 06:19 AM

If you like to boondock, solar is great, especially for those of us in the southwest where we have 300+ days of sunshine a year. Several years ago I bought a kit from AM Solar in Eugene, OR- Welcome to AM Solar_Your RV Solar Specialists since 1987. There are a bunch of people out there selling solar kits but these guys have been in the RV solar business since before it was "cool" and they really know their stuff.

For anyone interested in adding solar and don't want to stress yourself trying to calculate your demand and storage capacity, just give them a call, they know their stuff and won't oversell you. If it were my money I would spend it with them and know that I was getting the right thing.

elkhornsun · 01-16-2013, 03:32 PM

What complicated solar for me was both the information that was available but applied to residential and commercial installations and the lack of both information and access on the systems and components for my camper. Lifting the hood on a car or truck it is easy to see the different parts and how they hook together. Same with most boats. Not the case with most RV's.

The documentation provided for charge controllers and other components are written for a residential or commercial installation where there are no AC chargers or inverters involved as with most RV's. My controller came with a ground connection point and while it is very important for a standard installation to meet the NEC code and for safety reasons, it is to be disregarded entirely for a RV installation.

It would be fantastic if places like AMsolar would actually write good documentation on how to choose the right panels and controller and wiring and circuit breakers and shunt and terminals, and how to actually install it all in an RV. Nobody dealer does this so it is not to single out AMsolar in particular and the various solar install books are also directed at residential installations and are only useful in part for an RV installation.

I did learn enough doing my RV solar installation to then design my house solar system which was a breeze by comparison in every regard. It took fewer man hours to install a 3.7 Kw system at the house than to install a 0.20 Kw system on the camper.

Pianotuna · 02-06-2013, 07:05 PM

Hi.

Solar is simple. Here is a flow chart:

Budget-->energy audit-->size battery bank-->size solar system

Groovy · 02-17-2013, 02:44 PM

We have lived off solar almost 100% of the time for almost 6 years now.

We have installed 2 systems on trailers and one on a sailboat. We don't use hookups at all for either our RVing lifestyle (summers) or our cruising lifestyle (winters).

We use a generator in our trailer only 10-12 times per summer to run the air conditioning. Everything else comes from the sun. We often run two laptops for 8 hours a day and watch a movie on a surround-sound DVD player at night... lots of amps getting burned up in our household. On the boat we run fans almost all day long.

It is not complicated. For our first system we went to the solar panel store (Wind & Sun in Flagstaff, AZ) and told them what we thought we needed (100+ watts) and they got out a huge box and filled it with everything they knew we needed.

Sweet hubby installed it on our TT while we boondocked on the California coast. Then we lived with it for a year. In that year we learned what we really needed -- 500 watts. So back to Wind & Sun with our new request. Out came a bigger box for more and bigger stuff. Sweet hubby installed it on our Fiver (that replaced our TT) and it has given us over 1,000 happy boondocking nights since then.

I have written lots of stuff about our experiences with solar on our website, including a 6-part tutorial that I'm 4-parts into, if it is of help to anyone thinking about solar... I outlined the components and approximate prices for three levels of systems -- a Weekender/Vacation system, a Full-timer RV system and a Sailboat system with some discussion about why you might choose one system or type of component over another...

Bottom line -- solar is a phenomenal investment (for a few thousand dollars invested we've saved tens of thousands of dollars in RV park, campground and marina fees). It is not complicated. It is not expensive, and it is (in our opinion) the best way to go in a full-time lifestyle in an RV or a sailboat!!

so47 · 02-22-2013, 01:26 PM

Groovy, I'm always into other solar install info. Could you post a like to your site? Thanks.

Groovy · 02-23-2013, 07:25 AM

Hi So47 -- The solar tutorial starts here:

RV Solar Panel Installation - Understanding RV / Sailboat Solar Power

I've written 4 of the 6 parts (drafts of the last 2 are written and I just need to find the minutes to post them...).

Redridge · 02-23-2013, 11:41 AM

With the innovations of solar technology nowadays... the RV industry needs to catch up with the trends. I ordered a new diesel pusher and they did not offer a solar panel ready option. I believe the hardest part of these solar panel install is the wiring run from the roof to the basement area. The rest of the install is simple. Since you dont have any blueprints of the coaches structure, it takes awhile to figure out how the best wiring run will be done.... the RV industry dropped the ball on this very important aspect of RV life.

az bound · 02-23-2013, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redridge

With the innovations of solar technology nowadays... the RV industry needs to catch up with the trends. I ordered a new diesel pusher and they did not offer a solar panel ready option. I believe the hardest part of these solar panel install is the wiring run from the roof to the basement area. The rest of the install is simple. Since you dont have any blueprints of the coaches structure, it takes awhile to figure out how the best wiring run will be done.... the RV industry dropped the ball on this very important aspect of RV life.

Not the whole industry. Some are prewired for solar, mine was.

Redridge · 02-23-2013, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by az bound

Not the whole industry. Some are prewired for solar, mine was.

yeah, you are one of the lucky ones... another thing about the industry is they need to oversize the wires, I saw some pre-runs that are 10 gauges.

az bound · 02-23-2013, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redridge

yeah, you are one of the lucky ones... another thing about the industry is they need to oversize the wires, I saw some pre-runs that are 10 gauges.

Not lucky, I did my reasearch before the purchase. Whom is it that is wiring with 10 guage, never seen one.

oatmeal · 02-23-2013, 05:17 PM

Our 2003 Alfa came pre-wired for solar. It's been 7 or 8 years since we installed the solar so I don't remember for sure, but I think it was 8 gauge. Big enough to handle 1,050 Watts, anyway.

Pre-wiring made for a vastly easier installation. The coach also came with an inverter and six golf cart batteries, so it was just a matter of picking the controller and panels and installing them. Much less work than what went into actually deciding to do it in the first place.