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james621 · 07-08-2012, 07:06 AM

Hello everyone. We just purchased a 145w solar panel for our rig. Our pace arrow has a 9100 model pd9155 inverter in it. 900w 55amp. My question is are this a decent inverter for battery charging? Any issues wiring the solar panel to it? I was looking into possibly upgrading to a four stage battery charger 1000w inverter. Overkill maybe? Thanks for your replys

clyon51 · 07-08-2012, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by james621

Hello everyone. We just purchased a 145w solar panel for our rig. Our pace arrow has a 9100 model pd9155 inverter in it. 900w 55amp. My question is are this a decent inverter for battery charging? Any issues wiring the solar panel to it? I was looking into possibly upgrading to a four stage battery charger 1000w inverter. Overkill maybe? Thanks for your replys

First off, the PD9100 series is a 120vac to 12vdc power CONVERTER and battery charger. An Inverter takes 12vdc and inverts it into 120vac. The PD9155 is a fine charger and all you need.

As far as your 145w panel, you would need a charge controller. Generally speaking, you would connect the solar to the battery bank or at an un-switch spot on the BBC so it will charge during storage. I don't have a high watt panel, so check the docs on the controller for a proper connection, or wait for a more experenced solar user.

Richard S. · 07-08-2012, 02:32 PM

After the charge controler just wire it up to your house batterys with a fuse inline on the + side.

Groovy · 07-09-2012, 06:50 AM

Morningstar makes a nice charge controller for that size panel - the SunSaver 10 (or get a SunSaver 20 so you can add another panel later). We had almost that exact setup for a year (Kyocera 130 panel and Morningstar SunSaver 10).

You will probably want an inverter too -- the little portable ones that plug into a cigarette lighter are fine for laptops and modest sized TV (we used a 150 watt inverter and it handled the MacBook and the 19" flat screen TV).

If you want to use a microwave or hair dryer or run more A/C appliances at once, you'll need a bigger inverter (1000 watts or more) and that will have to be wired directly to your batteries. On that small solar installation we got an 800 watt inverter, connected it to the batteries, and ran two power strips from it. Didn't use the micro or hair dryer, but it gave us a little more juice for running more things at once. Simple and basic and got the job done.