Best Roof Mount Solar

[markarbogast]

I would really like to look into installing Solar for my coach. There surly must be complete package/kits out there. I would be grateful for any suggestions or recommendations from people who have installed them themselves.

[vito.a]

Several discussions here:
Going Green - iRV2 Forums

[powercat_ras]

First thing you will have to do is figure out how much solar power you want to add to your RV.

Note that panels flat mounted on the roof of your RV don't produce what the rating of the solar panel says due to sun angle. Any shade on any part of a panel also greatly reduces solar output, this can be minimized by putting all the panels in parallel but at the cost of needing heavier wire and a better solar charge controller that can handle more amps from the solar panels.

I suggest you get some quotes from Discount Solar and Solar Bill in Quartzite Arizona, so you can get a base line on what it would cost to have a quality system professionally installed.

Personally I self installed and used:

Amazon.com for my solar panels at a cost of about $ 1.10 per watt including shipping
Amazon.com for weatherproof junction box, terminal blocks, cabling, z brackets, and circuit breakers
Amazon.com for low resistance wire splice materials including a
hand operated hydraulic terminal crimping tool to do butt splices and ring terminals
WindyNation.com for MPPT solar charge controller, and pure sine wave inverter

My self installed cost , excluding the inverter was around $ 2 per watt.
Friends I know who had solar systems installed in Quartzite are spending about $ 5 and up per watt

[Domo]

Originally Posted by powercat_ras

First thing you will have to do is figure out how much solar power you want to add to your RV.

Note that panels flat mounted on the roof of your RV don't produce what the rating of the solar panel says due to sun angle. Any shade on any part of a panel also greatly reduces solar output, this can be minimized by putting all the panels in parallel but at the cost of needing heavier wire and a better solar charge controller that can handle more amps from the solar panels.

I suggest you get some quotes from Discount Solar and Solar Bill in Quartzite Arizona, so you can get a base line on what it would cost to have a quality system professionally installed.

Personally I self installed and used:

Amazon.com for my solar panels at a cost of about $ 1.10 per watt including shipping
Amazon.com for weatherproof junction box, terminal blocks, cabling, z brackets, and circuit breakers
Amazon.com for low resistance wire splice materials including a
hand operated hydraulic terminal crimping tool to do butt splices and ring terminals
WindyNation.com for MPPT solar charge controller, and pure sine wave inverter

My self installed cost , excluding the inverter was around $ 2 per watt.
Friends I know who had solar systems installed in Quartzite are spending about $ 5 and up per watt

Randy has given very good advice and his pricing is right on the money for today's systems. And, he did not scrimp on the MPPT and pure sine wave - both are MUST HAVES on a REAL solar system.

Plan on having 6-8 batteries for the coach when you are done, and solar panels that can deliver about 800 - 1100 watts. You won't run your A/C, but you can stay off grid with a residential fridge!

Lastly, only buy monocrystalline panels - despite the hype that tries to imply that the polycrystalline is approaching the efficiency of mono. Don't believe it yet - and that's from an electrical engineer that's built his own system.

Also, don't be terribly concerned about tilting the panels to optimize their collection efficiency - a few studies have shown that laying horizontal vs. angled to the sun (depending on latitude and time of year) will reduce your output by about 10-12% . IMHO the added hardware and hassle of getting on the roof to aim the panels just isn't worth it and if I WAS concerned I'd add another panel and be done with it.

[BMGM37]

I went with a 400 watt Renogy kit with MPPT 40 amp charger and couldn’t be happier. Only thing that has issues is the BT-1 Bluetooth controller because it doesn’t stay connected to the app, pretty common issue that is the app itself so hopefully they will update that soon.

[vsheetz]

Synopsis of our solar system/install.

Fifteen 100w Renogy narrow panels mounted flat mostly down both sides of roof with a few across at the rear. Narrow panels to minimize shading from all the items in the center of the roof.

Wired in three strings of 500w each. Three pair of #10 PV wire enters the roof through a Winegard entry plate above the fresh water tank. Wiring runs down to the wet bay and then forward through the basement to the wall just aft of the battery bay (battery bay is just aft of the PS front wheel).

On that wall is a 6 slot Midnight Solar combiner box with DC circuit breaker for each string. Next to it is a Midnight Solar Classic 150 controller. #4 wire from the combiner box to controller and on to the batteries. A inline circuit breaker/disconnect is in the battery bay.

Connection is made direct to the batteries (not through the coach disconnect switch). Batteries are six 6 volt wet batteries.

Additionally there are two 100w panels made portable - to be set out as needed. Wired to the combiner box as another string with a 4th DC breaker.

We dry camp primarily in the southwest deserts in the winter desert season. Hence low winter sun can impact production upwards of 50% from rated.

[pumper9x9]

https://amsolar.com/

These guys specialize in RV Solar. They have kits with very explicit instructions. They also do excellent installs. If you decided to have them do the work make an appointment several months ahead.
Good Luck

[Domo]

Originally Posted by vsheetz

Synopsis of our solar system/install.

Fifteen 100w Renogy narrow panels mounted flat mostly down both sides of roof with a few across at the rear. Narrow panels to minimize shading from all the items in the center of the roof.

Wired in three strings of 500w each. Three pair of #10 PV wire enters the roof through a Winegard entry plate above the fresh water tank. Wiring runs down to the wet bay and then forward through the basement to the wall just aft of the battery bay (battery bay is just aft of the PS front wheel).

On that wall is a 6 slot Midnight Solar combiner box with DC circuit breaker for each string. Next to it is a Midnight Solar Classic 150 controller. #4 wire from the combiner box to controller and on to the batteries. A inline circuit breaker/disconnect is in the battery bay.

Connection is made direct to the batteries (not through the coach disconnect switch). Batteries are six 6 volt wet batteries.

Additionally there are two 100w panels made portable - to be set out as needed. Wired to the combiner box as another string with a 4th DC breaker.

We dry camp primarily in the southwest deserts in the winter desert season. Hence low winter sun can impact production upwards of 50% from rated.

Very nice set up! My compliments!

[Ivylog]

At $4.50/W for 700W I can buy enough diesel to run my generator for 1500 hours...750 days of boondockind. NO WAY would I go solar at that cost/Watt plus even with 700W I’ll still run the generator when cooking/microwave.

With 800AH of batteries I was hoping to DIY a 800W system if I could find panels for less than $0.70/W...my cost/benefit swag. They needed to be 2’ wide because of all the stuff down the middle of the roof...usually 100W panels 2’X4’ long. Found close by, 10 First Solar 86V thin film 100W panels for $0.55/W so decided to tackle this project as it might pay for itself in my lifetime.

Because of the raised rails along each side of my MH making tilting mounts would be fairly easy and necessary because of shading from the rail. With a normal roof I would not have tilted the panels.

Having bought everything needed I’m a little over my $1000 budget with a 60A mppt controller ($400)...$1.50/W. By installing the other 3 paid for panels I’d be at $1.05/W. The first page of the following link has some pictures and more info and next two pages gets into aerodynamics and the need to hold both ends of the tilting panels down...verdict is still out on that.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f56/800w-...ll-414235.html

[deandec]

I installed a 100W Renogy kit from Amazon.

It keeps my batteries charged while in storage but disconnected.

That is all I wanted to accomplish.

[CountryFit]

The best pang goes to those designed for residential applications. They are built stronger, higher in output, and generally cheaper on per watt basis. I like Sunpower.

As for size, it's always a personal thing. It can be small, medium, big or super big per your usage. I did it BIG .

2750w Solar Panels, I Made It... - iRV2 Forums

[Searching_Ut]

As should be clear from the answers provided so far is that you first need to figure out what you want the solar to do for you. To do so, you need to have a good idea of how much power you use, and what areas you’ll be camping in, type spot, and time of year. All call have a big impact on what you need.

I installed my system myself, simple 10x100 watt grape panels from Home Depot, the bulk I picked up for $85 a panel delivered. 4 sams club golf cart batts, again approx $85 apiece. 2000 watt pure sine inverter, some welding cable and 50 amp auto transfer switch a trimetric and two Bogart sc 2030 charge controllers along with wiring, parts to build combiner box, make mounting brackets, fuses, temp sensors, relays to isolate dc converter etc and total cost still well under $2500 dollars. It adds a lot of cost if you don’t design and install yourself though.

[markarbogast]

Originally Posted by powercat_ras

First thing you will have to do is figure out how much solar power you want to add to your RV.

Note that panels flat mounted on the roof of your RV don't produce what the rating of the solar panel says due to sun angle. Any shade on any part of a panel also greatly reduces solar output, this can be minimized by putting all the panels in parallel but at the cost of needing heavier wire and a better solar charge controller that can handle more amps from the solar panels.

I suggest you get some quotes from Discount Solar and Solar Bill in Quartzite Arizona, so you can get a base line on what it would cost to have a quality system professionally installed.

Personally I self installed and used:



Amazon.com for my solar panels at a cost of about $ 1.10 per watt including shipping
Amazon.com for weatherproof junction box, terminal blocks, cabling, z brackets, and circuit breakers
Amazon.com for low resistance wire splice materials including a
hand operated hydraulic terminal crimping tool to do butt splices and ring terminals
WindyNation.com for MPPT solar charge controller, and pure sine wave inverter

My self installed cost , excluding the inverter was around $ 2 per watt.
Friends I know who had solar systems installed in Quartzite are spending about $ 5 and up per watt

Since I’m a retired electrical worker I don’t think I will have too much problem doing this myself.

[C.Martin]

Originally Posted by markarbogast

I would really like to look into installing Solar for my coach. There surly must be complete package/kits out there. I would be grateful for any suggestions or recommendations from people who have installed them themselves.

How many watts do you need?

Actually that was a rhetorical question...the reason I ask is that my first recommendation would be to install a battery monitor.

I recommend the Victron Energy BMV-712. It will allow you to capture the amp drain of your rv. With the data you can choose components for a system...and begin installation.

For others to help...we have to know how many amp hrs of battery storage you have. It also helps to know what kind of inverter you have, residential or dometic fridge, etc...

There is a big difference that can exist from install to install based on your coaches needs.