Thread: Adding Extra Panels to an existing system

The problem with pedro's suggestion means you have to always park your van in the sun.

I plan to put panels on the roof of my van, but I will still carry my portables.

Also you can orientate the portables to correct angle and to follow the sun, whereas on a van roof they will never produce maximum currant as they are lying flat.

yep,, park in the sun.
shade is bad for caravans,,
and tents, and people too really.

shade means trees.
trees drop limbs.
limbs hurt anything below them.

if your storage setup is on that much of a knife-edge that you have to spend all day chasing the sun,,
you need to re-think your leisure time priorities.

Its alright for you Queenslanders where it does not get hot.

Try parking a caravan in the sun when it is often above 40 degrees.

For those who followed this thread to the bitter end, I had a chat with some folks at the Mt Barker 12-volt shop today, where I originally purchased my portable panels. They confirmed that simply hooking the portable panels (with their own built-in regulator) across the batteries would assist with charging the batteries and that there was no need to connect the portable panels via the existing charge controller on the van. They said both sets of panels would react to the battery voltage and adjust their charging accordingly as the batteries neared full charge.
Cheers

Coop

Originally Posted by bee utey

Just plug the portable set into a power connection near the battery and they'll be fine. The only thing to note is that your cables should be thick enough to avoid too much voltage loss between the controller and the battery.

I was thinking of buying additional folding panel (2 x 80w folding) as my existing 120w panels don't provide enough power in winter where I camp in a deep valley. The sun doesn't clear the eastern ridge until fairly late and drops behind the western ridge fairly early. I wasn't sure if there would be an issue with just paralleling the existing 120w and new 160w units.

Note that the 120 watt rating can be taken with a grain of salt. I never get above 7.5 amps out of the panel even in summer.