Thread: Solar Panels for camping

Thanks for moving, had no idea this was here. Jester, all the max output volts on those panels are 18v. Is that adjustable on your reg?? Reading other threads in this Alternate Energies section says 18V will cook your batteries.. Worth checking.

Cheers

The panels come with regulators to limit the voltage to around 14 ish give or take.

My rule of thumb ...

Divide solar panel WATTS by 10, then divide by 2,

120WATTS/10 = 12
12/2 = 6 ..... 6 amps output from you regulator to charge your battery (PWM reg. An MPPT reg will give a smidge more, maybe 7-7.5A))

Good rule of thumb is 1W of solar per 1A of battery capacity ... give or take. More is better.

I have 120W folding for 130A/Hr of battery in the D2 / 200W (2x 100W thin film) for 220A/Hr of battery in the kamper ... but can combine any or all in combination for up to 320Watts total (and see around 16-18A max charge rate when the batteries are at a low SOC).

That's just about spot on from what I've observed from my setup Fluids. I've got a 150 watt panel, running into 2 x 100Ah deep cycle batteries. On a sunny day - when it's not too hot, with the sun directly overhead, the most I've measured is just over 8 amps, usually around 7.5 or so if the batteries are down a bit, usually, they don't drop below about 90% SOC so mostly it's a lot less than this.

My combo works well for what we use it for in the van, I've never run out of power, but I don't run the Engel from it - that's in the car if/when we take it, so the dual batteries in that look after the fridge as we have a gas fridge in the van - the Engel is required to keep beer cold on hotter days when the gas fridge runs out of puff (over about 32 degrees).

As you can well imagine, there's not a lot of need for it camping down here at the moment, you just leave your beer outside to keep cool during the day, then make sure it's in the fridge at night so it doesn't freeze...

Originally Posted by Russrobe

Thanks for moving, had no idea this was here. Jester, all the max output volts on those panels are 18v. Is that adjustable on your reg?? Reading other threads in this Alternate Energies section says 18V will cook your batteries.. Worth checking.

Cheers

My reg keeps track of input and shuts out all inflow once batteries up to charge.

Sent from my A51f using AULRO mobile app

I have a 200w household panel running through a Morning star Mppt controller .
I can camp indefinitely , Fridge , lights vac sealer etc . Have not bothered to check any values as it works easily , never any problems . Summer & winter ,S.W WA.

How does everyone go one cloudy days. I've just rewired my camper with decent wire and run a 200W panel. We operate a 40l fridge and 40l freezer with water pump and lights and if we have 2 cloudy days in a row we still tend to be in trouble. Running 3 Optima yellow tops.

I only run 1 fridge , but no problems after 3 or 4 cloudy days in a row .
S.W winter