Solar Panel Ebay

[fatcat]

Hi Guys, i know there have been a few posts on this.

i have a Waceo 45l, and a 80 AMP battery and anther smaller one as well

The plan would be to charge one battery and use anther and swop over each day.

So roughly how many WATTS would i need, or is it more important to go off AMPS rather than the Watts, i just don't want to get more panel and weight than i need.

Has anyone bought one from one of the ebay supplies

If i need more in the future i can get anther one.

Cheers Guys

[fatcat]

Hi Guys,
http://www.waeco.com.au/documents/N308_FridgeComparo.pdfSo

looking at this it uses 38 amps in 24hrs, so then i need a 60 amp panel to charge the bat in say roughly 12 hours of daylight.

cheers

[Drover]

Put simply -

Watts divided by Volts = Amps.

120 watt panels / 12 volts = 10 Amps. Remember solar panel output is quoted at their maximum output, it is only in perfect conditions they could achieve it.

Then just add up your usage and what ever is left over will go to your batteries.

[PhilipA]

Not so fast Tonto.
A 120W panel will Give about 6 point something amps as the 120W output is always calculated at VMax which is about 17 or so volts.120over 17 =7 amps.
I have confirmed this with my 120W panel and a PWM regulator at 6plus amps, as the PWM just dumps the extra volts. My leads are 10 metres and I have relocated my regulator to the battery end.

If you spend extra on an MPPT regulator you will get more amps as it steps down the volts from Vmax to 14.5 or whatever and increases amps.
I will let you know when I buy an MPPT regulator how much it increases.LOL

You will only get full amps for about 4 hours per day in full sunlight so you have say 24 to 28 amp hours , with say another 16 for the rest of the day.
So a 120W panel will keep your fridge going.

You can also increase output by placing a mirror in front of the panels. I am looking for a mylar mirror at the moment, as this is probably best bang for buck and is very portable.
Regards Philip A

[Blknight.aus]

as a rough baseline.

In towsnville conditions, set up and operated reasonably, an 80W solar panel with a 100AH battery will keep an engle running unattended for 5 days.

[Saitch]

It must depend on fridge amperage consumption surely. I can get nearly 4 days from a 120ah AGM with my 25 y.o. 40l Engel so is it worth my obtaining a solar panel? I'm pretty sure my fridge runs at about 2.5-3 amps usage so, is it better for me just to swap the camper battery with the 2nd in the D1 & go for a run. I was thinking with a 120w panel I could remote camp until out of beer;)

[DiscoMick]

I have a 40 litre Engel and a 100amp battery in the camper and our 80 amp solar panels can keep it charged for about 5 days in winter (so the battery drops just under a quarter in 24 hours), hoping for more in summer.

[richard4u2]

I have a 40 litre Engel and a 100amp battery in the camper and our 80 amp solar panels can keep it charged for about 5 days in winter (so the battery drops just under a quarter in 24 hours), hoping for more in summer.
80 watt ?

[Xtreme]

A lot of factors (many of which are variable) affect how long you can keep your fridge running whan at a remote area base camp.

On the other end of the scale to those experiences given above, I've run a 30l Engel with a 90Ahr Marine battery and 15 watt solar panel for five days and still had quite a bit of juice left in the battery when we broke camp.

[Vern]

solar panels are that cheap, just get the biggest one you can physically fit where ever it needs to go. My set up on my camper is a 190w suntech panel (the ones that go on peoples houses), a morningstar PS30M mppt regulator, and 2x 100ah flooded batteries (because i had them), this runs my 2 waeco's, led lights (20watts), and pump for water tank, JUST. still runs out of juice on cloudy weather days

[DiscoMick]

Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2016/08/768.jpg (http://www.aulro.com/afvb/general-chat/160235-solar-panel-ebay.html#post1777786)
I have a 40 litre Engel and a 100amp battery in the camper and our 80 amp solar panels can keep it charged for about 5 days in winter (so the battery drops just under a quarter in 24 hours), hoping for more in summer.

80 watt ?

Yep, my bad, sorry, typed that in a hurry.

Re. the size, I would have bought 100 or 120 watt solar panels, but they wouldn't have fitted under the bed in the camper, so I'd have had to have carried them separately, which would have been a pain, so I chose the 80 watt folding because they will fit under the bed. It's one less thing to have to worry about packing before going away...

I suppose you need to decide if you are likely to want to stay in one place for more than a week without mains power, in which case the bigger panels the better, but if you're moving every few days the battery gets charged while driving, so its less of an issue.

[phl]

Anyone has an elegant setup to charge their aux battery under the bonnet without having to keep bonnet open or wires out the front?

[DiscoMick]

Not on my vehicle but on our camper trailer we fitted an Anderson plug to the back of the fridge box and connected it to the Engel DC-DC battery charger which takes current from the solar panels, boosts it and then sends it to the battery. Pretty simple and works fine. Plug and forget while camped.