davido
Super Active Member
- Jul 17, 2014
- 1,545
I spent 4 days near Zion National Park over the long weekend.
I have a Renology 100w solar suitcase with built in Voyager 20A controller: This item
I also have a 25 foot solar extension cord set, and clips to attach the panel to my battery system.
The scenario: I was camped at about 6600 feet. Days were in the 78-80f range. Nights dropped to 40-45f.
Power requirements: Our energy budget is 25-32AH/day depending on how much the heater has to run (a lot less if the furnace doesn't run at all).
I have a dual-battery set up with two Group 24 batteries wired in parallel. That provides 160AH total capacity, 80AH usable before dropping to 50% charge.
With an energy budget of 30AH, approximately, I would drop below 50% on the 3rd day of the trip. But worse, I would worry all the time that I'm using more power than I think I am, forcing everyone to economize rather than just enjoying the trip.
Enter the solar panel: Using the extension cables I found a place where I could set the panel on the ground, where it wouldn't be affected by shade. This will be harder in a dense forest area. In Zion, it's pretty easy. I tilted the panel up, and changed its orientation so that in the morning it was pointing east, and then before leaving camp, I turned it to the west so that it could catch the afternoon sun more efficiently. Depending on sunlight conditions, the Voyager controller put out anywhere from 1.5A to 5.5A. During good sunlight times, it was always between 4.5A and 5.5A.
Every day the panel brought my battery bank to FULL. And the number of AH added was always over 30. When the controller detects that the batteries are full (and there are no significant loads), it shuts down to a trickle charge. So although it was giving me 30A per day, it would have provided more power if the batteries could have accepted more. On a sunny day with 8h of good sunlight, I would imagine you could get 40AH.
Keep in mind that in bad weather, you're only going to get 25% of that amount, so instead of, say, 35AH, you would only get 8-9AH.
So, a little paper napkin math. In good weather, with a daily usage of 30AH, a 100w panel brings me back to full every day. In bad weather, my 80AH of useful capacity will have 30AH drawn out of it per day, and 10AH replaced per day, with a net loss of 20AH. So in continual pessimal weather days, I could go about four days. Hopefully a typical camping trip won't be burdened with four days of straight rain. But if that were happening, we could get through it with our two-battery set up and single 100w panel.
In the end, I'm pretty happy with this solar kit.
I have a Renology 100w solar suitcase with built in Voyager 20A controller: This item
I also have a 25 foot solar extension cord set, and clips to attach the panel to my battery system.
The scenario: I was camped at about 6600 feet. Days were in the 78-80f range. Nights dropped to 40-45f.
Power requirements: Our energy budget is 25-32AH/day depending on how much the heater has to run (a lot less if the furnace doesn't run at all).
I have a dual-battery set up with two Group 24 batteries wired in parallel. That provides 160AH total capacity, 80AH usable before dropping to 50% charge.
With an energy budget of 30AH, approximately, I would drop below 50% on the 3rd day of the trip. But worse, I would worry all the time that I'm using more power than I think I am, forcing everyone to economize rather than just enjoying the trip.
Enter the solar panel: Using the extension cables I found a place where I could set the panel on the ground, where it wouldn't be affected by shade. This will be harder in a dense forest area. In Zion, it's pretty easy. I tilted the panel up, and changed its orientation so that in the morning it was pointing east, and then before leaving camp, I turned it to the west so that it could catch the afternoon sun more efficiently. Depending on sunlight conditions, the Voyager controller put out anywhere from 1.5A to 5.5A. During good sunlight times, it was always between 4.5A and 5.5A.
Every day the panel brought my battery bank to FULL. And the number of AH added was always over 30. When the controller detects that the batteries are full (and there are no significant loads), it shuts down to a trickle charge. So although it was giving me 30A per day, it would have provided more power if the batteries could have accepted more. On a sunny day with 8h of good sunlight, I would imagine you could get 40AH.
Keep in mind that in bad weather, you're only going to get 25% of that amount, so instead of, say, 35AH, you would only get 8-9AH.
So, a little paper napkin math. In good weather, with a daily usage of 30AH, a 100w panel brings me back to full every day. In bad weather, my 80AH of useful capacity will have 30AH drawn out of it per day, and 10AH replaced per day, with a net loss of 20AH. So in continual pessimal weather days, I could go about four days. Hopefully a typical camping trip won't be burdened with four days of straight rain. But if that were happening, we could get through it with our two-battery set up and single 100w panel.
In the end, I'm pretty happy with this solar kit.
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