Thor Forums

[donw]

Originally Posted by HaRVey

Vegas - I'm glad to hear GoPower said their controller can support one 190W panel, that is definitely a decent start at reducing your dependancy on the genny when the sun is shining!
The main thing is to know your goals (limit genny to x hrs/day or longer, and use how much energy per day etc.) Once you clearly define your personal goals/desires AND know what your electric needs/wants are, the any of the major vendors can help you plan out a system (including batteries). That said there are a few dip your toe in the water things you can do which won't waste your money as you get a feel for your needs/wants.
1) make sure the one 190W panel (whoever you buy it from) is an Monocrystaline panel verses a Polycrystalline, because Mono panels are about 95% efficient verses ~70% for Poly and will also harvest more power on clowdy days. Plan the placement of your one panel to leave room for as many more (3?) if you decide to add more later.
2) assuming the factory wirinig is large enough (maybe take pictures and send to GoPower for advice), then the next upgrade would be the controller, going from the factory 10 amp PWM to a 40 amp MPPT controller, since in addition to the increased capacity, the MPPT type is also ~95% efficient at power conversion verses the ~70% of the PWM.
As you can see, going cheap on panels and controllers will give you ~50% of the power potential verses ~85% of the Mono/MPPT combo.
I know it's not cheap, but I can't say enough how happy I am with the Victron BMV 712 Smart battery monitor! I wish I'd had one on every trailer or RV I've owned. No more guessing or hoping I had enough battery reserve, if I was using too much, if I had any unknown drains, and if and how much my various charging sources were working.

I want to do the exact thing on my new Miramar. BUT... Not easy to go to MPPT due to Thor's location of batteries, charger and panel junction box. easy to do PWM. Complete rewire for MPPT if you want to do it correctly.