Recommendation on a basic solar kit

[Bob Denman]

How about some pictures of your setup? (Including the batteries...)

[TurnerFam]

the thing about many of our 'wants' with solar is that we 'want' it to benefit us during the overnight/dark hours, when Solar is not 'able' to do anything for us... I get that we 'think' that Solar during the day will somehow give us the battery 'charge' to take us thru the night, but the simple fact is that we can easily forget that we are probably going to be running the generator at the dusk hour in order to run the microwave, make supper, etc., which will already charge the batteries while running...

Solar makes a lot of sense when you are simply 'sitting' during the daylight hours and don't want the noise or fuel consumption from a generator, but even then, especially during the hot months, you are going to want air conditioning anyway - so the generator will probably be used, at least part of the day, anyway.

My comments are not to necessarily dissuade those who it makes financial 'cents' for, but many of us jump on the solar bandwagon simply because we see others doing it and easily think that it should be something we should have, as though we're 'missing out' on some type of 'need' during camping, or for some to be able to 'say' we have solar.

What I think many of us miss, though, is that 'big' engine that we already paid for, that came with our RV, and is ready and willing to be used - the generator. Neighbors who dry-camp certainly expect you to use your generator - they'll be using theirs, too... and the very few times we ever go 'camping' to a state or national park where generator hours are limited is not really a great 'reason' to spend so much extra money on something that we may find that doesn't really 'do' what we think it will. I can be a mind game just as much as anything.
I've heard folks state things like 'well, we got thru the night because of our solar', or 'our solar is giving us many, many more hours of battery power'... but many times these are just subjective opinions to bolster our purchase, when in reality it's very, very difficult to actually identify exactly what 'would' have happened even if we didn't have solar...it might have been the same outcome.


travel, enjoy... and by all means, park in the SHADE! : )

[jpmihalk]

TurnerFam - Very well stated and I couldn't agree more, based on our experience.

[normpaul@aol.com]

Don't bother with PWM, you will always do much better with a MPPT charge controller. For the amount of extra power you get to your batteries, it is worth the little bit of extra cost up front.

[Dilley-Dilley]

It is true that our generators will be used for AC, Microwave Oven, Blow Dryers, etc and that in turn will charge up the batteries. However, adding solar and more battery storage is still beneficial for dry camping. Also, having solar keeps the batteries fully charged while in storage and will extend the useful life of the batteries thereby saving money on battery replacement frequency. Lastly, if your RV is stored at a facility you won’t have to worry about a dead engine battery as this stays charged as well. Solar can be quite an investment for your RV but I think that solar has value and that it can be beneficial and that it is value added. Just some thoughts.

[Bob Denman]

I just thought of a question: If your rig sits for Months under the Sun, and isn't used: can you end up "cooking" your batteries?

[Dilley-Dilley]

Good question but the answer is no. A properly installed system prevent overcharging of batteries.

[Dilley-Dilley]

Here’s a link to an RV Solar FAQ that my RV Storage Facility put together. They installed our system for us...
http://www.avrvsimi.com/wp-content/d...rpanelfaqs.pdf

[Bob Denman]

Thanks! It feels pretty good to be becoming so "enlightened" on this subject...

[Dilley-Dilley]

You’re welcome! I am definitely no expert on solar power. I do like convenience and I also like to maintain and take care of my stuff. I am a DIY guy and I like to handle most of the upgrades and maintenance on our RV. The solar upgrade was a bit out of my wheelhouse so I opted for having our facility install it for me. We don’t do a lot of dry camping but now we have options and I like options. Also, if we decide to upgrade the system it is easily doable.

[Dilley-Dilley]

Another thing to remember on RV solar energy systems is that the use of outlets and appliances off of your batteries is limited to those that are connected to your inverter if one is equipped. If someone wants to run a microwave oven or power AC outlets off of there storage batteries then those things need to be wired through the inverter and the inverter needs to be of sufficient capacity to run the things that are wired to it. This might be common knowledge to some but it was news to me. I didn’t have the microwave connected to the inverter but I may add a couple more outlets to it. At that point it becomes power management as you probably wouldn’t want to try and blow dry hair and make coffee at the same time.

[Dilley-Dilley]

Oh and I can’t believe I forgot to mention the benefit of solar with regards to the residential refrigerator in our RV. The fact that you can’t switch over to propane operation on these residential fridges is a big deal to me. With solar and two more storage batteries it’s not a problem anymore.

[sallyscookies]

Originally Posted by cfoard

Can someone help me understand what I would need to add to my "solar ready" class C? I have the Go Power Connector on the roof that feeds 10 wire down to the WFCO power center. I thought the wire was supposed to go the the battery bank but it definitely terminates at the power center. I also have an Eaton True Sine Wave Inverter, [ATTACH]Attachment 11811

Attachment 11812[/ATTACH]1800W.
Where to I start?

cfoard
Check out what other Quantum owners have done about that on the Thor quantum owners Facebook group.... We haven't done that upgrade, or any for that matter, yet to our rc25 but it's first on our list!

[Bob Denman]

D-D,
I've got a sign for you :

http://www.thorforums.com/forums/att...1&d=1532889196

[Dilley-Dilley]

[emoji1303]

[Dilley-Dilley]

Here’s some photos of my 480 watt Go Power Solar on my 2017 Miramar 34.1 (batteries included).

[Bob Denman]

http://www.thorforums.com/forums/att...1&d=1532990703

[tgsmith4845]

Has anyone installed the flexible solar panels that glue directly to the roof? Wondering if they’re any good, or are rigid panels better?

[Logcabiny]

Have had 2 solar panels at 160 watts each and 6 12v agm batteries for almost 2 years. Main use has been when the unit is in storage. Don't need solar when staying in any campground with power, or when staying just one night without power and driving on the next day. Extra batteries is what gets us through the night(s) with residential refrigerator (remember to turn your ice maker off when stopped for the night). I figure that if we really insist on being able to boondock indefinitely, we would need 2 more panels in order to minimize the generator use. Even then it is hard to justify adding panels since we do like to run the A/C/heat pump, microwave, blowdrier, central vac, & icemaker/automatic defrost if needed, and that means running the generator some anyway (like the noise or not).

[Stay Class C]

Originally Posted by cfoard

Can someone help me understand what I would need to add to my "solar ready" class C? I have the Go Power Connector on the roof that feeds 10 wire down to the WFCO power center. I thought the wire was supposed to go the the battery bank but it definitely terminates at the power center. I also have an Eaton True Sine Wave Inverter, [ATTACH]Attachment 11811

Attachment 11812[/ATTACH]1800W.
Where to I start?

Did you figure anything out on this? I am having a hard time finding the PV wires In the control center under the master bed.