Camp Solar Setup (1 Viewer)

[PabloVTA]

Pablo, I've just visited Renogy. http://www.renogy-store.com/
I think I've found your folding system, very affordable. Yours is the suitcase folding kit? Is the controller
weather resistant? Can it stay out in rain showers? Have you used it in winter? Colder weather?

yeah, I wouldn't think of it as robust water proof, but it took a real good shower at Mammoth this summer and wasn't hurt at all.
thinking of getting a silicone bag for the controller, and maybe silicone the gap around the edges. After 10 minutes of real hard rain, I got to moving it under the rig..I was worried at first, but it handled it well. I guess a sandwich baggie would work in a pinch.

I love the idea of mounting it to the rack, but you need to move it to face the sun, and if the rig isnt parked right, then what do you do?
Plus, I can use this when I take another truck out, or the camper.

 

[cruiserpilot]

I've seen pics from a couple of guys here on mud with camp set ups, and they have them on a lead, so they can
be adjusted. My friend up here with his on the roof of his camper was complaining how hot it was to have to park
in the sun so the solar worked. That seemed counter intuitive to me, so having it movable and location flexible is more to my
personality. I think a small $25 pelican case that can be bought at any outdoor store with a couple of holes drilled in it for
electrical leads would solve the weather issue.
I sure appreciate the info, too late for this summer, but I'm set for next now. J

 

[JCruse]

yeah, I wouldn't think of it as robust water proof, but it took a real good shower at Mammoth this summer and wasn't hurt at all.
thinking of getting a silicone bag for the controller, and maybe silicone the gap around the edges. After 10 minutes of real hard rain, I got to moving it under the rig..I was worried at first, but it handled it well. I guess a sandwich baggie would work in a pinch.

I love the idea of mounting it to the rack, but you need to move it to face the sun, and if the rig isnt parked right, then what do you do?
Plus, I can use this when I take another truck out, or the camper.

There are mounts that raise one end or the other so you'd only have to turn the rig in the right direction. But my monocrystalline panel doesn't get hardly any more juice by pointing it at the sun. Pointing straight up it makes full power from about 9AM to 6PM. Even on cloudy days with light rain. At say 7 amps x 9 hours that's a good amount of juice.

 

[JCruse]

Okay fine, so it must be a portable setup.... Then how about this?



100W Mono-crystalline self contained "suitcase" system - measures 20" by 27" by 3" . Made by Renogy, the same company that made my awesomely inexpensive yet powerful 100W panel. Doesn't need to be pointed anywhere but up.

They also list a 60 watter for $50 less.



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HR8YNK6?psc=1

 

[e9999]

it does not seem likely that the panel orientation would not matter as far as power generation is concerned, unless there would be some really weird "saturation" effects going on that I don't know about. The orientation is merely a surface area effect. If you are not perpendicular to the sun rays, you are not getting the same incoming energy per unit area of panel. Not to mention greater atmospheric absorption etc at non-normal angles.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

it does not seem likely that the panel orientation would not matter as far as power generation is concerned, unless there would be some really weird "saturation" effects going on that I don't know about. The orientation is merely a surface area effect. If you are not perpendicular to the sun rays, you are not getting the same incoming energy per unit area of panel. Not to mention greater atmospheric absorption etc at non-normal angles.

Eric-oddly, I agree with you. Tracking the sun makes a big difference, though not the orders of magnitude you might think. With a 100 watt panel, flat, on the roof you might get 5 amps at mid solar day. Moved every 2 hours or so, tilted at the sun, you might get 6 amps. While it doesn't sound like much, it's 20% better, and trust me, with solar, every amp-hour is precious.

Where it makes a difference is before 10am, and after 2pm. Then, tracking the sun makes a huge difference. Like 5 amps vs 2 amps. I have this idea that I can model that mathematically and build a rotating and tilting solar set up.

 

[JCruse]

My 100W panel was making 120W at just over 8 amps with a DMM the day I brought it home, sitting on a table in my driveway. It was 3-4PM and drizzling. It makes the same amount of juice at noon as it does 3-4 hours earlier or later.



Here's one review of my panels pertaining to low light situations:

My location is relatively shaded, which means that any and all of my solar panels experiences some degree of shade and shadowing throughout the day, and my location is also subject to blocking of early AM sun and late PM sun from nearby mountain ridges to the east and to the west, and the two days since I installed the panels have been quite dark and overcast, and yet the panels have nonetheless consistently put out more power than I would have expected under those conditions (I am an engineer; I know what I am talking about, and I have the equipment here to measure the power levels accurately), and, in fact, these two 100 watt panels put out significantly more power under such conditions than any of my other 200 watt banks of panels. This makes sense to me, for monocrystalline panels (such as these Renogy 100 watt panels) tend to do better under marginal low-light conditions than do polycrystalline panels or amporphous panels.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQQAAQW?psc=1

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Eric-oddly, I agree with you. Tracking the sun makes a big difference, though not the orders of magnitude you might think. With a 100 watt panel, flat, on the roof you might get 5 amps at mid solar day. Moved every 2 hours or so, tilted at the sun, you might get 6 amps. While it doesn't sound like much, it's 20% better, and trust me, with solar, every amp-hour is precious.

Where it makes a difference is before 10am, and after 2pm. Then, tracking the sun makes a huge difference. Like 5 amps vs 2 amps. I have this idea that I can model that mathematically and build a rotating and tilting solar set up.

Been running solar for several years and panel orientation has never been a concern or problem. Flat verses an angle panel is only good for 10% in AZ. With a 100W panel not a big deal at least it has never been. I will agree if you want to move your panel several time a day it will help. I prefer to enjoy my time out and not be concerned about were my panel is and what time it is. Set it and forget has worked fine for me after several years. Possible deal breaker for some. I dont really camp I travel and sleep for the night and normally dont hang out in the same spot for days. I travel....

 

[e9999]

there are plenty of solar calculators on the web that allow you to quantify very easily the effects of orientation, inclination angle etc as a function of time of day, date, location etc and averaging those out. It's just angles, really.

I played with some and was pretty miffed at the shady contractor who built my house since it appears that they made a point of orienting all the roofs so I would miss out on a good chunk of potential solar energy...

Anyway, the solution to not having to worry about the orientation of the panel is to get a big enough one that it more than covers your need even without touching it during the day. More $$, of course, but eh, you can sit in a lounge chair with a cool one (courtesy of the panel) and not have to move a finger (except to reach in the fridge and lift the cool one up to your mouth) the whole day.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Been running solar for several years and panel orientation has never been a concern or problem. Flat verses an angle panel is only good for 10% in AZ. With a 100W panel not a big deal at least it has never been. I will agree if you want to move your panel several time a day it will help. I prefer to enjoy my time out and not be concerned about were my panel is and what time it is. Set it and forget has worked fine for me after several years. Possible deal breaker for some. I dont really camp I travel and sleep for the night and normally dont hang out in the same spot for days. I travel....

Glad to hear that, because for a future trip south of the border, I'm hard mounting dual 100 watt panels on the top of my FJ62. Unless I can think of a quick and dirty tilting and rotating mount, they are going to just sit up there flat. If I can average 10 amps 8 hours per day, I'll have more power than I need and will likely add on camp lighting and the like.

 

[Rugy]

Thanks to all that have posted up here.
Will be adding a solar set up to my FJ60.
Running dual batteries one for the truck and one for the accessories.
Presently running a 60w panel and after the reading here will add another 60w panel.

 

[surfpig]

I think this will be my Christmas present to myself this year!

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Cool. If you want any help with cables or need to use my power pole crimpers, come on over. I added a useful bit to my charge controller box-I'll come back and edit in a bit with a pic.

If you are jumping in on the solar thing, I highly recommend you get a power/watt meter. It's only $20 and surprisingly helpful.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Here is my controller box, second pic is the addition. (Cheap waterproof voltmeter from Amazon). And last, the powermeter.

 

[george_tlc]

^ Drew, nice round holes, less nice square/rectangular holes, LOL.

I've found many of those DC power meters are quite a bit off at the low end of the current scale, though considering the dynamic range they cover they do pretty good overall. Just don't believe too much in any readings down in the <0.2A range, unless you have confirmed them with a real meter beforehand. Obviously at fridge current levels they do just fine, just not for the lower end like USB chargers etc.

cheers,
george.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

LOL-I was cutting the windows bigger with a freehand dremmel-so I could see the controller LEDs without straining. Not pretty, I'll agree. But the box protects the controller as intended and makes a nice portable package.

And you are right about the power meters. The voltage recorded is almost always wrong by 0.15 volts. I have found the current to be accurate in the 1-10 amp range I am usually looking at. Funny, I did test with a real meter, and stupidly blew the mA fuse in the meter because I wasn't paying attention. But the cumulative amp hour function is very handy, as is figuring out how and if current is actually charging the battery. For $20 what you get is surprisingly good, but I would not want to monitor a space station with it for sure.


edit: And the waterproof LED voltmeter I added on the battery side is very accurate (at least it agrees with my meter to 0.01v).

Monitoring a solar set up the poor man's way is easy. Look at the resting voltage fridge off, first thing in the morning. Plug in the solar panel. If voltage starts to rise slowly, everything is good. If it stays the same or goes down, something is wrong. If by mid day, you see a peak voltage near 14.5, you have at least entered the absorb stage of charging.

You can get amp hour readings with a power meter that will tell you roughly was supplied back to the battery. With just a dumb voltmeter($10), you can get 80% of the info you want. With the power meter($20), you're up to 95%. If you want to spend another $200, you can get a real battery monitor and get all the info you could possibly want assuming you calibrate it and adjust it for battery condition over time.

 

[Hedgepig]

Coming into this a bit late but - I agree with the park your vehicle in the sun is a problem (just makes the fridge work harder), 80W for my rig is just at the limit - I think 100W+ would have allowed a little bit more leeway to run my 50L fridge. I have the option to slide my panel out from under the rack OR to move it around camp on a flying lead. My PWM controller (no need for anything too fancy as it is only 80W) is mounted outside - it is resin potted so waterproof - on the removable tray. Ran this set-up for 3 months solid in the field. I would add that it is worth remembering that each of us has a diesel/gas generator under the bonnet.....30 mins running in camp to top up the batteries should not be a problem. My set-up can be seen here:

Hedgehog - LC100 build thread - Page 10

 

[Cruiserdrew]

While your set up will work, you are loosing considerable charging efficiency by having your charge controller a long way from the battery, because those voltage drops count. Similarly, you are giving up your temperature compensation too. You may find your 80 watt panel would be plenty, just by moving the CC within a foot or so of the battery.

Unfortunately the build thread you reference, won't allow non-members to view the pics. I'm very interested in your set up and it sounds quite flexible.

 

[Hedgepig]

I'll post up some pictures here - I'll see what I can find to explain the set-up. I'll take a look at the CC location re: volt drops - thx

 

[Hedgepig]

Here are some photos

solar panel on beach

• Hedgepig
• Dec 12, 2015

solar panel

• Hedgepig
• Dec 12, 2015

solar panel on rack

• Hedgepig
• Dec 12, 2015