Going Solar and need advice

System

I am getting ready to go solar for a "permanent" 30' RV in the Colorado Mtns. I am new to solar but understand the concepts. I am completely off grid. What I want to do is set up "shore" power for the RV but I have a bunch of questions about what works best or what I need. I already have four L16HC batteries (420 AH) they all new dated Feb 08. We will use the RV mostly for weekend/3 day weekend use. I estimate about 900 watts a day. I am also thinking of buying a kyocera 125 watt panel and Xantrex 1750 plus MSW inverter. Price is $550 for both. Any thoughts on this or other recommended equipment or configurations. All help and advice is appreciated I excited to be joining the club. Steve.

BB.

Re: Going Solar and need advice

The 125 Watt panel will, on average, provide very roughly ~250 watt*hours per day (+/- depending on seasons, weather, etc.)...

If you are planing on 900 Watt*HOURS per day, you would need about 4x the amount of solar power to break even...

Its OK this way--but you will have to use your genset for much of your power.

We can give you a more exact answer using this link or this link to PDF files of solar radiation for the US by state (a good read to understand how everything works), but this is more or less the level of power you can expect...

If you are RV'ing during the 6-9 months of the year with good weather, you can probably use 1 less panel. If you are into skiing, then you might need a few more.

Since you have a good size set of storage batteries, you might be able to get through a 3 day stop with solar panels and depleting your battery bank to 50%--then recharge on the drive home/shore power...

-Bill
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niel

Re: Going Solar and need advice

as far as the deal just be sure both the pv and the inverter are in good working order and i'll say go for it, but you will need more pvs as said. the batteries do need to be kept up to snuff in the meantime so have something to charge them up with once in awhile.

BB.

Re: Going Solar and need advice

Lastly, the MSW inverter... Generally, if this is going to be a permanent installation and you will be using TV/Stereo/Computer/other electronic devices/electric motors (like fridge), etc., you should really look into a Pure Sine Wave inverter and not a MSW (Modified Square Wave) type inverter.

The MSW inverters are pretty inexpensive--whereas the true sine wave inverters are heavier and more expensive.

Some 90% of your appliances/tools will work OK on the MSW inverter, the other 10% may work poorly, overheat, or die a premature death... It is difficult to predict what any one particular device will do.

-Bill

System2

Re: Going Solar and need advice

Re your batteries dated new Feb 08. Have you been keeping them charged?