Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

Mick, you need to inventory your AC use. If at all possible get a P3 Kill-A-Watt meter as this little gadget plugs into the wall receptacles or ? and then the appliance into the meter and it will record the watts you use. you will have to ude it on each appliance / light you use but you get the picture.
Once you have the total watts for a day calculated, that will tell us what minimum panel size should be. Also the calculations will account for losses (inefficiencies) of charge controller, inverter, wire, etc in converting PV into 120 v AC.
You are just at the beginning, it is a long but simple process once you get the basics under your belt.
Cheers

Eric
ps hope you are enjoying Canada. Be aware that there is a string of tropical storms /Hurricanes in process this week all along the eastern seaboard from Florida to Newfoundland and all points in between. they seem to be spawned every second day this year so far.
Hurricane season can last till December
ej

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

in general you will have to get a better idea of the watthours per day you will typically need. also, there may be further compliations when only being able to mount so many pvs on the top of the rv and they will undoubtedly be laying flatly which is not optimal for solar production, but simplifies the complexity of having to aim it. that would also be impossible to aim when driving down the road. while parked you can make small mounts and have some extra pvs remoted from the rv, but this increases the possibility of theft.
i won't get too detailed, but there is more to it than just getting pvs onto the rv as there's the wires, fuses, charge controller, combiners if needed, batteries in a battery box, and the inverter if you opt for alternating current and the proper sizing of these items. most will have backup to solar by partially charging from the alternator (alternators can only supply part of the bulk charge and the rest via another means like solar) and when there's not enough solar, a good inverter generator and a quality ac charger with at least 2 stages of charging and preferably 3 stages. all of these areas and maybe more can have options within these catagories so there is much to consider.
northern arizona wind & sun does own this forum and that may be a very large detour to get to them. it also depends on where and by when you want this done because there are places in maryland and florida for sure that have the stuff. now installing this i'm not so sure as certain rv places would probably do the installs. some others here may be able to recommend some places that could accomodate you.

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

1) your Freedom 458 inverter, do you know if it is pure sine wave, or modified sine wave?

2) inherently, there is no major difference between a 60Hz & 50Hz inverter, just the frequency they run at, and *mabye* the quality of iron in the transformer. Many transformers are listed at 50/60Hz. Motors can be a very different story, the frequency turns into a large shift in rpms on a conventional 3600 rpm motor.

3) By all means, skip solar, and buy gasoline instead, the $3000 you would spend on panels can buy 750 gallons of gas (at $4/gal) AND the carbon footprint with the gas.

4) Seriously - The latest calculation I've seen for PV mfg payback, is about 3 or 4 years.
Hail - Many panels are rated to take a 1" (25mm) steel ball, from a hight of 1M
from a BP data sheet: Hailstone impact: 1 inch (25 mm) at 52 mph (23 m/s) and
http://www.roofery.com/solar-panels/hail-damage.html suggests using smaller panels, so if one breaks, it's not 50% of your generation. There is usually no repairing PV panels, they break, you replace. Also, a smaller sheet of glass may be stronger, but, that may vary if they thin the glass down. There are also plastic lens panels, on a Galvalume® steel backing plate, that you can actually shoot bullets http://www.ae-zone.org/Designs/altNRG/panels.html thru , and they still work (just a % reduced). Those are made by Unisolar. However, the material they are made from, generally degrades 10 or 20% the first year, and that is accounted for in their warranty. http://www.uni-solar.com/interior.asp?id=100 They also require a larger area, for the same wattage.

Cleaning - Obviously, bird droppings will shade, and drastically reduce output. Any shadow will reduce power output tremendously. Regular Washing, as when you wash the rest of your rig, should keep it clean. A thin layer of road grime does not seem to be as bad as some think.

Air Conditioning - Your panels (200 - 400W) will not run an air conditioner for very long at all, you will have to rely on generator. And your 7.5KW generator is a pretty large genset. It will run your AC & microwave and lights at the same time, but at the cost of noise and fuel. Possibly consider a small honda EC1000 generator, you can use it for 20 minutes in the morning to make your coffee from, and recharge batteries, and let the solar top the batteries off the rest of the day.

Charge controller. You need something to regulate the power from the panels, so you do not over charge your batteries. While the T105's are rugged, and 300W of panels wont damage them, you will have to add a lot of distilled water. You can also use a MPPT style of controller to down convert panels wired for 75V @ 4A (thin wires) to 12V @ 25A (heavy copper wire$) at the battery, so you only have short lengths of expen$ive 6gauge wire. Also get a battery temperature sensor (BTS) for the charge controller.

Refrigerator - A propane/electric fridge is a good combo. Keep the venting system clean for the propane, it needs to discharge the heat. For the electric part, I guess you will need about 400W of panels to run a fridge completely off solar. RV fridges are not know to be very efficient, and refrigeration is very demanding of power. I'm no expert of RV fridges, so maybe I'm wrong in my guess on this.

Alternator Booster. Most vehicle alternators are designed to charge a starting battery, not a deep cycle battery. Their 13.8V is fine for starters, but deep cycle batteries need to get up to the mid 14V range for full charge. This all depends on what your driveing cycle is, 8 months out of the year, daily 6 hour trip, or 3 weekends a year, and then the rest of the time, the solar and charge controller will keep the batteries topped off.

Here is a website that may assist you with load sizing calculations, chose any battery, and calculate the KWH from the final results.
Here for battery sizing calculator : (javascript required)
http://www.freesunpower.com/battery_designer.php Also, of note, the "diagrams" at the battery sizing tool site. They show a poor way to wire the batteries. Connecting on the "diagonal" will extend the life of the batteries by helping share the loads. Here's a great writeup on how to properly wire your battery bank (diagonally) http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

Lots of stuff to consider. You may even want to look at a solar hot water heater for showers, and save on propane too. If it was me, I'd add as much solar as I could afford, and find space for. I think the next 5 years will see much higher energy prices, and you will be glad for the solar power.

That's my nickel's worth. Mike

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

seeing as how most alternators are not very good at bringing batteries to their full charge, it is a good consideration to have a small pv with a charge controller and battery temperature sensor to keep the batteries you have charging past just 60-90% (varies). the minimum would be an output current rating from the pvs of no less than 3% of the amphour capacity of the battery(s) and no higher than 13%. generator charging is an good option, but very noisy for long timeperiods and is recommended for a backup to charge your batteries with.
going solar is very costly, but adding more undercharged batteries won't solve the problem either as batteries are also very expensive, especially when they fail early from not being allowed to fully charge. what's the carbon footprint of the rv itself? pretty high, but the power you need in the wilds or on the road is the subject and how it is you are going to get it as that's not a street car or cable car you're driving. if it were about carbon footprints you shouldn't be driving something so big let alone driving at all for recreation purposes.

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

Mick, just a few comments based on my solar use experience...

1 it is pricey, but silent

2 I use a 'hybrid' system, part solar and part gen set, gen used for running tools and appliance type stuff... heavy power loads.

3 I currently have 240 w @ 12 v and this is good for lights for each evening. I have switched to LED 'bulbs rather than Quartz Halogen as they need about 20% of the power (watts)

4 due to easy use each night, periodic use of cabin, my 240 w PV's are able to replace the use by about 10 am the next day.
more use = longer charge time

5 as others have said the slow charging is what PV's do best, so heavy demand means using the gen to fast charge the battery to ~ 90% charge, then the PVs takeover.

6 get a good Battery Monitor in addition to
a reasonable MPPT Charge controller with a Batt Temp Sensor (BTS), sometimes called remote sensor.

the BTS guarantees the best charge for your batt at its temp,
the MPPT maximizes the charge your PVs can produce and
the Monitor lets you see just what you really took out and put back into your (expensive) battery(ies)

7 use a True Sine Wave inverter, not MSW, less power wasted as heat in motors and will probably save some delicate electronic devices, battery chargers, Laptop , camera, etc.

HTH

Eric

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

Bad Apple wrote: »

Interesting that all three responders don't appear to own solar. That said, if you can afford a new diesel 39' coach and the fuel to operate it in the USA, and after that, put it on a ship and send it to the UK and then use it to tour Europe, I'd probably just go with a genset and good battery bank. Carbon feeds trees, they'll love you for it.

Cheers,

Bad Apple

interesting you'd say that for what are those unisolar 64s doing with that sb50 at my place then? i also said it wasn't about a carbon footprint in so many words too because that would be like consuming 15000 calories in a day and expect to make things right by drinking a diet drink to wash it all down with. solar does have its place for rvs whether you go all out or not for whatever reason.

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

I know thismay be a simplistic answer, but a friend with an Airstream had good success, after he researched what he wanted for the install, with his Airstream dealer...
Have you contacted the Units manufacturer for their recommendation(s) ?

HTH

Eric

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

For your Euro campsite/hookups, you may have to consider just using a small 12V battery charger, and park in the sun, or additionally run your generator.
Euro Mains
220V 2A = 440W @ 15V = 29 Charging amps
220V 3A = 660W @ 15V = 44 Charging amps

Spread over a day, that's a LOT of power. You could easily run a lot of things, but most air conditioners need more than 600W.

> European camp grounds mains hook-up power may be as low as 2-3 amp

Re: Looking for RV Solar System Supplier & Installer

> Now how people complete those power usage charts is a mystery to
> me as a lot depends on the weather and your plans for that day.

You plan for a rainy day !! Stuck inside, drying out shoes and socks. If you have good weather, you will leave you roof vents cracked open to keep from coming home to an oven.


LED replacement bulbs for automotive lamps, there are many on-line stores to chose them from. I'd opt for the WARM white color, not daylight or cool white. They draw much less wattage than incandescent bulbs. Sometimes, a 10 or 20W halogen bulb is a better choice when you really need "good" light (for womens makeup, or food on the kitchen table) and an LED just does not focus the light in the right manner.