10 watt solar panel

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grampy

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Joined
Jun 23, 2015
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12
hi. I have 2000 adventure I need to replace solar panel on roof  I took 4 screws holding it to roof I tried to lift it but  it wont come off .could I be missing something else  I didn't loosen thanks Grampy
 
It probably has the white self-leveling sealant around the feet and maybe butyl tape under the feet. You will need to slit the sealant and pry up. If the idea is to replace it with another 10 watt panel, I would save your time and money. 10 watts probably isn't enough to even overcome a battery's self-discharge.
 
Ditto what John said about removing the panel and its usefullness. Those 10 watt panels Winnie used to install are pretty much useless. If you hooked it directly to your cell phone on a sunny day, it would struggle to fully recharge it, much less an RV's house or chassis battery. If your goal is to simply trickle charge your battery, you'd actually see some results with a 50 watt panel, and they're fairly reasonably priced.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Renogy-50w-Watts-Solar-Panel-Monocrystalline-off-Grid-12v-RV-Marine-Boat/2058960114?iid=300932489436

Kev
 
Is the 10 watt what came on the Tours I used to see - with controls by the aqua hot?
 
About all it's good for is lighting the LED on the panel. If I could get mine off I'd give it away
 
Mile High said:
Is the 10 watt what came on the Tours I used to see - with controls by the aqua hot?
Yep, that's the one Brad. I am quite sure that all the panel's output was used up powering that little red LED on the One-Place panel.

Kev
 
I have a 2017 View with the factory solar panel. What is the highest wattage panel one can hook to the solar electronic system without changing wiring and control/charging unit?
 
I don't know what size controller/regulator Winnie installed with those 10 watt panels, but I'm quite sure it's nothing more than a lightweight PWM device at best. I'd also be willing to bet that the wiring they used was a very thin gauge wire. You could probably throw a 50 watt panel up there without concern, but you probably won't get all the power out of the panel that it's capable of producing, due to the limitations of the existing system.

Kev
 
My Dolphin also has a 10 watt panel that is junk. I haven't found any controller, I believe it wires directly to the BCC. I found where it wires in to the BCC but haven't found a controller. Wouldn't that 50 watt panel over charge the batteries without a controller? I'd like to replace my junk panel but don't want to have to try and pull new wires to do so. What kind of controller would have to be used with that 50 watt panel? I could add a controller in my electrical bay pretty easy.
 
50 watt may be OK without controller and hooked directly to battery. A simple PWM 10 amp controller would guarantee everything was OK.
 
Kevin Means said:
I don't know what size controller/regulator Winnie installed with those 10 watt panels, but I'm quite sure it's nothing more than a lightweight PWM device at best. I'd also be willing to bet that the wiring they used was a very thin gauge wire. You could probably throw a 50 watt panel up there without concern, but you probably won't get all the power out of the panel that it's capable of producing, due to the limitations of the existing system....
The 10 watt panel on my Horizon uses ~14 gauge wiring which would be good for quite a few more amps. There isn't any kind of current regulator as far as I know but a 10 watt panel isn't going to overcharge a bank of two or three batteries.
 
A 50 watt panel puts out a little more than 18 volts and 2.5 amps at max output, which is a little more than the parasitic draw of a typical RV. I agree with John Hiley, in that a 50 watt panel could be hooked directly to an RV's battery-bank, with little concern of overcharging - especially when the RV was being used. In storage, however, I'd want a controller to prevent overcharging, because parasitic loads would be the only load on the batteries.

When I installed our solar system, I completely bypassed the existing 10 watt Winnie solar setup - I just left it in place. After my system was installed, however, I noticed that the red LED on the One-Place panel, that indicated that the Winnie system was charging, was getting hot - really hot, so I disconnected one of the wires going to its circuit board. I think that circuit board was Winnie's low-end controller, or some type of current limiter - not sure.

Kev

 

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