Dragginourbedaround
Well-known member
We spent 13 days dry camping at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. So we thought this would be a good time to try solar. We bought a Renogy 100 watt suitcase kit and an extra 20' of 10 AWG wire. We had plenty of sun for most of the time we were in Albuquerque. With the extra 20' of cable we could move the panels twice a day to the front and back of the coach to maximize sun exposure. Really happy with the results. On average most days we were at 12.4-12.8 volts most during the day. If we were running a radio, computers or charging phone and tablets it would drop to 12.3 or 12.4. At night with lights on and the TV and satellite receiver running it would get down to 12.1 or 12.2. We only ran the generator on average 3 hours a day. Compared to spending two weeks at Q in March of 2016 where we ran the generator at least 6 hours a day with no solar. We plan to to spend more time boon docking in 2018 and will add another 100 Watt panel. The kit came with a 20 amp controller so we can add up to 300 more watts. We have 210 ah of battery and think another 100 watts should cut our generator time a little more. In Albuquerque we were so busy we didn't have time to experiment with our new solar. We are in southern FL for the winter and will put out our panel(s) and experiment with what we can and can't run. This solar newbie is open to any and all solar advice.