Solar Charger - Is it even worth it?

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I guess that I got here late in the discussion.  Back to the OP question.

On my coach which has 4 6V golf cart batteries for the house and 2 31-size starting batteries for the chassis and a Trik-L-Start, the solar panel will keep them fully charged when the battery disconnect switch is off.  This is setting in full sun in Florida in the winter.  The batteries will measure 13.2 volts all the time.

My previous storage location was under roof and the panel would not produce enough to keep any battery charged.

Just my experience.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
100 watts is not a lot of DC amps at the charge voltage of a solar panel, which is typically around 15v-16v in full sun (the only time you will ever see an actual 100 watts).  watts = volts  x amps, so we are talking 100w = 15 x  6.6 amps, so the wire doesn't have to be all that large. 14 gauge should be enough, eh? But that's likely more than whats there now...

Gary, having just come down off the roof & verified that the existing small panel is indeed dead, I would say it's at least 14 gauge in place.  Given it's going to sit through an Arizona summer, I still reckon 100W will keep it above the surface especially as I'll be disconnecting all the batteries again.  The supply disappears under the fridge vent and then immediately back downwards into the body of the coach.  John mentioned a breaker, but the panel in the cupboard above the cooker doesn't have one for the solar panel.  Having removed the breaker panel, we've checked all the wiring running from & to the roofspace (by pulling), and the solar panel supply definitely doesn't go there.  The red lamp (which has never illuminated) is on the opposite side on the Battery Voltage section of the Winne control panel.

Is the red indicator lamp likely to be part of a pre-installed regulator there?  If so, it seems to me I could just plug-in a new solar panel.  I am however quite happy to confess my ignorance publicly.

Dougie.
 
Just to keep things in perspective:  A solar panel needs SOL Sunlight to be able to be effective at all. No matter what the size.

  There are many areas in the US that have considerable cloud cover especially in the Winter. Good bye solar power.  The angle of the sun obviously changes every day, morning to night, month to month etc. and that has a great effect. Even here in Florida, the Sunshine State,we have recently had many days in a row without seeing the Sun.

Guess I am a spoilsport.  ::)

Carson FL


Just because there is a panel on your roof does not mean your battery problems are over.

I think a read recently that someone had a solar panel under a garage roof and was hoping for a miracle.
 
As John says, there is no regulator on those little panels, no breaker either and and probably not even a fuse. The Led comes on when enough current flows to light it ( maybe 100 milliamps?).  How does the solar charge current reach the battery(s)? It has to connect in somewhere, and you need to know where if you plan to disconnect the batteries when in storage.
 
That's the big question, Gary.  I've gone through the wiring location charts in detail, and the solar panel isn't even shown.

Dougie.
 
My HR came from the factory with a 65watt panel.    The panel feeds down to the battery compartment to a standard moringstar controller from there it feeds to the relay that seperates the house batteries from the starting batteries, it is wired to charge the house batteries only.
 
Dougie Brown said:
That's the big question, Gary.  I've gone through the wiring location charts in detail, and the solar panel isn't even shown.

Dougie.

Dougie - send Owner Relations an email ([email protected]) and ask them.


Tombstonejim said:
My HR came from the factory with a 65watt panel.    The panel feeds down to the battery compartment to a standard moringstar controller from there it feeds to the relay that seperates the house batteries from the starting batteries, it is wired to charge the house batteries only.

65 watt panel - wow, you are lucky!  That is a useful size.
 
I always had problems with keeping the battery from our 5.5k generator for our home charged.  It's in our shed, wired to a transfer switch underground inside the house garage.  Anyway, put a 10W panel outside the shed, wired to a cheap harbor freight charging regulator, years later, don't have anymore problem with the dead battery.  Also, for the heck of it, connected the genset battery to the lawn tractor in there... no more dead battery with that one either.  While a 10W panel will obviously not run appliances, sure seems like it's useful for keeping batteries topped off.  Just what I've found.
 
I've installed a much larger system that, with good sun, lets me dry camp for 5 days without running the generator.  The regulator I use can send 10% of the solar power to my chassis batteries.  The hardest part of the job was to figure out how  Winnebago ran the original wiring and how to access it to run my wireing.  Clearly who ever designed the wireing layout never expected to have to work on it.    I plan on connecting the small panel, that Winnebago installed, to a  fan to help the refrigerator.  But the refrigerator is in the slide out and I have not yet figured out how to get to the wireing that goes to the refrigerator.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
But those little 10-15W panels were essentially worthless anyway.
The 15 watt or less panels might be worthless--but I wouldn't knock the RV manufacturers for it. The wiring is NOT worthless and it can usually handle a lot more solar panels, making the job of adding more solar panels MUCH easier.

-Don- SSF, CA
 

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