SOLAR HELP!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
A

alexanderroehmstheeartha

New member
Joined
Mar 27, 2013
Posts
2
hi, i am extremely new to rv-ing, anything solar, batteries, inverters, etc etc etc. Please I am learning and may be frustrating to talk to but I need help.

First question? i have a class c jamboree.  there are two batteries under the hood? they both look like pretty standard batteries.. i attached images of them. my embarrassing question is? do i hook my solar up to these batteries? all other videos and website information i read about rv solar are installed to a beautiful battery house bank i am wondering if i need to install a separate battery bank other than these existing batteries??

thank you for any help! roehm


battery 1(left side under hood)
battery 2 (right side under hood)


****
also... are inverters necessary to installation... would i be missing out by not installing one?
 

Attachments

  • photo copy.JPG
    photo copy.JPG
    118.2 KB · Views: 27
  • photo2.JPG
    photo2.JPG
    129 KB · Views: 21
The battery in your 1st pic appears to be your "House" battery. That's where you want to hook the solar panel.

Be sure that you clean the top of both batteries. Dirt will conduct electricity and run your batteries down prematurely....

Be sure to use an inline fuse like the one below, right at the battery:
http://www.amazon.com/In-line-ACT-Water-resistant-Fuse-Holder/dp/B0002KR88A/ref=sr_1_3?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1369154078&sr=1-3&keywords=atc+inline+fuse

Also be sure that your battery is topped up with "distilled water".

An inverter is not necessary but a solar controller is...... what size is the solar panel? Can you provide a link to what you have?
All an inverter does in change your 12V battery power to 110V house current for running small home appliances (depending on the size of the inverter). With your set-up, an inverter is NOT recommended unless it is very small..... like for charging your cell phone and/or limited use with your laptop computer.
 
Roehm-

Welcome!  Hopefully the electrical experts will weigh in soon with better answers.  I'll take a stab, though.

A lot of the answer depends on what your goal is for using solar power.  Are you trying to generate enough electricity to power your house systems without using a generator or being hooked up to shore power?  If so, then your single house battery (and I'm not sure which of those pictured is the house battery) is not going to be sufficient and I suspect whatever you are investing in solar panels probably won't do much good.

If you are just trying to maintain a charge in a battery (either chassis ("starting") or house) when you are not using the RV, then your solar should be hooked up to whatever battery you want to charge.

On the inverter, it again depends on what you want to power.  The single 12v battery that is being used as your house battery is not going to power any significant load on an inverter for long. 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 781 (members: 8, guests: 773)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,981
Posts
1,388,593
Members
137,727
Latest member
Davidomero
Back
Top Bottom