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Old 08-12-2009, 04:44 PM   #21
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Charging

The cell is on the roof and running through a solar panel charge controller and is charging the battery. Life is great.

I have learned a lot from the project and would do many things differently. Those who know me recognize that I tend to rush to conclusion when developing anything, anxious to get something working.
As a result I tend to take the cheapest fastest route possible recognizing that I will only know what to do after doing it once.

I now have two 75-80 watt panels running thru a charge controller to the battery. Cost including the charge controller amounted to $200. Since the last picture I have added an aluminum frame to the panels.

They were really fun to make, particularly when I hooked them up to a 12 volt fan and it hummed away.

Norm
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Old 08-13-2009, 02:10 PM   #22
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Another Test

Last night I disconnected the trailer from the AC, turned on all the remaining incandescent lights and ran the battery down.

This morning I connected up one solar panel. It is a misty day here with relatively solid cloud cover. The single panel has fully re-charged the battery back to 12.5 volts.

Last night I was amazed to measure the panel's current output and see it was still producing a 0.1 amps near dusk.

I noticed on EBay that they are now selling 5amp solar cells versus the 3.6 amp cells I bought making it easy to make a 200 watt panel.

Norm
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Old 08-14-2009, 02:14 PM   #23
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Electric Refrigerator

I have been running the electic refrigerator using our 1200 watt inverter. with the solar cells charging the battery. This would normally be our largest long term current draw. It's handling it easily with no affect on the charging voltage.

The freezer temp is at 26 degrees.

Tommorrow I'm going to try running the lectric hot water heater.

Norm
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Old 08-14-2009, 10:04 PM   #24
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Re: Electric Refrigerator

Quote:
Originally Posted by Honda03842

The freezer temp is at 26 degrees.

Tommorrow I'm going to try running the lectric hot water heater.

Norm
Norm, 26 degree F in the frezzer is not good. They are generally down around 0 or 5F to keep food frozen solid.

Something is not adding up with your wattage, or at least I'm not understanding which could be. I thought you only had 200 watts of solar cell.

The electric hot water heater elements are like 1,400 watts in many cases or 11.7 amps at 120 volts. unless you have a smaller watt element which nay be on the older TT's.

If your solar cell runs the HW heater and heats 6 gallons of water in 20 minutes from 70 to 140, then your really have a find there.

I'm real curious now how this is going to turn out. Your doing great, keep us posted.

Pics help too.... You know us curious types....

John
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Old 08-15-2009, 06:35 AM   #25
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Refrige

I agree with your comments on refridge temps.

Our refrigerator is 4.4 cubic feet, a single door unit. The freezer is real small and we really don't keep frozen foods too often or for too long.

The refrigerator temperature setting was set on two; we normally set it on three. I really don't know how low it will go. Since it's not a seperate freezer, setting it too low can cause everything to freeze.

If we are planning a long drive we'll set the temperature lower before leaving so it stays cold without powering it while driving.

We do have the ability to power the refridge while driving from our 1200 watt inverter. While driving we can keep the batterys charged from the car's generator and now the solar panels. Though the refrige is not perfect, it is more than adequate and a real value at $120.

As to the hot water heating element, we have a Hott Rod. PPL says it's rated at 400 watts. This certainly more than the 160 watts produced by our panels. However we probably, when off grid, use no more than 6 gallons of hot water a day so the power used is 400 watts for 20 minutes or 130 watt-hrs. Therefore the solar cells can replace that power in about one hour on a good day.

Hopefully today is the day I test that.

Praise the Sun, note there have been no Sunspots for 34 days in a row,

Norm
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Old 08-15-2009, 06:38 AM   #26
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Pictures

John,

What would you like pictures of?

Norm
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Old 08-15-2009, 08:47 AM   #27
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Re: Pictures

Quote:
Originally Posted by Honda03842
John,

What would you like pictures of?

Norm
Pics of Solar panels on the roof, charger controller, your inverter setup and any other techy type stuff on how to create a solar camper like you have. You are one of our front runner here on SOC doing home grown solar complete with field reports…

Your fridge, thanks for explaining. I had forgot but I think you replaced the normal RV fridge with a small dorm style Freon compressor system. Which is how the freezer is inside the fridge and yes you may freeze most anything in there trying to get the freezer down to 0

And your HW heater. OK you have the hot rod conversion in the older originally gas only heaters. Yeh they are not 1,400 watts… and since you only have a 400 watt element, you can heat the water basically off the battery for the heavy load thru the inverter and then the solar recharges the battery over a loner time.

However the time, this is all about BTU’s and how cold the water is to start with and how hot it will end up along with how many gallons. I know my 1,400 watt element in about ~ 20 minutes will heat a fresh filled 6 gallon heater (about 65 deg water) to 140F in under 30 minutes. The gas works even faster but the AC is not that bad. Don’t know your gallons and your starting temp on the water but the time is dependant on how many BTU’s you put in it.

If you start heating with left over 80F water from a day ago verses total fresh refill, the time will be less. If you want to complete the total experiment, measure the water starting and ending temp along with the time. I’m sure you know the HW heater gallon size.

Your creating a home grown off the grid camper is cool and interesting. I’m collecting ideas…. And may in the future reproduce it. You already have me on the LED kick start…

Thanks

John
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Old 08-15-2009, 09:13 AM   #28
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Water Temp

The only time we'd be using the solar/inverter/electric hot water is when we're off the grid.

Of course we also have the option of gas hot water. I just thought as we're driving down the road charging our batteries it might be useful to heat our water up at the same time. (In general we do not operate gas hot water while driving.)

Normally our water is at trailer temperature, over the years I doubt it ever got below 50 though inside temps have dropped into the 40's on some cold nights. Today I expect it's above 70.

We do have a six gallon tank.

When we've boondocked with our motorhome we rarely ran the generator more than an hour a day, yet seemed to be able to keep the batteries at charge. Of course the motorhome presents a more significant load than the trailer. The experience gives me the feeling that 160 watts of solar energy will typically be enough in the trailer.

As to our car charging system. I have mounted a lighted switch on the car's dash that allows me to switch car generator voltage to the trailer's battery. There is a diode in series to prevent back charging of the car's battery. I only turn this on once we're driving and turn it off if the car's generator has a heavy load like car lights on. I do turn it off when ever we stop the car.

As well I have limited the flow of current from the car to the trailer to a few amps.

As you probably know we also carry a small generator for long trips jus in case we get stuck somewhere where the panels are covered by snow or we're socked in by clouds. If nothing else I am a careful person who tries to prepare for failure..... now if I could only do something about the ecomony.

Safe travels to all,

Norm
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Old 08-20-2009, 01:16 PM   #29
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Solar Panel and Hotwater

For the last week I've had my two solar panels sitting on the roof of our trailer. Today I decided to move them into their final positions prior to mounting them.

I temporarily had them setting on small painted black wooden blocks, I removed one block and noticed there were had black droplets on the surface. Apparantly paint or resin had bubbled up, trully hard bubbles, from the heat of the panels. The bottom's are over 100 degrees F.

There are two sources of the heat. First the cells are near black in color and absorb sun radiation. Second we have 3.5 amps flowing thru the panel also causing heating.

If I had prior knowledge I would probably ave run some black hose under the panel and heated, or at least preheated some water.

Always something to learn,

Norm
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Old 08-20-2009, 02:23 PM   #30
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I normally keep a remote wireless thermometer in my battery box to record the outside temperature, it is 78 today. I took the thermometer and placed it under the panel, between the panel and the roof. The temperature is 115.

Norm
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Old 08-20-2009, 02:52 PM   #31
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As well there are high clouds today and the sun is not overhead, it is 4:30 PM. The solar panel is only producing 1/3rd of maximum current, a little over 1 amp.

I have moved the thermometer to another section of the roof, not under a panel, the temperature not under the panel is 87F. Indicating a 30 degree rise under the panel.

I wish I had done this test at noon.

Norm
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Old 08-21-2009, 11:25 AM   #32
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More Testing

It's in the mid 80's today, noon time, high clouds. the temperature under the solar panel is 137F. Each panel is delivering about 1/2 power.

I'm going to begin thinking about heating water.

Norm
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Old 05-08-2010, 10:49 AM   #33
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Solar Panel Update

We began our trip with our solar panels mounted on the roof. They worked very well. Our only problem was their mounting to the roof, the mounting structure we used leaked. As a result I eventrually removed the panels and put them in the back of the car. Another learning experience.

It's interesting that we averaged 2.5 KWatts of traditional electricity a day this winter, an amount that could be produced by our panels and this is without any true conservation other than our use of LED lamps in our fixtures.

Our new trailer will eventually have solar cells and now I am considering a suggestion from Pat of Every Miles a Memory, where the cells will be individually attached to a portion of the roof and covered with a thin layer of clear plastic.

Our new Solar cell goal will be 400 watts of solar cells.

Safe travels
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