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Old 02-17-2018, 08:17 PM   #21
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"Now to your furnace issue. The furnace is a killer on power. I looked up a series 7900 hydrotherm that I think is in your camper, and it says 3.4 amp draw when the motor is running. Add the fridge being on and let's say this is a 4 amp draw when using the furnace.

I run the refrigerator on propane. The killer furnace let's say a typical night is from about 8pm after the campfire. so 8pm till 7am. So lets do the math for 11 hours at 30 minute cycles on the furnace. I don't use the HWH or water pump in the winter. I use my led's sparingly and just leave the one on over the stove at night, and use candles, and a nook for reading.

Once I'm under the covers, I prefer shutting the furnace off completely. I ran it for 7 hours during the daylight on the snowy day last week though.
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Old 02-17-2018, 08:59 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Photokit View Post
I run the refrigerator on propane.
OK, I'll rerun this tomorrow and report back.

Question on the fridge, Since yours is a 1994 model, odds are high it has 12 volt electric controls. And I can get the amp draw on that. Let just confirm this,

Do you have to go outside and light a pilot light for the LP gas burner, or do you just select LP gas on the fridge and it starts by itself after that?

If it starts by itself on gas, then it is new enough to have 12 volt electric controls.

Or give me the fridge model number and I can look it up. Model number should be inside the fridge maybe the left side.

Thanks

John

OH, and what brand & model solar panel and charge controller? ( I need to look it up for specs)
Also how many hours of sun is there on average?
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Old 02-17-2018, 09:13 PM   #23
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I light the pilot by holding a button in for 15 seconds, below the refrigerator door.

charge controller
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Question: What is the max panel watts this controller can handle? Also what does 390W 780W + mean?
Answer: Hi Bruce,
The answer you looking for is in your question. At 12V it can handle 390W and on 24V it handles 780W. This is straight forward Ohms Law W=IxV. I.e. 390W ÷ 12V = 32.5A maximum hence the 30A rating on the controller..
By NIGEL PONTAC

solar panel
Specifications:
Maximum Power: 100W
Maximum System Voltage: 600V DC (UL)
Optimum Operating Voltage (Vmp): 17.7V
Optimum Operating Current (Imp): 5.70A
Open-Circuit Voltage (Voc): 21.7V
Short-Circuit Current (Isc): 6.10A
Dimensions: 41.7 X 21.3 X 0.12 inches
Weight: 5.25lbs

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


We are currently having 10.51 hours of sunlight
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Old 02-17-2018, 09:15 PM   #24
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Thanks so much John.

I'm looking at these batteries too.
https://bdbatteries.com/collections/...nder-pvx-1030t
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Old 02-18-2018, 05:46 AM   #25
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solar panel
Specifications:
Maximum Power: 100W
Maximum System Voltage: 600V DC (UL)
Optimum Operating Voltage (Vmp): 17.7V
Optimum Operating Current (Imp): 5.70A
Open-Circuit Voltage (Voc): 21.7V
Short-Circuit Current (Isc): 6.10A
Dimensions: 41.7 X 21.3 X 0.12 inches
Weight: 5.25lbs

Here is where they come up with the specifications, at the Equator theoretic solar power is 1000 watts per square meter at 12:00 so your panel is going to make it's 100 watts move north or south it starts to go down I have never deaded headed my panel (I was not that curious) but I'm guessing as far north as I am it's output is more like 70 watts get into winter and a low sun angle it will drop even further. Mount panels on a flat roof it will do well at noon but not at 8 AM or late afternoon. My neighbors are both retired MIT engineers needless to say a great deal of effort went into their solar/wind system on a good day they can do close to 5-8 KW, in the winter there it's not enough power to run the house at 4 KW two months out of the year.
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Old 02-18-2018, 04:27 PM   #26
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geez team. I just want to O'Reillys they charge my battery fully up to 12 .8. I brought it home hooked up the solar and I was getting no zero zip input from the Flexi solar panel. I hooked up my old 50 watt polycrystalline panel and I could see the solar panel input on my charge controller first mystery solved. Bad solar panel or bad wires I'll check them.
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Old 02-18-2018, 10:30 PM   #27
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Hi Kit,

Sounds like you found one issue with your charging system, the solar cell is not sending power to the battery. Good find.

It also sounds like might have some level of life left in your battery after O’Reilly's charged it for you. While it has some reduced life from being drained so low and out in the cold, it will get you going but be prepared it may die sometime soon and not come back.

You have provided a “lot” of good info. Great!!! As I said, I have not yet done a complete RV solar system yet, but wanting to learn for my own camper someday and your questions are a great learning for us on this. I am in the process of investigating solar to install on my barn to run the barn and the house. This is a lot bigger system and no batteries. It is a 12.6 kw system with 42, 300 watt solar panels. If I go forward with this, a solar company will be sizing and installing it. I’m just learning from it.

That said, I do know battery charging and the camper loads so there I can help, just might not be able to give you a total definitive answer on the solar system. Maybe one of our other RV solar folks can comment on what I am saying.

The batteries you linked, they are 6 volt AGM batteries. A very good battery but they also come with special needs for long life. I’ll talk about them as we go through this.

The goal I think you want to investigate, Can you figure out a practical way to run your camper furnace in cold temperatures day after day while boondocking off of a solar system? Did I get that right? That is the premise I am going on.

This post got sort of long due to the detail, so I’m giving you a summary here, and the next reply will be the backup data explain tins.

Summary:

Loads:
Combined camper furnace and lighting loads less cold factor addition: 27.5 amp hours/24 hours

Combined camper furnace and lighting loads with cold battery conditions at 32 to 49F cold design factor added: 44 amp hours/24 hours

Battery capacity:

Qty 2, 6 volt AGM batteries in series with 10% loss for full recharge: 46.4 AH’s available

Solar recharge capacity:

Ratings for qty 1, 100 Watt solar panel.
At 100% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: 5.7 amps constant x 10.5 = 59.9 amp hours
At 90% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 10% = 53.9 amp hours
At 80% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 20% = 47.9 amp hours
At 70% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 30% = 41.9 amp hours
At 60% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 40% = 35.9 amp hours

Your solar charge controller has a feature where it can record the amp hours of charge it puts into the battery. See page 10 in the manual under “3.4.5 PV – Solar Panel Generated Charge Interface” If you check that several times a day you can tell for sure what the solar cell is putting out. That number would be very valuable to tell what the efficiency really is.

If your camping in 32 to 49F weather and running the furnace as shown below, the 2, AGM batteries at 46 AH's capacity are just about 1 to 1 with the amperage draws of 44 AH's before they are drained you to 50% state of charge. There is not much room for error.

On recharging from the solar, I do not know enough about the inefficiencies deductions for shading, elevation above the equator or sun angle per area of the country and other inefficiencies. However it is easy to see that at around 80% efficient at 48 AH's / day that qty 1, 100 watt solar panel under the load conditions of 44 AH's day can just make it. If you get a few cloudy days in a row, it will never catch up. You will need 2 panels.

Bottom line: This will be right on the edge of working given the conditions from what I can tell. Going a bigger battery bank to get through the night with safety factor and more solar cells to recharge them is a way to do this. I just do not know how practical it may be.

You may want to look and see if 2, 12 volt grp 27 flooded lead acid deep cycle batteries will work on your A frame. In this case, the 2, 6 volt batteries you linked would weigh 42# x 2 = 84# total for 103 AH’s in series. The qty 2, 12 volt grp 27’s normal batteries in parallel would weight 55# x 2 = 110# but give you 105 AH’s x 2 = 210 AH’s or 105 AH’s at 50% capacity verses the 51.5 AH’s on the 2, 6 volt AGM’s for 26# more and less money. Granted AGM’s are top of the line but they also cost more. I checked 2, 12 volt AGMs’ and they are 126# and 42# more than the 2, 6 volt ones.

I know loaded tongue weight is a concern so this might not be an option. This for sure will need 2 to 3 solar panels and that may not be enough, have to run the numbers if you can deal with the added tongue weight.

Hope this helps

John
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Old 02-18-2018, 10:31 PM   #28
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The backup data to go with the summary above.

The camper amp hour (AH) loads per average day.

Your fridge is reported as gas driven system with a pilot light so there is not very much or any power draw here like an electronic ignition fridge with an electric gas valve and controls.

Your 7900 series furnace is rated at 3.4 amps when it is running.

You will have limited LED lights on in the camper and maybe a propane detector. For ease of this, we will declare this load 0.10 amps. No water pump or hot water heater.

Your night time wanted furnace run time is from 8pm until 7am or 11.5 hours of time. The duty cycle of the furnace we will estimate at is 30 min/hour. This comes out to 11.5 hrs time span x 0.5hr run time/hour = 5.75 run hours overnight.

Your day time furnace run time we will set as limited for this discussion. You can leave this in or take it out later. This day time is 12.5 hours long and I will pick furnace duty cycle at 10 min/hr or (0.17 hrs/hour run time. This comes out to 12.5 hrs time span x 0.17 hrs run time/hour = 2.1 run hours day time.

Night time AH power draw. 5.75 run hours x (3.4 amps furnace + 0.1 lights) = 20.1 amp hours

Day time AH power draw. 2.1 run hours x (3.4 amps furnace + 0.1 lights) = 7.45 amp hours

Combined battery AH power draw/24 hours = 27.5 amp hours need
Note: This means no other power draw for the day then what is shown above.

There is yet another problem with the battery capacity since that is the power source. It’s cold outside where the batteries are. The battery’s do not like to work at full efficiency when it is cold out. The good news, the solar charge controller has temperature compensation which really helps adjust the charge voltage to be proper for the battery temperature. But, on page 25 of the Sun Xtender battery manual it talks about using a design factor reduction for colder temperatures. If we pick from the chart 6.4 on page 25, for temps between 32F to 49F to use a 1.6 design factor on battery sizing to cover for the cold temperatures. If we do this then our 27.5 amps x 1.6 = 44 amps needed due to cold temperatures. I have never dealt with this before as I do not know if it is an AGM sizing problem or all lead acid batteries. For now, we will just keep track of it and I'm including it.


Battery Capacity

Using qty. 2, 6 volt AGM batteries in series rated at AH’s @ 24 hr = 103 amp hours. This rating would be based on a 103/24 = 4.29 amp draw constant/hr for 100% battery depth of discharge (DOD). See here https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/14...67971745744387

We are going to size the battery for long life by only discharging the battery 50% before recharging. See page 18 of the AGM manual. See here https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/14...97696405121084

Battery capacity usable with 2, 6 volt batteries in series, 103 AH X 50% = 51.5 amp hours max available.
Note: Since these batteries are in series the amperage stays the same, the voltage doubles. If these where 2, AGM 12 volt batteries the amperage would double and the voltage stay the same.

Something to note, while your battery has a 100% state of charge down to 50% state of charge of 51.5 AH’s, you can only get that the first night if you come to camp with a fully 100% charged battery. The solar charge controller (P30L LCD 30A Solar Charge Controller) is only a single stage charge controller. It runs at constant charge rate up to 13.8 volts and then goes into float and unhooks the battery from the solar cell. This is not a 3 stage charger with a 14.4 volt boost mode. See page 12. Item 3.4.9
https://www.windynation.com/cm/P30L%...0Manual_R2.pdf

With only single stage charging, my experience on flooded lead acid batteries is you may only reach 90% state of charge by the time night fall comes. The battery resistance is so high you can’t get that last 10% back into it until the next day or more. I do not totally know if AGM batteries have this same effect.

By running the AGM recharge formula on page 19 of the Sun Xtender manual with a 5.7 max solar cell output, and 3 stage charging it would take 11 hours at 100% solar efficiency to reach 100% state of charge on the battery.

I am going to reduce the battery AH’s available, by 10% for not enough recharge time from 51.5 AH’s less 10% = 46.4 AH’s battery available.

Solar Cell Capacity:
From the cut sheet Kit linked from Amazon, here is the mfg https://www.hqsolarpower.com/HQST-10...hqst-100db.htm

This 100 watt panel is rated at 5.7 amps optimum operating current. I am not yet into this enough to know all the efficiency factors reductions. I know there are reductions, just do not know yet how to apply them enough to be right or wrong. Here are 100% to 60% values for 1, 100 watt solar cell.

At 100% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: 5.7 amps constant x 10.5 = 59.9 amp hours
At 90% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 10% = 53.9 amp hours
At 80% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 20% = 47.9 amp hours
At 70% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 30% = 41.9 amp hours
At 60% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 40% = 35.9 amp hours

Hope this helps

John
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Old 02-19-2018, 05:56 AM   #29
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John, you are obviously enjoying yourself. Always gives me a smile seeing you dig into something.

I have to recommend you read handy bob if you haven’t. Love him or hate him he is a font of useful information. I am a follower of his and just followed him 100% on on setting my solar up once I confirmed for myself what he was saying. Solar is the best thing I’ve done for increasing my camper experience.
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Old 02-19-2018, 06:11 AM   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnB View Post
The backup data to go with the summary above.

The camper amp hour (AH) loads per average day.

Your fridge is reported as gas driven system with a pilot light so there is not very much or any power draw here like an electronic ignition fridge with an electric gas valve and controls.

Your 7900 series furnace is rated at 3.4 amps when it is running.

You will have limited LED lights on in the camper and maybe a propane detector. For ease of this, we will declare this load 0.10 amps. No water pump or hot water heater.

Your night time wanted furnace run time is from 8pm until 7am or 11.5 hours of time. The duty cycle of the furnace we will estimate at is 30 min/hour. This comes out to 11.5 hrs time span x 0.5hr run time/hour = 5.75 run hours overnight.

Your day time furnace run time we will set as limited for this discussion. You can leave this in or take it out later. This day time is 12.5 hours long and I will pick furnace duty cycle at 10 min/hr or (0.17 hrs/hour run time. This comes out to 12.5 hrs time span x 0.17 hrs run time/hour = 2.1 run hours day time.

Night time AH power draw. 5.75 run hours x (3.4 amps furnace + 0.1 lights) = 20.1 amp hours

Day time AH power draw. 2.1 run hours x (3.4 amps furnace + 0.1 lights) = 7.45 amp hours

Combined battery AH power draw/24 hours = 27.5 amp hours need
Note: This means no other power draw for the day then what is shown above.

There is yet another problem with the battery capacity since that is the power source. It’s cold outside where the batteries are. The battery’s do not like to work at full efficiency when it is cold out. The good news, the solar charge controller has temperature compensation which really helps adjust the charge voltage to be proper for the battery temperature. But, on page 25 of the Sun Xtender battery manual it talks about using a design factor reduction for colder temperatures. If we pick from the chart 6.4 on page 25, for temps between 32F to 49F to use a 1.6 design factor on battery sizing to cover for the cold temperatures. If we do this then our 27.5 amps x 1.6 = 44 amps needed due to cold temperatures. I have never dealt with this before as I do not know if it is an AGM sizing problem or all lead acid batteries. For now, we will just keep track of it and I'm including it.


Battery Capacity

Using qty. 2, 6 volt AGM batteries in series rated at AH’s @ 24 hr = 103 amp hours. This rating would be based on a 103/24 = 4.29 amp draw constant/hr for 100% battery depth of discharge (DOD). See here https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/14...67971745744387

We are going to size the battery for long life by only discharging the battery 50% before recharging. See page 18 of the AGM manual. See here https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/14...97696405121084

Battery capacity usable with 2, 6 volt batteries in series, 103 AH X 50% = 51.5 amp hours max available.
Note: Since these batteries are in series the amperage stays the same, the voltage doubles. If these where 2, AGM 12 volt batteries the amperage would double and the voltage stay the same.

Something to note, while your battery has a 100% state of charge down to 50% state of charge of 51.5 AH’s, you can only get that the first night if you come to camp with a fully 100% charged battery. The solar charge controller (P30L LCD 30A Solar Charge Controller) is only a single stage charge controller. It runs at constant charge rate up to 13.8 volts and then goes into float and unhooks the battery from the solar cell. This is not a 3 stage charger with a 14.4 volt boost mode. See page 12. Item 3.4.9
https://www.windynation.com/cm/P30L%...0Manual_R2.pdf

With only single stage charging, my experience on flooded lead acid batteries is you may only reach 90% state of charge by the time night fall comes. The battery resistance is so high you can’t get that last 10% back into it until the next day or more. I do not totally know if AGM batteries have this same effect.

By running the AGM recharge formula on page 19 of the Sun Xtender manual with a 5.7 max solar cell output, and 3 stage charging it would take 11 hours at 100% solar efficiency to reach 100% state of charge on the battery.

I am going to reduce the battery AH’s available, by 10% for not enough recharge time from 51.5 AH’s less 10% = 46.4 AH’s battery available.

Solar Cell Capacity:
From the cut sheet Kit linked from Amazon, here is the mfg https://www.hqsolarpower.com/HQST-10...hqst-100db.htm

This 100 watt panel is rated at 5.7 amps optimum operating current. I am not yet into this enough to know all the efficiency factors reductions. I know there are reductions, just do not know yet how to apply them enough to be right or wrong. Here are 100% to 60% values for 1, 100 watt solar cell.

At 100% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: 5.7 amps constant x 10.5 = 59.9 amp hours
At 90% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 10% = 53.9 amp hours
At 80% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 20% = 47.9 amp hours
At 70% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 30% = 41.9 amp hours
At 60% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (5.7 amps constant x 10.5) – 40% = 35.9 amp hours

Hope this helps

John
I like what I’m reading here. I’d put 2 of the largest wet cell batteries I could fit in the tongue with 2 panels at least. On these systems wire gauge and the quality of the controller is really important. Small Wire size robs you of juice, the wire sizing on a dc run to limit drop is hard to stomach. I couldn’t believe what I needed for a 20 foot run. I really, really like our charger and amp monitor (bogart trimetric) being able to monitor draw and battery performance takes the guess work away.
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Old 02-19-2018, 06:29 AM   #31
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The solar panel does not need a controller to work the controller has to be in place to charge the battery so it is easy to troubleshoot stand alone. A DVM capable of sinking 10 amps will work fine with any thing up to 100 watts. First do voltage in the bright sun something in the 18-22 volts range is good depending on the sun shine. I have never dealt with a flexible panel but I'm guessing the connections to the panel are kind of fragile and where he wires connect are not accessible so unless you don't mind taking a chance of wrecking the panel completely you probably can stop at a voltage test. If it passs the voltage test switch the meter to amps most meters will need the probes switch to a different position in the meter connect the meter to the two wires again in the bright sun and read amps on the meter this basically is a stress test reading voltage with a DVM produces virtually zero resistance so by switching to amps the meter is actually forcing the panel to do something. So amps times volts will give you watts and that will give you an ideal of the health of the panel.
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Old 02-19-2018, 07:02 AM   #32
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Here is an inexpensive gadget that will tell you all you need to know about loads and solar output on any camper all you have to do is times hours. It should be close enough to give you a pretty good ideal of what's going on. /www.amazon.com/HOLDPEAK-Multimeters-Auto-Ranging-Multimeter-Resistance/dp/B01CZOY9XM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1519047877&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=clamp+dc+amp+meter&psc=1
I can't vouch for the accuracy ( My Fluke meter was $300) but for what the average person would use it for it's fine. Clamp it on the feed wire from the battery turn on the heat and whatever else you might be running and see what it says.
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Old 02-19-2018, 09:01 AM   #33
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I'm really learning in this process to, as I understood every word you wrote.

"The goal I think you want to investigate, Can you figure out a practical way to run your camper furnace in cold temperatures day after day while boondocking off of a solar system? Did I get that right? That is the premise I am going on."

Yes, goal #1

And since I am shopping new batteries and a new set of panels, I'm in search of the best operating current for the panels. I will probably upgrade to 200watts, 2-100 watt panels in series. At 26 lbs each, with a protective case for storage under my bed (or I'll build a case).

The battery weight is an issue, I can comfortably fit 2-group 24 batteries right now on my A frame, and will need to build a new configuration on the frame for the bigger group 27.

"The qty 2, 12 volt grp 27’s normal batteries in parallel would weight 55# x 2 = 110# but give you 105 AH’s x 2 = 210 AH’s or 105 AH’s at 50% capacity verses the 51.5 AH’s on the 2, 6 volt AGM’s for 26# more and less money."

I like these numbers, 105AH at 50% is great. And upgrading the solar and that may
may be a big help. Here's the tech specs on the new panel.

Newpowa 175w
Specs
* Maximum power (Pmax): 175W
* Voltage at Pmax (Vmp):19.06V
* Current at Pmax (Imp): 9.18A
* Diodes are pre-installed in junction box, with a pair of pre-attached 3ft MC4 Cable
* 25-year transferable power output warranty
* 17 lbs

At 9.18 max amps if I did the math correctly:

At 100% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: 9.1 amps constant x 10.5 = 95.5 amp hours
At 90% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (9.1 amps constant x 10.5) – 10% = 85.9 amp hours
At 80% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (9.1 amps constant x 10.5) – 20% = 76.4 amp hours
At 70% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (9.1 amps constant x 10.5) – 30% = 66.8 amp hours
At 60% efficiencies, for 10.5 hours sunlight: (9.1 amps constant x 10.5) – 40% = 57.3 amp hours

I love learning all this.
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Old 02-19-2018, 09:22 AM   #34
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BTW, as far as the 12kw solar array. I don't know if you have it where you live, but out here in Colorado there's a not for profit group called "Solar Barn Raising". We just installed a 9KW system on a friend's ranch. It's a group that exchanges install time/expertise/learning. The savings is about 50% as the panels are sold to the homeowner at cost plus 10% or so. So my friends paid 15K for the 9KW installed. 29 panels, 2 zantrex inverters and they're grid tied so they are going to see June how much they sold back to the grid
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Old 02-19-2018, 09:37 AM   #35
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Thanks Mainah, I was hoping to test the 100w panel. I've got MC Connectors on it and thought I could stick my DVM in the connectors.
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Old 02-19-2018, 09:53 AM   #36
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Now I'd like to know if my charge controller should be an MPPT. OR is the 30amp PWM still going to work well with 150-175 watts. I'm liking the Renogy 150 or the Newpowa 175. The physical size of the 175 is almost 5 foot tall.
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Old 02-19-2018, 11:28 AM   #37
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Now I'd like to know if my charge controller should be an MPPT. OR is the 30amp PWM still going to work well with 150-175 watts. I'm liking the Renogy 150 or the Newpowa 175. The physical size of the 175 is almost 5 foot tall.
You for sure need a controller that has multiple charging levels, which your current controller seems to lack. I am very happy with the job that my trimetric PWM does and the instructions and the customer support is great. It is a great integrated monitoring and charging system.
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Old 02-19-2018, 05:57 PM   #38
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Pulse width modulated controles can be rf noisy so you may get some noise in your FM radio.
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Old 02-19-2018, 06:25 PM   #39
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Pulse width modulated controles can be rf noisy so you may get some noise in your FM radio.
Doesn’t affect the audio signal from burbling brooks or bird songs that I’ve seen!
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Old 02-19-2018, 09:42 PM   #40
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John, you are obviously enjoying yourself. Always gives me a smile seeing you dig into something.

I have to recommend you read handy bob if you haven’t. Love him or hate him he is a font of useful information. I am a follower of his and just followed him 100% on on setting my solar up once I confirmed for myself what he was saying. Solar is the best thing I’ve done for increasing my camper experience.
Hi Tod,

Yes, I enjoy the learning. It shows that much??? I'm a techno-geek through and through...

Handy Bob, https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/ Thanks for the tip. Never would of found that if you didn't mention. Thank you! I started reading and hours went by quickly... Still lot's more to dig into. He for sure has an opinion... and once past the opinion, by his background it raises all the right questions to dig into. I can find a lot of good there technically that I can connect the dots on.

This will come in handy as I work through if and how I may go about adding solar to run the barn and house. Same concepts just no batteries. I can now start asking better questions to my solar guy quoting my system. I asked him if they ever did campers with solar, he said no, just homes and business.

And out of all this I am, getting a jump start on researching solar for the camper.

One issue I have is where we do a lot of boondocking, it is under tree cover to keep the heat down in summer and usually on a lake shore front. Have to work through how to get the sun into the picture...

Thanks

John
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