Question:
Building my solar panel setup for a van with no inverter tell me what you think?
kenshin
2015-03-30 20:19:44 UTC
Hi I am building a solar panel setup for my van with no inverter. Basically a 12v system to run a Fan tastic fan, another 12 v fan, a 12 pump for the sink and shower and a setup to recharge my laptop and my go pro batteries. I am planning to use 1 WindyNation 100 Watt Moncrystalline Solar Panel that will be connected to a charge controller and this will be connected to the Optima Batteries Blue Top, Deep Cycle Battery, Group Size 34, 750 CCA that will be connected to a fused distribution panel to distribute the energy. I want to keep it a 12v system since I am not going to use heavy stuff like a tv or cooler etc just 12 v stuff. My question is.... is this system enough for my purposes? I am going to use this thing mostly south of Virginia in the summer-fall. The batteries will not be connected to the alternator just to the solar panel. Do I need more batteries? do I need more solar panels? Is this Optima Batteries Blue Top, Deep Cycle Battery, Group Size 34, 750 CCA over kill? How long will it take my 100watt solar panel to charge it?
Four answers:
?
2015-03-30 22:26:06 UTC
CCA, or cold cranking amps is not relevant in this application. The batteries should state their capacity in amp hours. So if the battery has 50 amp hours, and the fan uses 2 amps, it should run the fan for 25 hours. If the laptop charger is 120 watts, 120 watts divided by 12 volts is 10 amps. So the laptop charger alone would fully drain the battery in 5 hours. Use more batteries if you can afford it, they last longer if you don't fully drain them.



You need to figure out how much power you actually need, and we're skipping a few things like resistance, so add a fudge factor of at least 10%. If possible you should actually measure the draw rather than go by what's written on it.



It's hard to say if the set up is adequate because none of those devices need to run 24/7, how much power you use is up to you.



Without knowing the draw of all your stuff and without doing the calculations, my best guess is that the set up you described is adequate if you are careful with your power use. Personally I'd get manual water pumps. A foot pump works for showering, so does gravity feed. The more power use you eliminate the more power you have available. Your laptop charger will probably be the most power hungry, so use your laptop sparingly and keep WiFi, Bluetooth, and keyboard backlighting off when you don't need them and your screen backlight as low as you can and still see what you're doing.



Adding an Ammeter to the system can help you budget your power, but it will draw some power so I'd have a momentary switch to have it on only when I'm checking it.



If that panel is putting out it's full capacity, in theory it would take around 6 hours to charge that battery, but in real life it will be longer. Probably somewhere in the ballpark of an entire partly cloudy day.



Get an isolator to charge the battery off the car's electrical system when the engine is running. This way you'll have a fully charged battery when you park and the solar panel will just keep it topped up.



A high amperage manual switch works, but if you forget to disconnect, you'll drain your starter battery, then you're stranded. This set up is cheap and allows you to jump start yourself if the starter battery gets a little weak, but most people will forget to disconnect at least once, so automatic isolators are more popular.
MoonWoman
2015-03-30 23:15:32 UTC
it will take about 3 days to charge your battery with a 100 watt solar panel.
?
2017-04-06 10:46:52 UTC
Guide To Solar Power - http://SolarPower.duebq.com/?JOo
?
2015-03-30 20:39:23 UTC
Will not work


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