Just go to Supercheap for a battery, have found the Excide's etc last just as long as the twice as much $$ jobs.
Starcraft Basic solar setup
- Thread starter Andrew_n_Amy
- Start date
@Andrew_n_Amy what you also need to consider is your water pump, whilst they may only run for a short time each day depending on your showering needs they are very power hungry. They draw upwards of 5 amps which if showering and washing up with kids onboard turns into a lot of power usage.
The trick is to keep your battery above 12v which is considered to be at the point where you have used half of the available power in you battery, taking your expensive AGM battery lower than this can significantly reduce its life.
I have a 120amp AGM battery with a set of 120w portable panels and a 10 amp MPPT controller on the back of the panels (so there is a small voltage drop). This set up gives me and the missus 5 days ruffley until the magic 12v point is hit and I run the eu10 for a couple of hours at night to top up.
This is running the van with all LED lighting, TV couple of hours a day max and a 40lt Engel fridge. We don't shower in the van unless we have to and if we did I'd reckon we would be looking at four days till the battery got to 12v. You have to remember that if the sun doesn't shine all day every day this changes the equation dramatically and believe me a couple of hours of cloud going over each day will be a real issue.
In saying this if you are only after a couple of days as you have said a set up like this will see you have no problems. 12v power in my option is something you need to spend some time searching the web and learning about, how to monitor power coming in form solar and the power you are using is important if you don't want to keep buying expensive AGM batteries very couple of years.
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I can pull 6A with LED lighting alone in my van, not to mention water pumps, inevitable 12v phone chargers etc that will be plugged in.
For $99 I'd rather spend a few more $$ on a 100 or 120AH battery to give you a fudge factor.
Oh yeah @Bellbirdweb anything less than 100 won't be enough, I should also mention that a portable panel being moved 3 times a day will give more power than the same panel sitting on the roof.
"6A with LED"
Bloody hell how many lights are you running
Bloody hell how many lights are you running
Overcast weather.....Camping in the trees.....Pic of my solar pre LC200...
2x120Watt portable panels 2x100A/Hr GVM batteries (now 4 years old and doing fine)....
Get 2 long lead/s 10m +4m just in case of trees (6B&S cable with the regulator in the van not on the panels to help prevent voltage drop).. Running the fridge, lights, TV, 2 laptops, etc... didn't really need the second battery but its nice to have it just in case... In overcast weather the kids watch a lot more TV and use their laptops more as well.
Thick overcast and drizzle I was still getting about 3.5 A/Hr 10am-2pm I was probably right for about 4 days per battery in those conditions.
When its sunny I've seen it get to about 17A/Hr (depends on how flat the batteries are).
2x120Watt portable panels 2x100A/Hr GVM batteries (now 4 years old and doing fine)....
Get 2 long lead/s 10m +4m just in case of trees (6B&S cable with the regulator in the van not on the panels to help prevent voltage drop).. Running the fridge, lights, TV, 2 laptops, etc... didn't really need the second battery but its nice to have it just in case... In overcast weather the kids watch a lot more TV and use their laptops more as well.
Thick overcast and drizzle I was still getting about 3.5 A/Hr 10am-2pm I was probably right for about 4 days per battery in those conditions.
When its sunny I've seen it get to about 17A/Hr (depends on how flat the batteries are).
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I bought a 140w folding panel and rewired to improve efficiency. I chucked the included 'mppt' away as most are not, bought an ecoworthy true mppt from China, connected the panels in series to get 40ish volts and went from 5 amps to 8 just like that. Then made up a long lead as suggested in a previous post but I also made short leads on the ecoworthy so I can hook it up at either end (doesn't like rain).
The biggest thing I learned is that most panels are way less capable than advertised. A true 120 watt should provide 10 amps which I have never seen in a portable set up, even in ideal conditions.
The biggest thing I learned is that most panels are way less capable than advertised. A true 120 watt should provide 10 amps which I have never seen in a portable set up, even in ideal conditions.
I agree with this theory @Drover, however in practice, we are often out and about during the day, so not there to move the panels towards the sun as it moves.
Whilst the rooftop panels are not quite as efficient laying flat, my experience is that they pretty much work all of the time, regardless of where the sun is.
I have 2 x 120w panels and 2 x 100AH batteries in parallel, and even when camped under trees, on overcast days etc, I am still getting enough coming in to keep up with normal load.
Last Christmas holidays we were camped at Jimmy Beach NSW for a week, of which 4 days was torrential rain. My companion had a 120w portable panel, and I loaned him my 80w flexible panels going into his single 100AH battery on his Swan. We needed to charge his battery with the generator after 3 days. My setup on a much larger van with more lights, a shower etc did not even get close to needing any topup.
The portable panels are also a nice target for someone to pinch, so I'd always suggest going with a rooftop setup over the portables, but it comes down to personal preference.
Yep, yep I cover all bases 120 on the roof (might be 150 ????) 120 portable just depends on what a day may be like, don't ever leave the panels out if not there though..................it all depends on how much stuffing around you want to do I suppose, I like to just set up camp and thats it so need to have batteries to cover power needs, it's not a holiday if your constantly ginning around with panels, genny's and checking stupid gauges, if I leave a light on or a charger in prefer it not to be a big deal.....................................saying that I should get off my bum and fit another battery......
Family of 4, lots of "devices", Glamping rather than camping...
2 x 100AH batteries and a 200W (2 x 100W) folding panel. Longest been off grid is 9 days straight without issues - pumps, shower, washing machine, microwave, coffee machine and hair driers all catered for via a 2,500W inverter.
Security - 10m plastic coated stainless steel cable with Masters padlocks. Allows for plenty of panel movement. If thieves really want to take them, they will; this will stop anything other than the thief walking about with large bolt cutters.
Best not to drain your battery below 80% capacity. Work out how much you will typically use, then size accordingly.
Add a solar panel/s based on 4 hours recharge at 80% efficiency.
See this thread for more detail: <a href="http://www.expandasdownunder.com/threads/best-portable-solar-and-battery-combo.9307/#post-160513">Best portable solar and battery combo</a>
Cheers,
Rohan
2 x 100AH batteries and a 200W (2 x 100W) folding panel. Longest been off grid is 9 days straight without issues - pumps, shower, washing machine, microwave, coffee machine and hair driers all catered for via a 2,500W inverter.
Security - 10m plastic coated stainless steel cable with Masters padlocks. Allows for plenty of panel movement. If thieves really want to take them, they will; this will stop anything other than the thief walking about with large bolt cutters.
Best not to drain your battery below 80% capacity. Work out how much you will typically use, then size accordingly.
Add a solar panel/s based on 4 hours recharge at 80% efficiency.
See this thread for more detail: <a href="http://www.expandasdownunder.com/threads/best-portable-solar-and-battery-combo.9307/#post-160513">Best portable solar and battery combo</a>
Cheers,
Rohan