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  • #31
    Thanks for the reply. I'm taking delivery of my truck this week and I can finally start on this Project. I have already purchased 2 Renogy 100 am ah lifepo4 batteries 20 amp dc charger and monitor screen. Took delivery of a 2020 Reflection 295rl in November of 2021 and has been parked since arrival. Spring is near so maybe I can get back into trailer

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    • #32
      Update:

      The sun finally shined down on me yesterday and today so I could pull the RV out of the garage and into the light of day. The solar setup worked as expected, low solar output with the sun low in the sky in the morning, 2 amps or so and 100 watts from the 400 watt panels. This reached a high of 18.3 amps and 297 watts from the panels during the midday sun. This is not outstanding by any means but does show that the system is working and should get better as the sun keeps creeping further north. The battery bank was around 30% when I pulled it out and was near 80% at the end of yesterday and the charger was still in bulk mode. Today it was topped off around 11 am and the controller was in float mode. So this system is no record breaker by no means but will supply us with some charging when dry camping, a generator will also be used as well as the DC-DC charger if and when needed. I also home built some supports for tilting the panels and it is amazing what tilting the panels does for output.

      Brian
      Brian & Michelle
      2018 Reflection 29RS
      2022 Chevy 3500HD

      Comment


      • #33
        Finally got a camp test on the system, although on shore power.

        The solar setup performed well while traveling and throughout the week. We turned off the converter and allowed the solar to do the work during the day, had plenty of sunshine during the week at Massey's Landing in Delaware, now known as Sun Outdoors. I seen input of about 15 amps from the panels and output of about 20 amps or so from the solar controller. The solar controller takes some of the voltage produced by the panels and turns it into amperage to charge the batteries. All performed well, very happy with the install.

        Brian
        Brian & Michelle
        2018 Reflection 29RS
        2022 Chevy 3500HD

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        • #34
          2nd update.

          Solar is quite interesting. Today I have seen between 50 and 330 watts of solar energy from the 400 watts of panels. With the sun directly overhead there were varying outputs. The batteries were at 96% so I am guessing that they were not accepting a whole lot of charge. I then turned on the ac as it was getting pretty hot and that dropped the battery level fairly quickly. In turn as the battery level dropped the solar output became greater, reaching 330 watts at one time when I looked.
          So does that mean if the batteries do not need much they will not allow much to come out of the solar charge controller?

          At 330 watts output my small array can not keep up with around 1500 watts that the ac draws.

          Brian
          Brian & Michelle
          2018 Reflection 29RS
          2022 Chevy 3500HD

          Comment


          • #35
            Originally posted by Country Campers View Post
            2nd update.

            Solar is quite interesting. Today I have seen between 50 and 330 watts of solar energy from the 400 watts of panels. With the sun directly overhead there were varying outputs. The batteries were at 96% so I am guessing that they were not accepting a whole lot of charge. I then turned on the ac as it was getting pretty hot and that dropped the battery level fairly quickly. In turn as the battery level dropped the solar output became greater, reaching 330 watts at one time when I looked.
            So does that mean if the batteries do not need much they will not allow much to come out of the solar charge controller?

            At 330 watts output my small array can not keep up with around 1500 watts that the ac draws.

            Brian

            That's right, as the batteries approach full the BMS in the battery slows and then stops the current flow. At that point the solar controller can't "push"the current anywhere, so you don't see anything coming out of the charge controller.
            Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.​

            Neil Citro
            2018 Reflection 28BH Pepwave
            2019 F350 6.7L Long Bed Crew Cab

            Comment


            • #36
              Originally posted by Country Campers View Post
              2nd update.

              Solar is quite interesting. Today I have seen between 50 and 330 watts of solar energy from the 400 watts of panels. With the sun directly overhead there were varying outputs. The batteries were at 96% so I am guessing that they were not accepting a whole lot of charge. I then turned on the ac as it was getting pretty hot and that dropped the battery level fairly quickly. In turn as the battery level dropped the solar output became greater, reaching 330 watts at one time when I looked.
              So does that mean if the batteries do not need much they will not allow much to come out of the solar charge controller?

              At 330 watts output my small array can not keep up with around 1500 watts that the ac draws.

              Brian
              My 1200W array can't keep up, either, Brian. A massive battery bank supplemented by a generator (to recharge the batteries at night if boondocking) is the only way I know of to run an air conditioner off an inverter. (Unless the generator is running all day--which doesn't make the neighbors happy!)

              Gee whiz info, but the chart below is the consumption, solar output, and battery SoC during the days we boondocked in Jasper (no shore power). I didn't need to run the air conditioner, but the furnace did run frequently at night. It was frequently quite cloudy, thus the relatively "low" max output (when the battery would accept the charge) from the array. Generator was not needed, though if examined closely you'll see the battery bank did not fully charge on the last day due to the poor weather. (I ran the DC-DC Charger the next day while towing and that topped off the battery bank.)

              Click image for larger version  Name:	Jasper Output Only.jpg Views:	0 Size:	83.9 KB ID:	89830

              A better representation is the chart below (of a single day) but I think you can get the idea...


              Click image for larger version  Name:	For Brian.JPG Views:	0 Size:	51.1 KB ID:	89831
              If you have your Victron account established and there's an internet connection, you can see the data from your system in numerous ways (lots of options on Victron's website!).

              Howard

              P.S. For those scratching their heads...if the 1200W array was working at full capacity (perfect conditions) the orange vertical bar would stretch up to 1.2 kWh, or 1200W in an hour. Note the highest bar is around .5 kWh, so that's less than 1/2 of the rated output of the array. Again--conditions were poor (lot of clouds).
              Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.

              2017 Ford F-350 DRW, '19 315RLTSPlus

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              • #37
                Added 2 more panels, total of 4 Rich Solar 200 watt panels. We did a 4 day 3 night dry camping trip. All days were rainy and cloudy except for 1 which was partly sunny. Started with 100% battery and ended with 75% battery, The solar panels worked well with less than ideal conditions. These panels had a better efficiency rating than others that I looked at and also stated better at low light. They performed well, in my eyes, and had recovered the battery usage from the night before (after I remembered to turn the solar charge controller on midway thru the day). The last 2 days were mostly rainy so there was not much chance of the solar reaching full charge but we had plenty of battery reserves to get us thru and did not need to use the generator at all.

                Brian
                Brian & Michelle
                2018 Reflection 29RS
                2022 Chevy 3500HD

                Comment


                • #38
                  Originally posted by Country Campers View Post
                  Added 2 more panels, total of 4 Rich Solar 200 watt panels. We did a 4 day 3 night dry camping trip. All days were rainy and cloudy except for 1 which was partly sunny. Started with 100% battery and ended with 75% battery, The solar panels worked well with less than ideal conditions. These panels had a better efficiency rating than others that I looked at and also stated better at low light. They performed well, in my eyes, and had recovered the battery usage from the night before (after I remembered to turn the solar charge controller on midway thru the day). The last 2 days were mostly rainy so there was not much chance of the solar reaching full charge but we had plenty of battery reserves to get us thru and did not need to use the generator at all.

                  Brian
                  Nice!

                  Did you end up upgrading the solar charge controller?

                  With the 4 panels (assuming you wired panels series/parallel) I'm showing a max voltage of 57V and max current of 28 amps which is within the 100/30 limits....however, it only allows 440W PV. You would have to upgrade to the 150/60 for the 800W :(
                  Allen

                  2021 Momentum 21G

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Originally posted by acoleman43 View Post

                    Nice!

                    Did you end up upgrading the solar charge controller?

                    With the 4 panels (assuming you wired panels series/parallel) I'm showing a max voltage of 57V and max current of 28 amps which is within the 100/30 limits....however, it only allows 440W PV. You would have to upgrade to the 150/60 for the 800W :(
                    I did upgrade to the 100/50. I still only have the capacity to input 100 v but I have the output potential of 50 amps instead of 30, spare controller lying around now.

                    I wired the panels each into the combiner box , I still do not understand the series/parallel thing, ugh, maybe someday. With that I am thinking that I will get a potential of around 80 v input and around 40 amps. On our trip I seen 573 w and 29.8 amps from the panels and 13.71 v and 40.9 amps in bulk mode going to the batteries, hopefully those are good numbers. This was the best day we had from noon on and did produce about 15% battery charge getting us to almost 95% when the sun went down.

                    Brian
                    Brian & Michelle
                    2018 Reflection 29RS
                    2022 Chevy 3500HD

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Originally posted by Country Campers View Post

                      I did upgrade to the 100/50. I still only have the capacity to input 100 v but I have the output potential of 50 amps instead of 30, spare controller lying around now.

                      I wired the panels each into the combiner box , I still do not understand the series/parallel thing, ugh, maybe someday. With that I am thinking that I will get a potential of around 80 v input and around 40 amps. On our trip I seen 573 w and 29.8 amps from the panels and 13.71 v and 40.9 amps in bulk mode going to the batteries, hopefully those are good numbers. This was the best day we had from noon on and did produce about 15% battery charge getting us to almost 95% when the sun went down.

                      Brian
                      If you wired all panel positives together and all panel negatives together in the combiner box, you wired all your panels in parallel. If this is the case, the most the solar charge controller will likely see is 28.5V and 39.2 amps. The 100/50 will handle that fine. Only issue is the 100/50 only allows 700W PV. You have 800W (4X 200W panels) :(
                      Allen

                      2021 Momentum 21G

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Originally posted by acoleman43 View Post

                        If you wired all panel positives together and all panel negatives together in the combiner box, you wired all your panels in parallel. If this is the case, the most the solar charge controller will likely see is 28.5V and 39.2 amps. The 100/50 will handle that fine. Only issue is the 100/50 only allows 700W PV. You have 800W (4X 200W panels) :(
                        Is there anything to do to get "more" out of the panels?

                        Brian
                        Brian & Michelle
                        2018 Reflection 29RS
                        2022 Chevy 3500HD

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Originally posted by Country Campers View Post

                          Is there anything to do to get "more" out of the panels?

                          Brian
                          Go in sunny places

                          If I were to angle the panels to be exactly perpendicular to the suns rays with completely clear skies you will see your 800W. But that isn't realistic. I have 1260W PV on my trailer and rarely see over 1000W into the solar charge controller. Typical is 500W-800W.

                          When I was drawing up our system, based on our energy audit (not including air conditioning), the numbers told me I needed a 2000W pv. I can't fit that many panels on my trailer, best I could get was 1600W. The wife protested and I settled on 1260W (I do have an additional solar charge controller to a side port for an additional 400W from portable panels if needed). If I am not using anything in the RV, it takes less than 2 days to charge my battery bank from 2% to 100% with my panels (I have 800 AH of batteries). I'm happy with that for now. If I need a little "push", I have a generator that will charge the batteries from 0% to 100% in about 6 hours.
                          Allen

                          2021 Momentum 21G

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Angling the panels where we were at would not have helped at all. We were tucked up against the west side of a mountain and the sun did not directly hit the panels until almost noon. We then only had sunlight on the panels for about 4 or 5 hours, only about 2 or 3 hours of good sunlight on the panels. Granted that the more panels the more power generated even at less than ideal conditions but this is why I have a generator when needed. I may look into adding a portable panel set to help when needed.

                            Brian
                            Brian & Michelle
                            2018 Reflection 29RS
                            2022 Chevy 3500HD

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                            • #44
                              Tsincorona -- I moved your inquiry to it's own thread. See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/solar/9...on-replacement

                              Howard
                              Forum moderators are not GD employees--we are volunteers and owners presumably just like yourself. Unless specifically mentioned otherwise, we have nothing to gain should you choose to purchase a product or engage a service we discuss on this forum.

                              2017 Ford F-350 DRW, '19 315RLTSPlus

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Updating with the 4 panel layout.

                                Click image for larger version

Name:	Solar panels.jpg
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ID:	103863

                                Brian
                                Brian & Michelle
                                2018 Reflection 29RS
                                2022 Chevy 3500HD

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