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Fixing to go solar on the van. Found this for sale locally here where I am. Any thoughts on it ?
110 watt solar panel
Morningstar SS-10-12V 10 amp solar controller
ASC model 12/12 12 amp solar charger controller
Interstate deep cycle/marine battery SRM-29 12 volt with battery box and all wiring.
Would this be a good start? I plan to add two more solar panels later as I can afford it .
i will eventually add solar panels to my van also but I need to do some more research first.
Have you done research on different types of solar panels?
I have been looking at Flexible or ridged? How are you going to mount them? Is it better to mount them direct to thew roof or have a frame? If you have a frame, do you want it to be able to tilt the panels towards the sun?
12 volt or 24volt panels? Warranty? Durability? Type of cell?
If you have a rack mounted to the roof rather then mounting the panels directly to the roof, you can easily change out the panel if you need to.
Your roof is like mine and you probably only have room for 2 panels. It is curved so depending on how you are parked, one will not receive as much direct sunlight.
Will you be installing a roof vent fan?
In my opinion a permanent roof rack is the way to go for me.. I go through drive through's and our vans will go through most of them, once you add a roof rack, be very careful with the extra height.. Do you want a roof rack with storage capability above the panels?
I saw one system where the guy added a third panel that slid under the rack for the upper two because he didn't have space for 3 across the roof.
I thought I would pass along some of the info I have book marked when researching panels. This info is for ridged panels. I have not researched much into flexible panels.
Solar panels are an investment wither used for your home or camper van. We are talking about camper vans in this forum but the principle still applies. There are cheap panels and there are quality panels out on the market. Which one you choose will probably depend on what you can afford to spend. In some cases though if you go with cheap equipment, you may find yourself replacing a system or upgrading it eventually costing more then if you had bought a higher quality system to start with.
There are a lot of cheap panels online that come from companies that have gone out of business or are struggling financially. Though some of these panels may be good quality, you will probably wind up without a warranty in the long run. With quality panels from established companies, there are 2 main warranties, 25 year performance and 10 years covering parts like glass, diodes, ect.
Some other thing to consider are the size, weight, mounting, and how much space you have. Some of the larger panels are 40 to 50 lbs and if mounted to a roof rack, they must be able to support the weight as well as the wind resistance and lift when traveling. You may want to start out with a single smaller 100watt panel and add to your system or simply buy one large 300watt panel to meet your needs. To get the most efficency from your system you will need to be able to tilt the panels in the direction of the sun through out the day. They will work if mounted flat but you will loose a good bit of the potential generating power of the panel.
Another thing to look into is the efficency ratings of the panels. For the sake of making it simple, lets say you buy a 100 watt panel with a 20% efficency rating. Joe buys the same wattage panel thinking he is getting a better deal then you but it is only 10% efficient, Joe would need to buy 2 panels to equal your one.. So efficency is a very important part of choosing a panel. Here again the efficency is directly related to the price and quality of the panel.
Another thought is that when mounted on a van there will be a certain amount of flexing when mounted to the roof or a roof rack so the panel you choose needs to be able to withstand a certain amount of flexing otherwise you will have problems with failing connections or broken glass as well as voiding the warranty. The vibrations and flexing is much greater on a van then say mounted on a house roof. I have no real research to offer on this yet but did watch a video where a guy said that the poly panels hold up better to vibration and flexing much better then the mono panels.
So these are just a few more things to think about when planing a solar system for your van.
A last note.. Renogy seems to be a popular panel among RVers and vanners so lets take a look here.
Amazon Prime Renogy 100 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar Panel $123.02 free shipping.
The advantage to multiple panels is that you can add them as you go according to your budget and if one goes bad you can usually rewire the system and still have 2 left.
This next video mentions a couple of advantages to tilting your panels. Though he doesn't go into detail, heat is one of them. Most solar panels are less efficient the hotter they get. Also there are a lot simpler methods to tilting your panels then the one he uses.
RV Solar Tilting: Is It Really Worth It To Tilt the Panels?
Here is a 3 part comparison of the 3 main types of solar panels. Notice how much bigger the thin film amorpous panels have to be to equal the mono or poly panels.
We installed a 200w Renogy flexible panel kit on our first van. Had that van not been stolen, we would have sent the entire kit back under their flexible panel recall, due to fire concerns. Their flexible panels also had issues with delaminating. Renogy told me, in 2015, that they would have new flexible panels out this Summer, but I haven't seen any news on that which leads me to believe they may have abandoned the idea. Many off-name companies are selling flexible panels on eBay and Amazon, but I wouldn't buy them.
We went back to Renogy after we got our replacement van but went with the 200w rigid panel RV Kit with the Adventurer PWM controller. We have no complaints at all. The rigid panels are more efficient and have airflow underneath which is obviously important. Also, the warranty is much better than what the flexible panels had.
As for mounting, with a friend's advice, we attached some rather expensive aluminum Uni-strut to the roof of our van. This allows for mounting just about anything you want and is easily customized if you want to move panels around, add more panels, add a CB radio antenna plane, etc. But, we have a fiberglass pop top camper so mounting the Uni-strut didn't involve drilling through the van roof, just two small holes for the wires at the left rear.
here is the video of the guy who installed a slid out solar panel because he was out of space on his roof. He has the same style raised roof that you and I have VanGuySteve.
here is the video of the guy who installed a slid out solar panel because he was out of space on his roof. He has the same style raised roof that you and I have VanGuySteve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYkSj8zyxL0
Thank you. Running the cables is the hardest part, of course, especially with all the cabinets and trim, etc.
Solar requirements change due to location and load. For example, I live in SoCal and run my Engel fridge 24/7/365 and some LED lighting occasionally while camping. My van sets in the driveway with the fridge running sometimes for 7-10 days without being driven. Reading post from Solar installers in the Pacific NW, my setup would not be adequate.
For the past 5 years I've had a simple setup on my VW Vanagon with a Renogy Mono 100W Ridgid Solar panel in a fixed position on the roof. With only one 110AH aux battery, that setup would occasionally run low after several cloudy days. I upped my batteries to 2) 110AH Deep Cycle batteries and have never had a problem since.
When I started building my current E350 I copied the setup from the VW, with the exception of switching to a Renogy Adventurer Solar Controller. I liked its form factor better than the old eBay Controller.
When we are on the move, a 60A Continuous Duty Relay ties the aux batteries to the Van battery.
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