Solar The Solar Panel Thread
- Thread starter cruza driver
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I know you finicky fellas will gag but I needed extra length on my portable panel due to trees and the roof panel is off line due to shade, a touch of old timers meant the long extension is in the shed, so the 240 extension lead got a mod and with some tape and pliers I now have my 120w portable panel in sunlight, no loss either which was surprising.....of course my spare Anderson's were utilized a few weeks back......
Versatility at its best @Drover . Necessity is the Mother of invention and you are a great example. No gag from me about cable type and length. If it is a good extension cable, it will work pretty well. It is only when you are looking "at full noise" as you put it, that over time you might eventually notice slightly less charge. It would be interesting to note the difference in voltage drop between what you are using and 6 or 8mm twin cable. I am using a 15 metre lead (8mm) joined to a 5 metre (6mm) at the moment - not what the finicky people say you must have - but probably not a real problem with my series set up where my generation to the MPPT controller is normally around 30 volts and gets to around 36 volts when on float. Nothing has to be perfect, but it is good to strive for the optimum, even if you do not achieve it all the time!!
Well and simply put @mikerezny !! I too remember those days of pos + earth cars and 6 volt radios in a 12 volt system. Have also had to help a mate change his old Chrysler Royal from Pos earth to Neg earth so he could use some transistorised ignition system which was for Neg earth cars only. From what I remember we had to use the starter briefly with the battery changed around so that the generator had the new polarity for charging. Does that sound about right?? Never blew up anyone's car or electrical system, but have seen the smoke demons appear when battery terminals wrongly connected when alternators are fitted!! In fact, the person did not know what was happening and the whole wiring harness was burnt out before he knew it!!
The new 150w panels (disguised as 250w) have been sent back to the evil genius that cleverly manage to remove 100w of their potential. Now im on the look out for some replacements that dont cost more than my house
Yep, some juice is better than no juice. My longest lead setup is 10 mtrs and only drops down about 15-18% compared to 1.5 mtr lead at the draw bar. For the 4 mm cable . I had some 4 mm cross sectional domestic twin solar cable in my shed left over from a mates house solar job that I made up to 1 x 6 mtr and 1 x 10 mtr Anderson's plugs leads and stash In the van if required to get me upto 16-17 mtrs away from the van if needed. I've done some tests recently when away and the cable size and current I'm adding causes approx 15 -18% drop in performance at 10 mtrs, and 10-12 % at 6 mtrs roughly so I was seeing roughly 21-23 amps with no lead and perfect conditions /charger in boost mode etc at the draw bar , this dropped to 17-18 with one lead, and down to 14.5- 16 ish with the full 16 mtrs connected.
I also have another 10 mtr cable in 6b&s left over from when wiring up the van , I tend to use this if required as the drops are only like 8% , but in theory... , I have only tested out a couple of smaller cables togeather at this stage , but I could have upto 26 mtrs and be down to 38-40% losses compared to no lead for the 320 watts of glass at the end and still get some juice into the batts.
As I got some more domestic solar cable left over , I'm going to run another length parallel with them joined togeather to keep neat and this will halve the losses again. I prob will only do it to the longest lead.
But at the end of day 13-14 amps in ideal conditions if required to keep our van 12-16 mtrs into a shaded spot is better than no juice at all.
I think my heavy 13.5 mm 10 mtr lead will be heaps for most situations but I'll keep the other 2 stashed in back of boot just in case.
You could always if you have issue with capacity drop running up extension lead, run another extension lead in parallel with the other and tape them togeather to keep neat. This will halve the losses again for the same distance. Cheap and effective way to get a long cable that also is robust in lying out on the ground.
I've seen some 30 mtr extension leads on special at our local hardware for $15.00
That would make a nice 15 mtr twin connection lead for upto 200 watt panel for bugger all cost and little waste in current, If you were going to try and put a lot more panels at the end then you would need to up the core size of the cable as well for this from the extension leads probable 1.5 mm cross section. But you could always add a third cable if you wanted to up the capacity or distance but could get alittle messy...
Higher the amps need to be pushed up the bigger the volt drop. So 120 watt panel up these small core extension leads will be adequate for the distance your looking at with some loss. But some is better than none.
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Hi @Crusty181 , now if you are looking for the ultimate solar panel/s, have a look at Kick Ass's latest 250 watt folding panel - 5 folds and extra light. Only $1300.00 for panels alone. Cables and controller are extra!! But then you have them, so it is still $1200.00. I am sure your house is worth much more than that!!! Too rich for me whilst I am still camping, so looks like I will be carrying my 14kg glass panels around for the foreseeable future. Perhaps you may wish to indulge in this field???
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..............Now thats a bargain, I might get serious about upgrading and replacing my panels on Van and Ute, have to add 2 Epever controllers to the mix as well...
......where do i get it ...
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Yeah! Right @Drover !!! And the pigs will fly all the way around the Cooloola Coast too!!!!
Ouch, that's a lot of generator fuel. I have a shallow concern for the environment, and I have a deep emotional concern for my wallet. At $1200 my rip off meter is spiking, and the irony is Kick Ass in name is Kick Ass in nature but it would be my ass getting kicked. From practical experience I'd get better performance from 2 x 150w Super Cheap panels for half the price.
That Kick Ass panel is almost 10 foot long, Id need a mortgage, a vacant site next door and a team of Oompa Loompas to set it up.
I had a cursory glance over the Kick Ass offerings and they are unjustifiably expensive across their entire range, and Im pretty sure I wont be ringing their bells. If someones kids should go the DisneyLand on the back of price gouging, it will be mine. You dont have shares in Kick Ass @Boots in Action ???
Certainly is a tad exxy ........................ my Aldi panel is working well (4 yrs ) and puts out what the tag says it should, and it certainly gets a lot of use ,just toss the junky controller, thinking of buying another next time they are on the rack $190 or so for 120w.
No @Crusty181, and I agree with your sentiments about being pricey across the whole range too. Also, I made a mistake in the price. It is $1300.00 and that does not include your work party to set it up either. Still, it shows where the solar panels are going in improvements. Unfortunately, that same improvement is not the same in MY wallet either.
Time has flown and my temp ext lead has been reconstucted to 240v and a new 10m 8B&S lead has been set up with Andersons, $60 delivered, it works.........
Hi there again @Drover, I too am becoming a bit of a cynic like you on the workmanship (or lack of to be precise!) of Jayco electrics. Daughter has a Jayco Journey which she purchased NEW from company in Brisbane in 2010. After a weekend of drama ( a separate story to come), where battery failure without warning occurred, I fortunately was on site to sort out their problem. The van has only a 80 watt solar panel on roof and has been mainly used on 240 volt power. Jayco fitted a TopRAYSolar controller 30A type - same as Camec. The only problem was that of the 3 twin connections on panel (battery, solar and load), Jayco failed to connect ANY wires to the Load terminals so no display on amp hours used each day!! Daughter and husband are not technically minded and just read off the voltage shown and did not try to see what they were using and what had to be put back into the system after being off grid. And this was done during the day time and with no load, so voltage reading was deceiving. Actually showed 12.5 volts until light/s were turned on and or the DVD player was connected, which caused a sudden drop to 11.0 volts and continued to sink even lower to under 10.00 volts. "No one told us about anything!" was their response. A trap for the unwary.
Hi Boots
Just fitting a TopRaySolar and was wondering what needs to go into the LOAD side. Do I just run another twin from the battery to the "Load" terminals and leave the existing wires/circuits coming straight from the battery?
Actually it was wired correctly. Nothing gets connected to the load outputs, that is designed for a 12v output only, not for charging.
To see the amp reading on the topray you just press the black button a couple of times and it cycles between battery voltage and current.
Nothing goes to the load connections unless you want to power something directly from solar (not from the battery) which is unlikely
Unfortunately, Jayco never connects those Solar controller load output terminals to anything because they all go to Setec. Also, controller only has max 30A load. I'm pretty sure no other caravan manufacturer uses these units to give the full load status. You'll have to buy a unit and fit it at the battery terminals to get the full consumption.