solar panel for trickle charge

[hbgs]

hi. Does anyone have experience with using solar panel to trickle charge the Escape battery? Want to dry camp for a few days using minimal battery. I estimate less than 12 Ah/day. Would use water pump and occasional light. We do not have an air conditioner or microwave. We want a small portable solar panel, i.e. not mounted and no charge controller. We tried a 5 watt Coleman (300 mA) but found that it was not quite enough (and the battery cables were reversed so we took it back). Any experience or recommendations with solar panels? Flexible or otherwise?

Heather B.

[Jim Bennett]

Hi Heather, welcome aboard.

I too am thinking along the line you are, however I am thinking about getting a couple mid-sized panels that I would hinge to fold together (for convenient storage) providing around 5A. A 300 mA panel would need to be hooked up full time in order to keep up at all, even with minimal use of electricity.

The disadvantage with a portable setup is that you can't charge while you travel, and need to be set up to use them. You also would need to be able to secure them so they don't get stolen.

The advantage is that you only need to used them when away from a 110V hookup, and no need to mount them on top of the trailer. On shorter (weekend) trips, I doubt I would need topping up the batteries at all and the panels could just stay behind.

On the other hand, I am also strongly considering using a gen set to top things up. I am not going for A/C right away, but if I plan to travel to hot climates in the future I would put it on. In the many hundreds of nights I have spent in a trailer, the only time I have ever hooked up the 110V AC, was when visiting friends, never when camped.

[HABBERDABBER]

A couple of weeks ago I ran across a Casita owner in Myakka State Forest campground in Florida, north of Punta Gorda. He'd been dry camping for 6 weeks there, involved in a house search and purchase. He had two 30 watt flexible solar panels bungee corded to the side of his Casita. They were off his sailboat, no charge controller, and he said they kept him going just fine. No water, electricity or anything at this campground, just chemical toilets and water available at the ranger office. I would guess a controller would be recommended to extend the life of the battery, but it worked for him. Got a tour of the Casita, which he liked, except for the noise from the furnace when he kicked in at night.

I hope to have a used Escape in a few weeks, I have a 30 watt panel I intend to start with and also have a charge controller. Roof mount For short is possible, but I'll build a simple folding stand for the panel for increased effenciey and more options for orientation & placement. LED's will soon replace the incandescent bulbs in the interior.

[Jim Bennett]

HD, I have not really heard much of the flexible panels. I do know a canoeist who does a multi-week trip every year that has a small one to keep his satellite phone, and a couple other small batteries charged with.

One other advantage to a portable setup is that you can easily angle it to get the maximum sun, but I guess with the right setup on a rooftop you could do the same. All the ones I have seen only tilt, if you could swivel them it might make a huge difference.

HD, do you have a specific Escape you are looking at?

[HABBERDABBER]

Jim,

I'm intersted in a 17B. Google West Marine & search solar panels. The flexible panels are sold there and other venues. What they lack in efficiency, they make up in durablity and flexibility. Like the Casita owner, I sail, and am aware of the "wet" camping systems and techniques for independent energy production on the water.

[Jim Bennett]

Thanks, will have a look.

Edit: I had a look and the idea is interesting. They would sure be easy to store when not in use. The are a bit pricey for their output, but that is not surprising considering their benefits.

[Bruce Wray]

I just saw a 60 watt Coleman set of panels, with cables, inverter and a bunch of other stuff I know very little about on the Costco website: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...lang=en-US&s=1

I don't know if it's any good (I'm not a fan of Coleman any more), or more than you're looking for. Maybe someone knowlegeable can check it out and evaluate it.

Bruce

[Jim Bennett]

That does not look like too bad of a setup. I wonder how small it would pack up, the panels are 14x1x39" each, so stacked together would only be 3" thick. Still a bit big to store. They have the same kit at Costco.ca as well. This kit does seem like it is available only at Costco, both in the US and Canada.

[hbgs]

I'm looking at either GoPower Duralite 20 w (solid but unbreakable with 5 year warranty) or a foldable Sunlinq 12 w (1 year warranty). We'll buy something before we take off with the trailer in June so I'll report back on what we got and how well it works. Both of these have grommets I figure we can thread with a thin cable lock to secure them to the bumper.

[Phil Underwood]

i have two solar panels on the roof, them seem to work great and are maintenance free, i'm not sure of the amps, but i checked the voltage at my battery 13.4 volts when we were boon docking.

[HABBERDABBER]

A 12 or 20 watt solar panel is not alot of charge capability. 60 watt is a guesstimate of wattage needed to keep a battery topped off...and that's with good sun and low power usage. It's time consuming, but if you determine your wattage needs by listing all your loads....the amperage they draw. LED replacement is a real boon to reducing the load. Not much you can do about the fans and pumps other than use them minimally.

[Bobccat]

We installed a solar panel to our roof and are very satisfied with the results. We call our Escape "Solace"

Check out their web page. WeGo Solar will build you a system for your rig which you can then install.

http://wegosolar.com/

Cheers, Bobccat

[hbgs]

I listed all the loads and came up with less than 12 Ah/day. We use a battery lamp when dry camping. No lights, no fan, no furnace. Minimal water pump. I calculated using less than 4 minutes/day for the water pump. The biggest draws are the propane alarm and the refrigerator which still draws .4 amps even when on propane. I calculated the fridge for 24 hr/day but I'm wondering if it only draws when it's running. In that case, with the fridge only running 12 hrs/day, the total amp hours per day required drops to less than 7. All theoretical until we try it in June!

[hbgs]

We bought the GoPower Duralite GPDL-20 20 watt solar panel, non-glass waterproof, unbreakable. It is not installed. We just bring it out when dry camping and a thin retractable cable lock keeps it from wandering away.

Used it for the first time in June and we're really happy with it. Three days of drying camping at Manzanita Lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park with good sun and the battery stayed in the green the whole time. At night the battery charge dropped to good but after a short time with the panel in the sun it came back to excellent. The third day the monitor showed excellent charge, even after one of us showered. We ran the furnace for a bit in the evening and to take the chill off the air in the morning. Also used a light in the evening (and we don't have LEDs). We were able to use more power than we expected! That was with really good sun.

3 days of dry camping in Del Norte campground in the Redwoods was more of a struggle for the solar panel. The monitor dropped to good and never got back up to excellent. However our site was a full shade site. The panel had only mottled echoes of sunlight to work with. We used the water pump sparingly and used a light in the evening.

For our purposes, the 20 W panel is grand. Best of all it is QUIET. One less generator reverberating through the redwoods.