Adding More Solar than 160 Watts

[Porsche Pilot]

Thanks Jon, I will ask if I can have ETI add this wiring to my build list since I want the flexibility to add more solar for winter camping in the southwest. I hear a lot of folks boondock around Quartzite in the winter for weeks at a time.

[Vermilye]

I stayed at Quartzite for 1 week & Imperial Dam for 2 weeks during February, and found that the single 95 watt panel combined with the low angle sun wasn't enough to keep up with my typical usage of 25 - 30 amp hours per day. That is why I added the Solar Blvd 160 watt panel...

Make sure that Escape understands how you want to add a portable panel. The wiring is different for panels that have a controller (what they usually expect) and one without on that is wired to the input of the Escape controller.

[Porsche Pilot]

Jon, do you think adding an additional panel on the roof is better or having the portable panels where you can focus them towards the sun is better? What about line drop with the 20-30 feet of wire from the panel to the controller, it that a big factor?

[Vermilye]

To be honest, I couldn't decide, which is why I carry both. The 195 watts I get from the two roof top panels is plenty for clear summer days, but in the shade they don't keep up. I haven't tried them with low angle sun since I just installed the second panel in June. Even under ideal conditions, you won't get anywhere near the specified wattage from the panel to the batteries. For example, with a clear sky & careful aiming directly at the sun, I tested my portable panel by feeding the batteries while drawing 60 amps (using an inverter to make a pot of coffee). The portable panel's controller produced 8.5 amps, which at 12V is 102 watts. While it might produce a bit more just feeding the batteries, I've never seen a system that can produce at 100% efficiency...

If you are feeding the input to the controller from the panel, the voltage drop is not as critical since the PWM controller Escape uses combined with the voltage output of a typical 12V panel has room for a volt or two of drop. I used #10 garden light wire for my 25' run from the 160 watt panel. If you are using the panel's controller, it is best to use as large & short wiring as possible since the controller drops the voltage so you have less room to play with.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Patandlinda

Got my interest Ron . Where would you put slide in , slide out on 19 ? Pat

My reply was in response to the comment that if the panels were mounted on the roof of the tug you wouldn't be able to have them charging while you were out sightseeing.

However, there's probably no reason that couldn't be done for the trailer. As I've posted before, mine rides just above the tongue box and I put it up high and tilt it when that's needed. No reason a panel couldn't be mounted of a frame above the tongue box. Most of time it would just sit there and charge. If it was in a campsite with heavy shade it could be released from the frame and used as a portable panel.

Ron

[santacruzer]

On my 19 I had ETI place the GoPower charge controller down by the converter (driver side front dinette) and also install a pass through port on the left side so I can add the wiring at a later date. It's easy to connect to the GoPower controller, just have to make certain the amperage is appropriate. ETI installed the same pass-through that is used for the power cord, if you elect the permanently connected one. I would do that differently and use some sort of plug.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Vermilye

I'm not sure what controller Escape is currently using....

When they switched from the 160W panel to a 150W panel, they also switched to a Samlex controller. The Samlex is superior to the GoPower in every way, and I'd suspect that the theoretical 10 watts of panel output loss is more than made up for by a more advanced and efficient Samlex controller. Would have loved to have the Samlex system instead of the GoPower, but of course we got what was available at the time. It's like many other things at Escape - they keep improving it - darn them.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

It's like many other things at Escape - they keep improving it - darn them.

That won't be an issue when you follow Jim N's example and move up to the 21.

[rbryan4]

Methinks (if it ever did happen) I would be following another Jim's example and go with the 5er.

[crnelson]

We wanted to add another panel to our 21 which will be ready in May 2016 and they said no room with A/C

[Porsche Pilot]

The samlex controller is a 30 amp one and has the ability to add another panel to it. I might go the route as Jim did with the portable panels. What sort of access have people asked for to allow the wiring to the controller?

[John David]

We are getting our 19 next March and the options sheet is due in jan. We are getting the solar anel and intend to add a portable panel as well. I have a few questions.
1. Is it better to feed the portable thru the main controller or direct to the battery.
2.if thru the battery won't there be a fight between voltages from the main and portable controllers?
3.I have read that it's important to reduce the resistance between the controller and the battery which means larger wire size as the run length gets bigger. Lots of portables with controllers have 30 ft cords with small wires. Isn't this a bad thing. Anybody using portables direct to battery out there, what's your experience?

John

[santacruzer]

I personally think it would be better to feed a portable panel through the controller, but there are folks who just connect direct to the batteries and have no problem. By feeding through the controller you'd know exactly what's going into the batteries.

[thoer]

When we order our new 21 I am going to see if Reace will install this receptical: MinnKota 12V to feed my external panel into the controller. I've looked at lots of them and this is the only one I have found that will take up to 8 gauge wire, can carry plenty of current and appear water resistant. I sent the link to him to see if he thinks it will work ok.

[padlin]

Through the controller is best.
They suggest you get a 2nd panel the same or as close as possible in voltage levels.
And yes, the cheesy wire that comes with the portables is not optimal, heavier is better but of course not as convenient.

[gbaglo]

I just run the two 40 watt panels through a controller to the battery terminals.
I can't monitor the charge, but that pretty much doesn't matter, because I know of no way to make the sun shine any longer or brighter.

[John David]

My thoughts are that going thru the controller is best. I just finished talking to the Samlex tech support guy and found out that their portable suitcase units come with a 10A controller set at 14.4V. This is a normal trickle charge for lead acid batteries. The rooftop panel comes with the SCC-30 controller where the voltage level can be set higher (better for charging). If you do this and then connect the 14.4V portable to the battery it will see the higher voltage from the main controller and not charge the battery. So connecting a portable to the main charge controller is the way to go. Just need ETI to provide the wire run from main controller to a connector on the outside of the trailer.
This was an interesting conversation with the tech guy saying the panels would not be fighting each other (sure sounds to me like they would be).

[John David]

Now I just need to find a portable suitcase panel without a controller.


John

[J Mac]

The suitcase solar panels I've seen have a controller fastened to the back of one of the panels. It shouldn't be too hard to bypass this controller and link up with the 'in house' controller.

[Brian B-P]

Two panels directly connected together (such as to the same controller's input) will not "fight" each other - one won't confuse the other one - because they have no intelligence or logic. They will affect each other, just as anything connected to a panel affects it. If they do not have identical characteristics or if they are not in identical conditions then neither will operate ideally... but they will both operate. An example of different conditions might be one set flat on the roof and another set propped up at some angle.

For any controller type other than a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) design, having two separate controllers won't help - non-MPPT controllers respond to nothing other than the battery voltage and charging current, so all panels might as well share one controller (thus, no controllers confusing each other). If you do use MPPT controllers, separate controllers for panels in different conditions would help optimize each panel's output.