Charging with Solar when camping

[Serrated13]

I was looking at getting a portable solar kit to take camping in case I wanted to charge my batteries.

Has anyone had any experience with some of the different solar kits out there?

[mprudic0404]

never tried a solar kit, but i have used a few panels to charge batteries.

i used 18v mon-crystal panels and a dc-dc regulator with a large 1 farad cap, down to 12-14vdc. with 4 or 8 panels, it has no prolem charging batteries.


the 18v panels are nice, as even low or cloudy days light, they can still put out 12v.

each of these 18v panels are rated for 1 amp constant.

[rkj__]

"Camping" means different things to different people. What equipment or (1:1) vehicles will you have with you, if any? How many times will you want to re-charge your RC battery? How many mAh are your packs?

My LiPo charger accepts a 12V DC or 120V AC input. I'll be charging the RC battery using my trailer's 12V deep cycle battery, For longer stays without electrical hookup, I use a 40W solar panel to feed the trailer's 12V deep cycle battery to help it keep up with demand.

[ferp420]

I have a old harbor freight 45 watt set up it puts out about 2 amps so i can charge at 2 amps all day long as long as the sun is out with out touching the batterys my new house is of grid so im vary aware of my power usage

as summer is coming around im getting 6 amps out of he same set up i just washed them lol

[Rkilkowski]

i bring a 40w solar panel to a 12v deep cycle battery to my rc charger .fyi ...fire replaces the sun for solar panels while camping...

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by rkj__

"Camping" means different things to different people. What equipment or (1:1) vehicles will you have with you, if any? How many times will you want to re-charge your RC battery? How many mAh are your packs?

My LiPo charger accepts a 12V DC or 120V AC input. I'll be charging the RC battery using my trailer's 12V deep cycle battery, For longer stays without electrical hookup, I use a 40W solar panel to feed the trailer's 12V deep cycle battery to help it keep up with demand.]

Good points. Nice setup.

Originally Posted by ferp420

I have a old harbor freight 45 watt set up it puts out about 2 amps so i can charge at 2 amps all day long as long as the sun is out with out touching the batterys my new house is of grid so im vary aware of my power usage

as summer is coming around im getting 6 amps out of he same set up i just washed them lol

100% off grid is sweet, love it!

Originally Posted by Rkilkowski

i bring a 40w solar panel to a 12v deep cycle battery to my rc charger .fyi ...fire replaces the sun for solar panels while camping...

Nice. Yes it can.

Anybody have any particulars on the panels you're using?

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Good points. Nice setup.



100% off grid is sweet, love it!



Nice. Yes it can.

Anybody have any particulars on the panels you're using?

100% off grid and payed for once summer hit those same pannels doubled there output ive since added another 600 watts worth of pannels that i got from a guy on ebay who dose insurance work and he did 2 tear outs at a solor plant there was a grass fire but the pannels were fine but the warrenty was voided and they couldent use them anymore insurance issues lol if i wanted a portable set up i would get the flexable pannels you can role it up to save space when travaling and there realy hard to break

[rkj__]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Nice setup.






Anybody have any particulars on the panels you're using?

This is what I have:


https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/c...-0112043p.html

Pay no attention to the price. They go on sale for under $100 all the time.





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[toka100]

I just looked at this. Seems to work good. They have a usb and 12v versions.
https://shop.waterlilyturbine.com/pr...ly-turbine-12v Guess it also works with wind power and hand power also.

[Natedog]

Solar panels looks nice, but ya the price, on sale is good.

Little turbine looks good too.

[ferp420]

if i needed a portable set up i would get 1 of these or something like it it should put out 5 amps enuff to charge your rc batterys with out touching your 12v power supply also enuff to charge your car battery in 4 or 5 hours

http://www.ebay.com/itm/142926600053


that little turbing is for a boat or a river it dosent have the surface area to produce electricity by wind i know alot of people who tow those behind there sailboat the problem is they break and get lost or eaten they work good in a creek or river though

[Brett_Boschert]

Out of curiosity, depending on number of packs/mah's you're charging, have you considered just getting a deep cycle battery to take with you? Might be cheaper overall


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[Shinchu]

This thread is great... Been looking at solar panels in addition to the little generator that came with my 23 ft. trailer I just bought.

Waiting for Browneye to chime in... He had a couple panels at proline last year and he said they are awesome.

[Browneye]

Yep...got these two 80's as a 'suitcase', with a controller mounted, for charging a pair of golfcart batts. Our tanks fill up before our batteries run down.
I just had to make up an extension cord out of 12g so they can sit front or back of the coach. And I set them out when I need them, for best solar gain. Way more efficient than roof-mounted panels. They can always be positioned to catch whatever sun there is at your site.

Was about $200 from Solar Boulevard here in so-cal. I'll see if I can find their link if there's interest.
Don't pay $800 for a few watts of solar power.

[Shinchu]

LIKE
thanks brother!
I was looking on Amazon and they had a similar suitcase style. Some reviews said the wiring was sub par but fixable and the regulators fell off the back when they got warm from the sun (double sided taped).
I added them to my wish list but they have since mysteriously become "unavailable".

Thanks for the heads up on where you got yours Chris.

[Natedog]

Ferp420, love that flexible panel you linked, only 4.4lbs too with reasonable price.

Interest. Closing clamshells nice to protect the panels too.

Thanks Chris!

[Browneye]

A guy could litterally make his own, they're so simple. Panels come with a nice aluminum frame anyway, rivet a couple of hinges on them, add a handle which you don't really need anyway, make a carry case, and install a simple controller. The one mine came with is a real cheapo, but it works fine, pwm for this is fine, you don't need an mppt controller for a couple of hundred watts.
I added an off/on switch so I could open them, connect it to the batteries, THEN switch it on. Otherwise you're feeding the controller with solar power with no place to send it. I thought that was a design flaw so I addressed it myself. We've used this one quit a bit and it's just dandy.

I am loath to pay the prices for stuff like Zamp puts out, thousands of dollars for fancy gizmos that don't perform any better than the cheap stuff.

This tech is all the rage in the RV forums cuz people like boondocking and running a generator gets really old really quick. Some of them have paid huge $$ for roof mounted systems that are way overkill. But then an awful lot of them have removed their gas-absorption fridge and installed a residential unit that runs on 110, so they have a huge inverter to power it. All of the high end units now come with residential refers. They need a lot of 12V to make up 110 for these systems. Some of the higher end units have 3 TV's too. LOL

I converted all my lighting to LED, they use less than 10% of the power as the incandescents it came with. And the old tube-TV to a led flatscreen - I think it's about 2ah when it's on, the unit already had a 300w inverter built in for it. My biggest power hog is now the forced-air furnace, it uses about 5ah when it runs. But even on a cold night it doesn't run more than a couple of hours total, which is easily made up the next day with solar gain. (if the sun shines LOL)

First you need to assess your power requirements in amp-hours over a day or series of days, and then match your battery capacity and charge capacity to suit. The only way to tell for sure is to utilize a meter that measures amps in and out and charts it for you, but they're expensive. I use a seat of the pants approach, and can always fire the genny if we really need it. And of course if it's warm and you need/want AC you have to run it anyway, and that charges the batts as well.

I also upgraded the 12V converter that supplies 12V when plugged in or powered with 110, which also charges the batteries. It's a higher-end unit with proper 5-stage charging levels that suit the need for 6V deepcycles - golf cart batteries in series. They are about 220ah together, and you never utilize more than 50% discharge from lead-acid batteries, so I have at least 100ah usable. That will run a flat screen off an inverter, and all the interior lighting for a very long time. The fridge board uses a couple of amps, and that's about it. Very nice setup for dry camping.

My RC lipo charger has a 12v input, so I have a harness I made up that clamps right to the house batteries - all the lipo charging I could need for my crawlers.


EDIT: It seems Solar Boulevard has closed. I would have to see what there is on Ebay. Another popular place nearby was Renogy - good products and prices, they sell on amazon and ebay.
Happy to assist any peeps here with their solar project. I got quite the education on it. Cool stuff!

[rkj__]

Originally Posted by Browneye

A guy could litterally make his own, they're so simple. Panels come with a nice aluminum frame anyway, rivet a couple of hinges on them, add a handle which you don't really need anyway, make a carry case, and install a simple controller. The one mine came with is a real cheapo, but it works fine, ppm for this is fine, you don't need an mppt controller for a couple of hundred watts.
I added an off/on switch so I could open them, connect it to the batteries, THEN switch it on. Otherwise you're feeding the controller with solar power with no place to send it. I thought that was a design flaw so I addressed it myself. We've used this one quit a bit and it's just dandy.

I am loath to pay the prices for stuff like Zamp puts out, thousands of dollars for fancy gizmos that don't perform any better than the cheap stuff.

This tech is all the rage in the RV forums cuz people like boondocking and running a generator gets really old really quick. Some of them have paid huge $$ for roof mounted systems that are way overkill. But then an awful lot of them have removed their gas-absorption fridge and installed a residential unit that runs on 110, so they have a huge inverter to power it. All of the high end units now come with residential refers. They need a lot of 12V to make up 110 for these systems. Some of the higher end units have 3 TV's too. LOL

I converted all my lighting to LED, they use less than 10% of the power as the incandescents it came with. And the old tube-TV to a led flatscreen - I think it's about 2ah when it's on, the unit already had a 300w inverter built in for it. My biggest power hog is now the forced-air furnace, it uses about 5ah when it runs. But even on a cold night it doesn't run more than a couple of hours total, which is easily made up the next day with solar gain. (if the sun shines LOL)

First you need to assess your power requirements in amp-hours over a day or series of days, and then match your battery capacity and charge capacity to suit. The only way to tell for sure is to utilize a meter that measures amps in and out and charts it for you, but they're expensive. I use a seat of the pants approach, and can always fire the genny if we really need it. And of course if it's warm and you need/want AC you have to run it anyway, and that charges the batts as well.

I also upgraded the 12V converter that supplies 12V when plugged in or powered with 110, which also charges the batteries. It's a higher-end unit with proper 5-stage charging levels that suit the need for 6V deepcycles - golf cart batteries in series. They are about 220ah together, and you never utilize more than 50% discharge from lead-acid batteries, so I have at least 100ah usable. That will run a flat screen off an inverter, and all the interior lighting for a very long time. The fridge board uses a couple of amps, and that's about it. Very nice setup for dry camping.

My RC lipo charger has a 12v input, so I have a harness I made up that clamps right to the house batteries - all the lipo charging I could need for my crawlers.


EDIT: It seems Solar Boulevard has closed. I would have to see what there is on Ebay. Another popular place nearby was Renogy - good products and prices, they sell on amazon and ebay.
Happy to assist any peeps here with their solar project. I got quit the education on it. Cool stuff!

Solar can work really well, but I find it can also be a big let down.


In the Southern California sunshine, at noon, solar works great. In Northern Ontario, in the spring or fall, well, you're going to collect a lot less than your panels are rated for.



On my last 4 night trip, I was able to get some sun on my panel for a total of maybe 4 hours. I tend to camp in the forest, so right away, shade is usually a big factor. I have a long extension to put my panel in the sun when possible, but it's usually hard to find sun, other than around the noon hours, when sun is directly overhead. If the sun is hiding behind thick cloud cover though, my 40W panel is useless.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by rkj__

Solar can work really well, but I find it can also be a big let down.

In the Southern California sunshine, at noon, solar works great. In Northern Ontario, in the spring or fall, well, you're going to collect a lot less than your panels are rated for.

On my last 4 night trip, I was able to get some sun on my panel for a total of maybe 4 hours. I tend to camp in the forest, so right away, shade is usually a big factor. I have a long extension to put my panel in the sun when possible, but it's usually hard to find sun, other than around the noon hours, when sun is directly overhead. Beyond that, clouds can stick around for days.

Of course, absolutely.

Southern states, even over winter, can generally offer great solar charging opportunity. Forest camping? All bets are off. LOL
And why I prefer a portable array, as opposed to roof-mounted.



The flexible panels are popular for vans and such, you can glue them right on the roof top. But they're expensive, and limited in capacity.



And they're bulky as portables, mine fit nicely in a cargo bay, so it's painless. There's actually room for two of these if I needed/wanted them.

[Browneye]

This one is really nice if someone needs more watts...not cheap though, and still needs a controller. A cheapo pwm for $25 could work here.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Renogy-Ecli...UAAOSw7P9bc4T5