Re: Renogy 200W solar "suitcase" conflict with 100W roof panel?
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:17 pm
Chuck,
It appears that Tom has six 150w panels, so they would likely be about 59"L by 26"W. If you have roof space, the more the better. Climb on your roof and see where the panels would fit well with minimal shading. Leave just enough room to do maintenance on things like a/c units. BTW, panel efficiencies have advanced over the years, so the panel dimensions that I mentioned can be had in 200 to 210 watts per panel. So one can get a substantial system that would suffice on cloudy and/or short winter days. Of coursed setting the system up for peak efficiency, like running oversized wire to minimize voltage drop, is very important. Boondocking now with plenty of power to run fans devices, mobility scooter, etc. and no need for generator, even though plenty of campers around me are running their generators.
BTW, your suitcase panels, if they have a charge controller on the back of the panel, I would suggest to relocate that charge controller close to your house battery bank. This will improve charging efficiency substantially, especially if your cord is long. Having line voltage loss between the panels and the charger controller is less crucial then having line voltage loss between the charge controller and the battery bank, because the charge controller can still boost the voltage to a degree. Once the power exits the charge controller, there is nothing to compensate the losses. Every tenth of a voltage drop between your charge controller and the battery bank significantly reduces charge efficiency, resulting in a much slower charge and usually not enough voltage to completely top off the battery bank.
As for Tom's original panel, a few posts back, he stated that the panel was shot and that he threw it out...
It appears that Tom has six 150w panels, so they would likely be about 59"L by 26"W. If you have roof space, the more the better. Climb on your roof and see where the panels would fit well with minimal shading. Leave just enough room to do maintenance on things like a/c units. BTW, panel efficiencies have advanced over the years, so the panel dimensions that I mentioned can be had in 200 to 210 watts per panel. So one can get a substantial system that would suffice on cloudy and/or short winter days. Of coursed setting the system up for peak efficiency, like running oversized wire to minimize voltage drop, is very important. Boondocking now with plenty of power to run fans devices, mobility scooter, etc. and no need for generator, even though plenty of campers around me are running their generators.
BTW, your suitcase panels, if they have a charge controller on the back of the panel, I would suggest to relocate that charge controller close to your house battery bank. This will improve charging efficiency substantially, especially if your cord is long. Having line voltage loss between the panels and the charger controller is less crucial then having line voltage loss between the charge controller and the battery bank, because the charge controller can still boost the voltage to a degree. Once the power exits the charge controller, there is nothing to compensate the losses. Every tenth of a voltage drop between your charge controller and the battery bank significantly reduces charge efficiency, resulting in a much slower charge and usually not enough voltage to completely top off the battery bank.
As for Tom's original panel, a few posts back, he stated that the panel was shot and that he threw it out...