Solar panels for camping

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HEM49

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Iv just got my hands on one of these
34M Optima Blue
Technical Specifications:
Volts12
Cold Crank Amps (CCA) @ -18oC 800
Reserve Mins (RC) @ 25oC100
AH 50

My question is if i want to run 2 40lt engel fridges while camping will a 80w solar panel be big enough to keep the battery topped up.
The fridges are a f and a b model
 
80W of solar panel will be good for about 5A (they say 4A, but we get 5A off ours) for around 5 hours in winter. That's 25Ah in winter. Summer, count on about 7 hours (maybe 8) so that's 35Ah.

Your Engel fridges ought to draw around 1A per hour combined (1A draw, 50% cycle, times 2) so that's 24Ah used.

Your panel should be fairly close to sufficient. You need to angle the panels towards the sun for optimum production. You'll get more than the 5 hours in winter, too - we find that our panels are producing power for as much as 7 hours, although not at full strength.
 
I think its a tad under the required power. But it depends on lots of factors. Ambient Temp, how often you open them, what temp you set the fridge at, how efficently the fridge is actually running, and how many days before you can hook the battery up to a charger and give it a full charge (only applicable if you are not making it back to 100% charge). Personally, I would want a touch more if I was planning on being away from mains power for any length of time.
 
I have a 120 amp panel. Just an eBay job, I tried running my 38l engle as a freezer of it last Christmas but it was flattening the battery.
I think my batt is 100 amp hrs. We also ran a light off it.
Cheers Willie
 
Those are car batteries and not made to be run down.
You really need proper deep discharge batteries, not car or marine.
Personally I don't waste my money on AGM or gel, but buy the wet cells. YMMV as not many people are comfortable with them.OTOH, i usually buy Trojan brand, but one of the pair below is Philippine cheapies for comparison.

As mentioned, the output from solar panels, measured in watts, varies over the seasons, location and day. so it is hard to give a definite answer.

Plus use and ambient temperature are the main considerations for a fridge/freezer.

You also need a decent panel to battery regulator charger. I use the C-tek D250S (dual solar panel and car alternator inputs). Some people like Redarc, but at 40Amps capacity IO think you are hammering at battery(ies)

We carry three x 120watt panels(bog standard house roof type mounted on boat rack

Two panels in parallel through a C-tek D250s charge up 225amphour bank of batteries, which we use to run our Evakool(?) 70l.

On a three week trip around Easter to Camerons Corner, day time max low 30s. with only the solar panels providing power, and running it fulltime as a freezer (4Amps/hour), they had no trouble keeping up. Half the freezer is just freezing water to make ice for the ice box which is the vege bin.

Also making sure you keep the Engels in a cool location will help reduce power demands. So, if they are under a canopy in the back, a little fan to such the hot air out of the top may save more power than a fan uses.


The single panel through anther C-tek D250S went into another 225amphour bank(2x6V 225 in series) to provide power for lights, electronics, etc. No problems there.

The bigger the battery, the more reserve you have for when the sun don't shine and the shallower you discharge the battery, which makes them last longer.

OTOH, if you strike a week of rain, then gennies win <bummer>

Suck it and see.
 
We are looking into something similar as well. Although I'm going to go for 120-160watt folding system, (between $230.00-$310.00 on e-bay). Bit deals and Oz Plaza on ebay have a good reputation from the camping forums, worth looking into.
 
i purchased a 100W Evakool Solar Panel Kit. 2x50W Solar Panels hinged together with a 10amp regulator on it. i have made a few adjustments to the panel to be able to bypass the evakool regulator and plug it into myu Ctek D250S Dual charger which has a 20amp MPPT regulator. Yet to use it on the Ctek Reg but im sure it will work heaps better.

I had my 60L Evakool which was a fridge+freezer and a 40L Engel running as freezer on max off a 100AH battery and got 3days out of it before it hit 10.6V and stopped my evakool from running. solar panels got about 4-5hours light a day and pumped in at a guess of 4amps an hour. plus LED lights at night. the poor abttery got a flogging.

Rusty
 
Solar questions fellas

Report from my post before is that the Ctek mppt charger works much better with the panels drawing the maximum voltage it can from the panels. I rate the ctek d250s dual very highly.

I am currently in the process of mounting a 80w panel to the roof of my canopy as a permanent fixture. Which in turn should reduce the need for the alternator to charge because the regulator will choose which function is prooving better.

The max voltage on the ctek is 22v. The max voltage on my 80w panel is 19v so i am safe here. But once i add the 100w evakool folding kit to it once i setup camp i am unsure whether i would be exceeding the max voltage or will the 2 panels work into together under the same voltage?

The regulator will handle 20amps of solar charging which is heaps. Im hoping with the 2 panels linked i can get around 10amps hour of charging. Ctek have assured me i shouldnt have any issues as the charger can handle over 200watts of panels. Its not the watts im concerned about its the max voltage.
 
Rusty
As long as you hook ip your panels in parallel you shouldnt exceed the input voltage fpr the c-tek unit. Hooking them up in series would boost the voltage and over power the charger
 
+1 on parallel. I have an 80W monocrystalline and a 64W polycrystalline in parallel, develop around 19V and get about 10A in full sun - so you ought to more power than I do (potentially up to around 14A).
 
You mentioned the different panels. Mono and poly. What's better? I know my evakool are mono and the new panel I was getting is also mono. A local solar supplier told me they aren't any different.
 
They are quite different, the local supplier obviously hasn't tried them!

Our polycrystalline performs like shit when there's a bit of cloud - in fact amps drop right off to near zero from that panel. The monocrystalline panel performs rather well in shade, providing 4A (out of a possible 6) in the shade of a large tree.
 
Im searching all over ebay for a 200-250w panel to hook up to a ctek 250s dc charger, but pretty much all the certified grade A one have max ouput voltages around .5v more than the ctek can handle.
 
The highest 12V panel I've been able to find is 150W.

Grab a pair of 120W panels, parallel them = 240W. You could get a pair of 130W panels and leave some of it in the shade. I just bought one of these for the caravan - it's more than enough. Delivers about 11A and in winter (count on 5 hours) that's 55A of charging. In summer (9 hours) it's nearly 100A of charge - I don't need that much!
 
I've got a 160w panel does it fine!
8:95 amps per hour(in ideal conditions)
Google deals direct.com

Happy with what I'm getting out of it(to reboot my battery) have been camping with one battery for two weeks(all good)

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Geoff

GOT A V6 PETROL, BUT I LIKE TO CUSTOMISE!
 
Thanks for the advice, ive been looking at 200w+ bcos on specs sheets that should deliver 10a+..
How are you getting so much out of those panels Old Tony?
 
It's brand new and as the manufacturer says it's "over-specced". I suspect I'll be down to the expected 9.5A by the end of the year. It's still more than adequate.
 

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