Renogy 200 watt Solar Panel Install

[Ray Keymaster Dumont Dunes, California, USA]

Well I got the Renogy kit all installed and I’m out boondocking and I have to say it is performing very well for the money spent. Without Anne here I could easily stay on solar power only unless it clouds up.

Here is my blog post detailing the install into our Cougar Fifth wheel. It is definitely nothing elaborate but can’t argue with the price. I think once I add two more panels and a little better charge controller it will serve our needs quite well.

http://www.loveyourrv.com/installing-renogy-200w-solar-kit-rv/

RVHH Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - LoveYourRV.com

[Dan Huhn Participant 17533 7th AVE NE Shoreline Washington 98155 USA]

Nice install Ray. The panels look like a easy install, your videos are very informative!!!

[Steve and Dianne Colibaba Participant NK MIP RV Park, Osoyoos, BC]

Your lucky you have the know how to tackle a job like this Ray…it sure saves a lot of $ on having someone else do the install. Nice job!

 

[Ray Keymaster Dumont Dunes, California, USA]

Thanks guys.  I’m just glad that Anne allows me to start sawing out walls and drilling holes everywhere. hehe,  as the trailer gets older and older I’m getting more leeway.  I think she trusts me more than the RV repair places after hearing stories from some other RVers.

RVHH Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - LoveYourRV.com

[Larry Participant Dallas Pa]

Great work, good savings .

[John R Walker Participant Indian Land, SC]

Great job Ray.  I only had to use my generator twice in 4 years with solar.  If fact I rarely use the converter when connected to shore power, because the solar charged the batteries better.  So we ran all are DC loads off of the batteries and solar even when connected to shore power.  Are old Montana had 546 Watts, the new one will have 840 Watts on the roof, and I will have one 280 Watt panel I can stick out when needed.  I plan to build a tray under the Montana to slide the extra panel into for traveling.

 

 

[Bob and Nancy Participant Middletown Connecticut,USA]

Looks awesome as usual for your work, Ray.  Looking forward to your reports over the year on how it all works.  We are looking into a portable unit because where we park for the summer is under large shade trees. 

Don't give up on your Dream!

[Ray Keymaster Dumont Dunes, California, USA]

I think the biggest thing we will need to get us mostly off the generator is a couple more batteries, our  lifestyle will need a little more capacity for longer winter nights, especially if the temps are cold. 235AH isn’t going to cut it if we want a certain level of night time heat the DW demands, keep our laptops and other goodies charged up and if we want to pig out on some movies or TV shows for hours. I think 400 watts of solar and 450AH or so of batteries would be about right for us.

RVHH Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - LoveYourRV.com

[Ray Keymaster Dumont Dunes, California, USA]

Update  

So far I’ve been dry camped 10 days straight now and the solar kit has been great, meeting the basic power needs. Charging up laptop, MiFi, couple LED lights at night and the various rig electrics like furnace fan, water pump, fridge 12 volt circuits, propane detector, and the usually parasitic loads found in an RV.

Usually wake up with a battery voltage of 12.3 and by the end of the sunny day it is 12.8. Two more of the same panels and two more batteries would give us the extra capacity for extended TV watching at night and extra power storage for cloudy days.

Only have fired the generator twice and haven’t used even one gallon of fuel. Once to watch a several hours of TV on New Years and the other time during a cloudy day.

RVHH Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - LoveYourRV.com

[John R Walker Participant Indian Land, SC]

Ray,

That is great new for this time of the year where panels only put out 50% their rated output.  Voltage will kinda of tell you what state you batteries are in, but you really need to track Amp Hours in and out to determined battery capacity.

When your budget allows get a battery monitor that will tell you how many amp hours you used, and put back via charging.  I have a Victron Battery Monitor BMV–600 (replace by BMV-700 for $178.50), which does a good job, and comes complete with 500 Amp shut and cable.

http://www.amazon.com/Victron-BMV-700-Battery-Monitor/dp/B00MJ9TAN8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420473744&sr=8-1&keywords=victron+battery+monitor+bmv-700

There are others out there, but shut and wire are extra on some.

 

[Ray Keymaster Dumont Dunes, California, USA]

Thanks John, definitely on the wish list, which seems to have grown quite a bit with the solar install, haha.

RVHH Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - LoveYourRV.com

[rob grune Participant on the road]

Thanks Ray, an inspiration.  Amazing, you generate enough power to run your  refrigerator on only 200W !  If I may share my experiences…

I tried solar many years ago, using the typical 12VDC systems. I found a roof mounted system to be near useless for me. Why?  [1] well, duh, solar needs sun. RV parked in the sun means RV gets very hot inside, which means cooling is needed, which means power is needed. This defeated the purpose.  [2] duh, RV parked in shade keeps RV cool, so duh no sun, so no power from solar panels. [3] roof mount keeps panels flat, which means low efficiency, means low power from panels. [4] dirt, clouds, rain (uh, Vancouver?) eliminate all power from panels. [5] contrary to beliefs, solar panels degrade in hot sun! so the hotter the sun, the faster the panels deteriorate, which is exactly opposite of what I expected from solar (I expected the more sun the more power without degrade).

Now, all of this was some years ago, so I hope the newer tech performs much better, but it still limited by sun hours, dirt, placement angle to sun. I found I could get useful power only by removing the panels from the roof and placing them on ground angled properly to the sun. I needed 400W, so the panels on ground took up a lot of space, and required lots of wire to tiptoe around! Then I needed to shift the panels at regular intervals during the day, to maximise the sun rays to the panels. Then came the battery costs and maintenance. Finally, I added up all the costs and time, and concluded the cost and inconvenience was not a value proposition.

From this, I concluded solar could possibly augment, but not replace, my power needs. It was ok for power to small items like PC, phones, portable LED, etc., but really not a viable power to appliances.

I tried wind, too, but that is a different story entirely: dismal.

But, as I said, your blog is an inspiration, so I shall investigate this tech again. Next time though, I shall convert my RV to 24VDC.

thanks for reading my 2c.

 

[Ray Keymaster Dumont Dunes, California, USA]

rob grune wrote:

Thanks Ray, an inspiration.  Amazing, you generate enough power to run your  refrigerator on only 200W !  If I may share my experiences…

Thanks Rob, We run the refrigerator in LP Gas mode when  off grid, it still needs some 12 volt power for the control board and fan but not too much.

Our solar install is mainly for our winter snowbird adventures down in the US south-west deserts. Cooling the rig is not much of an issue as the temps don’t get too hot during the winter months and trees aren’t a problem either , also it is usually sunny. So solar powering the rig becomes very viable, especially when out boondocking where we have a choice of rig orientation.

The sun angle is a problem though and many folks install angle brackets in the rig to best capture the sun’s energy or have a extra portable ground panel. Also, the days are short in the mid winter months, so some conservation is needed then compared to fall and spring months.

Check out a post I did detailing Eddies solar system. They are very successful at using solar to run almost everything in the rig short of AC – http://www.loveyourrv.com/my-friends-awesome-580-watt-rv-solar-power-system/

RVHH Chief Cook and Bottle Washer - LoveYourRV.com

[Eddie & Aileen Moderator 141-1999 S Cosnino Rd, Flagstaff, AZ 86004, USA]

Ol Brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

[Eddie & Aileen Moderator 141-1999 S Cosnino Rd, Flagstaff, AZ 86004, USA]

Here is some links to help with better understanding how long solar panels last and also “Thrive”. I do not believe our rubber roof will last 25-30 years. Like many know a RV is like a boat, a hole on “Wheels” into which you pour money into. I have replaced many parts of our RV and know we will need to replace parts of our solar system down the road also. ( batteries, fuzes, inverters, ect.) We did a lot of downsizing when we changed our lifestyle to a fulltimers but with solar we now thrive. Before we need our generator running all the time to keep our batteries charged up. Now we run things before we wouldn’t even think of while out dry camping.( TV’s, deep freezer, microwave oven, coffee maker, ect.)

One post I would recommend you look at is Handybobsolar, he makes “No bones” strait sense at how to make RV solar work.

Happy Trails!!!

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/

http://energyinformative.org/lifespan-solar-panels/

http://www.solarpowerrocks.com/solar-basics/how-long-solar-panels-last/

 

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