View Single Post
Old 09-14-2015, 12:08 PM   #5 (permalink)
oil pan 4
Corporate imperialist
 
oil pan 4's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: NewMexico (USA)
Posts: 11,175

Sub - '84 Chevy Diesel Suburban C10
SUV
90 day: 19.5 mpg (US)

camaro - '85 Chevy Camaro Z28

Riot - '03 Kia Rio POS
Team Hyundai
90 day: 30.21 mpg (US)

Bug - '01 VW Beetle GLSturbo
90 day: 26.43 mpg (US)

Sub2500 - '86 GMC Suburban C2500
90 day: 11.95 mpg (US)

Snow flake - '11 Nissan Leaf SL
SUV
90 day: 141.63 mpg (US)
Thanks: 269
Thanked 3,522 Times in 2,796 Posts
I remember now, those panels I used the first time around are mono, 5 watt each and cover about 1 square foot total. They are four "6 volt" panels. I wired them up series parallel for "12 volts" which really produced more like 17ocv and wired them straight into the battery through a switch and fuse.
They actually worked pretty well even in the winter time. They were able to bring the batteries above 13 volts when it was well below freezing.

I do not have to have the optimum angle. The small scale solar panel install showed me I can get plenty of power out of small panels laying flat to float charge 2 big SLA batteries.
Now I will have a huge amount of solar plus a charge controller that can make full use of almost any amount of incoming voltage and amperage.

I believe I will use two 80 watt panels in parallel that make 21ocv, assuming I will never be able to get that last 20 watts out of them due to my poor application.

That 140 watt, 10 amp charge controller costs $180.
There is a smaller 5 amp one that is a little more than half of that.

In addition to hopefully providing all the power the alternator made with solar, the suburban will be able to provide some power for external stuff with the xantrax 1000w pure sine inverter I picked up for it. Remember I still plan on having the alternator, it just wont be spinning or energized most of the time the vehicle is running.
__________________
1984 chevy suburban, custom made 6.5L diesel turbocharged with a Garrett T76 and Holset HE351VE, 22:1 compression 13psi of intercooled boost.
1989 firebird mostly stock. Aside from the 6-speed manual trans, corvette gen 5 front brakes, 1LE drive shaft, 4th Gen disc brake fbody rear end.
2011 leaf SL, white, portable 240v CHAdeMO, trailer hitch, new batt as of 2014.

Last edited by oil pan 4; 09-15-2015 at 03:09 PM..
  Reply With Quote