installing solar power in a westy

[keith]

I think youre tarring us all with the same roller

[shepster]

And the motorbike end can must be a real knee trembler

[CovKid]

Heh heh

[ghost123uk]

EDITED = Twas off topic, a stage too far, so gone!

[ninja.turtle007]

This is completely off topic now. Shame as is was a really good thread.

[ghost123uk]

Sorry - lets kill that there then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on topic, I did remove all my charge / discharge monitoring gear though, because as Ralph points out, I was forever nipping to the van to see what the charge / battery state was I now just rely on a simple set of 4 LED's built into a 4 way ciggy lighter adapter. That tells me all I need to know really (also I can know judge / guess my set-ups charge rate from experience).

[ninja.turtle007]

What I find difficult is the variation in the output people say their panels produce. When cloudy I get less than 1amp from my 100w panel whilst others have reported over 3A.

That makes a huge difference and I would probably change my panel is this is the case.

[keytouch]

Has anyone tried one of these back contact panels?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1251843104" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They are slightly smaller in physical size, and it would be the only one to fit in my Bilbo luggage rack (unless I dropped down to 40W!).
They claim to be more efficient than other panels (don't they all?).

[ghost123uk]

What I find difficult is the variation in the output people say their panels produce. When cloudy I get less than 1amp from my 100w panel whilst others have reported over 3A.

That makes a huge difference and I would probably change my panel is this is the case.

I agree, though I suspect it is a case of a variety of things coming into play.

Put the following into any order you prefer

Quality of panel.
Amount of light at the time of testing.
Willy waving.
Fancy control panels optimising the panel's output.

[California Dreamin]

Given that this is my first real foray in solar panels (I was using a small 2.4 watt panel to keep things active) so after installing a big panel and controller I was particularly interested in just how the (100 watt Biard mono crystal) and associated unit behaved.

True: there is a massive variation in charge, however, this isn't just down to the available light at any given time. It quickly becomes obvious that the charge varies greatly depending on the state of battery charge and how much discharge is taking place at any given time.

To give you an example: on a partially sunny day (sun hazy and coming from a 45 degree angle, the battery was flashing 99% fully charged with a smile but with a fluctuating low charge reading of between 0.5 and 1amp.
However, turning on the Eberspacher night heater (this initially draws around 12 amps during ignition/start phase) and the battery indicator dropped to 75 - 78% charged with an instant jump up to 3.4 - 3.6amp charging.
Now I am completely happy in the knowledge that the SMART aspect of the controller appears to be doing its job. and this is completely normal behaviour.

So looking at Johns list....there is only one reason for your readings:

Quality of panel.
Amount of light at the time of testing.
Willy waving.
Fancy control panels optimising the panel's output.


Martin

[ghost123uk]

And I don't have a fancy control panel (thinking it was only offered a very minor improvement)

Mind you, I wonder what charge input you (Martin) would get with the battery somewhat depleted (compared to the 99% charged example) but without the control panel...

[CovKid]

Willy waving should be nearer the top I expect. Those in Eastbourne might be able to wave theirs more, when its not raining.

Solar panels have an extraordinary way to go before they really become that worthwhile. If someone gave me one, that might make it viable but they are not all that efficient even on a bright sunny day. Mind you, the hilarity concerning those mini solar battery chargers at the Pikey Escape meet lingers still. The fact it only had enough output to make the LED flash and would have taken a fortnight to charge a mobile phone was revealing enough. I'll stick with two leisure batteries for now and if I really want to watch Telly (I haven't watched the box for four years), I wouldn't go away.

[si&helen cali89]

Tom where did you get your roof bars and brackets from im thinking about going solar but I carry my surf boards on my roof and was worrying about damaging the panel if I layed my boards on top of the solar panel.

[kevtherev]

To give you an example: on a partially sunny day (sun hazy and coming from a 45 degree angle, the battery was flashing 99% fully charged with a smile but with a fluctuating low charge reading of between 0.5 and 1amp.
However, turning on the Eberspacher night heater (this initially draws around 12 amps during ignition/start phase) and the battery indicator dropped to 75 - 78% charged with an instant jump up to 3.4 - 3.6amp charging.
Now I am completely happy in the knowledge that the SMART aspect of the controller appears to be doing its job. and this is completely normal behaviour.

So looking at Johns list....there is only one reason for your readings:

Quality of panel.
Amount of light at the time of testing.
Willy waving.
Fancy control panels optimising the panel's output.
Martin

I can say from experience that this is spot on.
During my french trip I used the panel to heat water for showering.
At 11.00am I turned the heater on (12 amps) batt was fizzing with full charge.
solar was doing it's maintanence thing.
Panel then charged at 5.2 amps
The sun went in for an hour, then came out again
Penel threw 8.2 amps at the batt
Chuffed

[ninja.turtle007]

I understand about and have seen the different charge rates due to charge state of battery.

I get the similar full sun reading as Martin, up to about 4 amps.

I just don't understand how Kev can get 8.2A out of his 100W panel.