Choosing a Solar Kit for a Motor Home
ArimaKisho
| Posted in General Questions on
Good evening, All!
I’m shopping for a solar kit for my 2004 Fleetwood Terry motor home and wondered if you have any recommendations? I have two 12 volt deep cycle batteries and two 2K Yamaha Companion Generators, but I would like to get as much power from the sun as I can. Looking for something simple.
Thanks!
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Replies
Here are a few pro tips for you.
1. stay away from PWM controllers
2. have sufficient wattage to meet minimum charging requirements of your battery ( hint: battery capacity / 10 )
3. buy a MPPT controller , this will allow for some expansion at a later date
at a minimum, you will need sufficient wattage to charge your batteries at 1/10 th of their capacity.
for example: if you have two group 31 batteries in parallel at 100 Ah each then you have 200 Ah total and therefore 200/10 = 20 Amps
20 A * 12 V = 240 Watts.
round up to 300 Watts and you could use three of these connected in series.
Panels kits: https://www.newpowa.com/collections/rv-marine-solar-kits
if you think you will expand this system later then go for the 40 A version as 30 A limits you to panels of 400 W max.
connect the panels in series with either 10 or 12 AWG and fuse with a 10 Amp resettable fuse as you
will need the ability to disconnect the controller from the panels.
and use 8 AWG from the controller to the batteries with a 30 A fuse in line.
select lead acid battery type from the display and your'e good to go.