Power On !!!

I have always been intrigued by the idea of solar panels on the motor home. Our Safari TREK had a 75 watt photovoltaic panel, however, 75 watts is pretty minimal. It will maintain the battery during periods of bright sun and moderate electrical usage, but could not effectively bring the batteries up from a discharged state. Our coach has a number of "phantom" loads, that essentially cannot be turned off without cutting off power to the whole coach. Such loads include LED lights on all light switches, the CO detector, the LP detector, the security alarm system, etc. Additionally, there are other invisible, but somewhat discretionary loads that drag the batteries down, such as the always-on circuits in the TV, VCR, DVD and microwave, the inverter and the 12V electronics in the refrigerator. If left unattended with everything possible turned off, the batteries would be discharged in a matter of a few days. Not good if we need to be away from the coach for any period of time when it can't be plugged in.

So, I have been drooling over solar power for some time, but have been dragging my feet because I wasn't sure how much to add, didn't know how to do it or who to have do it and was afraid of the cost. While at a rally a month or so ago I learned of a guy near Lake City FL who has done solar installations on many of the TREKS. He was said to be very knowledgeable and competent, but a bit of an oddball. He lives on a 500 acre property that is totally off the grid: no electricity, no water, no sewer. There are 9 miles of marked trails, the gator pond and the turtle field. He installs and services a number of electrical devices in RVs and operates a campground where other like-minded sorts come and hang out. I gave him a call and made an appointment, and that is how we came to meet John Palmer and Palmer Energy Systems.

Sizing a solar system is an interesting exercise. You can add up all your power loads for a particular style of camping, and size your array to meet that demand. But in the end you just throw all that information out the window. Basically you install as much solar as you can afford and that you can fit on the roof of the coach. A good rule of thumb is to install as many watts of solar capacity as you have amp-hour capacity in your battery bank. We have room for four 100-watt panels and still be able to walk and access all the vents and appliances on the roof. 400 watts also worked out pretty well with our two 8D AGM batteries, rated at about 500 amp-hours. So it was decided to install four 100-watt panels and a 500 watt charge controller. John Palmer is a man who speaks his mind and works at his own pace. He said to allow three days to do the job. We started on Monday morning, took frequent breaks and stopped before 4:00 each day. We had no serious difficulties and finished on Tuesday afternoon. Palmer wanted us to stay at least until noon on Wednesday so we could observe the output during high sun. That was fine since we had allowed for three days anyway. Ideally, with bright sun directly overhead, we should be seeing about 24 amps from the array. At noon, the sun was still far from directly overhead due to the position of the sun in the winter, but we were still getting almost 21 amps. Good enough. The system seemed to be working. This system will not eliminate our need to use the generator, but it should cut down on generator hours. More importantly, it will allow us to park the coach for extended periods and leave the refrigerator and other systems operating without worrying about draining the batteries.