24 Hours Of Solar

[WillH]

To follow up on my earlier post my 110Ah battery and panel does everything we need it to do, it's not what you do with it, it is purely whether it meets your needs and requirements. I feel sure that for some folk 350Ah+ simply wouldn't be enough and for others 100Ah is more than adequate.

 

[funflair]

To follow up on my earlier post my 110Ah battery and panel does everything we need it to do, it's not what you do with it, it is purely whether it meets your needs and requirements. I feel sure that for some folk 350Ah+ simply wouldn't be enough and for others 100Ah is more than adequate.

As long as your outgoing don't exceed your in comings it doesn't matter what you have, and it doesn't matter if we are talking about cash or solar power.

Martin

 

[Don Quixote]

Update for Friday: got 30 amps in yesterday and only took out 14amps from about 6pm until 11pm.
Batteries reading 12.75volts at 23:00hrs last night. Be very interesting today currently raining as I write this and forecast for light rain until around 6pm. Currently getting 2.4 amps from solar.

 

[funflair]

You are doing well John I am only getting 4 amps.

You are right today will possibly be the interesting one.

Martin

 

[Don Quixote]

You are doing well John I am only getting 4 amps.

You are right today will possibly be the interesting one.

Martin

Martin, added 80watts yesterday giving me a total of 200watts, so would be about right difference wise to yours. I think the "gene's" will be coming out today at Stratford.......

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[manda3000gt]

Interesting thread thought I would monitor mine over 24hr period
Reset amp hr counter @ 7pm last nite so will take a reading @ 7pm tonight
Volts on 12.5v just after midnight last night after 5hrs 32" TV with external sound bar, Sky+ Box, 2 showers & normal light usage
PWM Solar controller reading @ 8:30 this morning sunny with clouds

 

[Don Quixote]

Interesting thread thought I would monitor mine over 24hr period
Reset amp hr counter @ 7pm last nite so will take a reading @ 7pm tonight
Volts on 12.5v just after midnight last night after 5hrs 32" TV with external sound bar, Sky+ Box, 2 showers & normal light usage
PWM Solar controller reading @ 8:30 this morning sunny with clouds

I bet your not running that all from a 110amp battery!!!!!

 

[Don Quixote]

Update for Saturday: got 31 amps total, but used little or no amps as was out all day and most of the evening ( great night in the tent )
Batteries reading 12.85volts at 23:30hrs last night. Currently getting 4.5amps ( 09:24hrs ) from a very cloudy sky. I'm pleased the difference adding another 80watts panel makes.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have 200 watts of Solar and 190 A/H of batteries, just got back from nearly 3 weeks in France, for normal use solar copes well, but after charging e-bike batteries from inverter which took at least a 100 A/H out of the batteries. After nearly a week of good weather the batteries never recovered a full charge but were most of the time at least 75% charged.
As we have the longest days at the moment I will have to watch it at other times of the year possibly charge the bikes before they get too low so that I'm not giving the batteries such a hammering in one go.

I have had people I know say to me the wife uses her hair dryer, we use the toaster & charge the Electric bikes & the batteries are fully charged by lunch time. Knowing they only have 100 watts of solar and Gel batteries, they are looking at voltage and fail to understand Gels batteries need to be held at 14.3 volts for 8 hours to reach a full charge.

 

[manda3000gt]

10:30am taken between the clouds

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[Don Quixote]

We have 200 watts of Solar and 190 A/H of batteries, just got back from nearly 3 weeks in France, for normal use solar copes well, but after charging e-bike batteries from inverter which took at least a 100 A/H out of the batteries. After nearly a week of good weather the batteries never recovered a full charge but were most of the time at least 75% charged.
As we have the longest days at the moment I will have to watch it at other times of the year possibly charge the bikes before they get too low so that I'm not giving the batteries such a hammering in one go.

I have had people I know say to me the wife uses her hair dryer, we use the toaster & charge the Electric bikes & the batteries are fully charged by lunch time. Knowing they only have 100 watts of solar and Gel batteries, they are looking at voltage and fail to understand Gels batteries need to be held at 14.3 volts for 8 hours to reach a full charge.

AT LAST someone else who understands the difference between "topping up" and "charging"..... Good man.

 

[manda3000gt]

Scores on the doors after 24hr period 7 - 7pm
166.7 amps

 

[Don Quixote]

Scores on the doors after 24hr period 7 - 7pm
166.7 amps

Thats a very big solar system you have as 6.9amps every hour none stop is some going. Even if the sun was in the sky without a cloud to be seen 10 hours of solar light would be: 16.6 amp an hour. Not sure thats even possible in Spain never mind UK.....

 

[manda3000gt]

2 x 130w
2 x 160w

 

[Don Quixote]

2 x 130w
2 x 160w

Enough said..............

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[manda3000gt]

Taken around 1:30pm making just over 30amp

 

[funflair]

Well @manda3000gt certainly wins on maximum power delivery, but all that matters for anybody is that they have enough recharge capacity to suit their own requirements, yes there will be bad days when you only get a fraction of your available capacity and you are relying on the storage capacity in your battery bank, other days the sun will shine and you will have a fully charged battery bank by mid morning and power to spare.
Your solar panel wattage and battery bank size need to be reasonably matched but there are other factors like roof space/battery space and payload to be taken into consideration.

Just to round off my report of our week at Stratford, which solar gain wise has been quite a good week with reasonable amounts of sun every day. We have produced 430 ah of solar power in the week and will leave here with fully charged batteries, I know some people say that all you need is alternator to battery charging and run your engine for a while but not all batteries can take high charge currents so at 40amps charge rate this would have taken 10 hours of engine running, completely different scenario if we were moving on every day.

Thanks everybody for their input, and thanks to the sun for shining.

Martin