How Can Solar Panels & Batteries Help You Boondock For Weeks At A Time?

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How Can Solar Panels And Batteries Help You Boondock For
Weeks At A Time?

Solar panels & batteries are a good, if not excellent, addition for any motorhome owner that wants to experience freedom from the grid. They are quiet, non-polluting, and maintenance free. Batteries do take some attention; but if set up correctly, they will perform well and give you years of reliable service.

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I think the trick to having enough electrical power for your rig is a combination of good planning and conservation of energy consumption. It's like you are attempting to reach the same goal from two ends. You want to make your charging and storage systems work as efficiently as possible, while you are limiting their workload as much as can be reasonably expected.

You do not want to be so conservation-oriented that you are not having a good time. However there are many things you can do to save electricity. This conservation effort with the aid of a good solar panel, if thought out well, should not limit your recreational activities to a measurable degree.

There are four elements required in the design and operation of a good sun-generated charging system:

Deep Cycle Batteries are the heart of your system. The bigger they are the better! The sun produces DC power during the day, and you use the batteries to store some of the power for use at night.
An Inverter is an electrical device that converts 12-volt power into 120-volt power.
Photovoltaic Cells transform solar energy into pure DC.
The Charge Controller is used to prevent the solar panels from overcharging batteries during the day, and draining them at night.

Photovoltaic cells are a very reliable and clean source of electrical power. They are designed to generate a small, but steady amount of current flow for as long as they are directly in the sunlight. The more directly they point toward the sun and the cooler the operation temperature is, the more efficiently they work.

It is not hard to set up a properly sized battery bank capable of delivering 12 V DC for as long as you need. If you are good at math and are able to put ALL of your electrical demands down on paper, you could then design a system that would take care of your needs. This is not a hard process, but mistakes will cost you money.

Another way to go about setting yourself up with a solar panel array and battery storage system is to to start small with the goal of growing into your system. It is pretty simple really. Go to a good retail/information site like http://www.amsolar.com/ and have them help you out with developing a system that will suit your needs. They have a variety of solar kits to choose from.

The advantage of starting small is that you are able to ease your way into this project.

The advantages include:

Additional photovoltaic cells can be added easily at a later date as your electrical needs increase.
As your electrical requirements grow, a larger capacity inverter will become necessary. But, having different sized inverters will save electricity. You don't need to run a big inverter for a small task.

Bottom line is that if at the end of the day, you have not charged your batteries fully, then you will need to add more photovoltaic cells.

When you get up in the morning with too deep of a discharge on your battery bank, you will need to add more to your storage capacity.

It just takes some time and a little experience. Go on several short trips to figure things out. You have no reason to stress over getting everything "just right" the first time.

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