New solar panels, First days results :) Forums

gromett

I had just had my first full day in the van since getting my solar panels.
The panels are currently pumping in just over 5Amps at 6:25pm. I am near Dover and not yet in france.

The panels are 2 x 130Watt Kyocera through a Morning Star Tristar TS-45.

At the peak today it was putting almost 15 Amps into the batteries as measured by the Victron Battery monitor. With everything switched on I was losing a nett 2amps from the batteries.

Normally when off hookup I would pull my batteries down by 20% over 24 hours on my old system. This system has double the battery power and dropped to 97.5% but is now showing fully charged again. I have charged both my laptops full and both mobile phones. I have left my datastorm connected (which in normally switch of when not in use).

Looks like I won't get chance to use my brand new Honda EU20i generator Sad

I can with great happiness report that the expense of the solar panels was well worth it Very Happy

If anyone wants to know I bought them from http://www.energyenv.co.uk/ who were very good to deal with and did them for me for £465 each including VAT.

Cheers
Karl

Vennwood

Excellent stuff - great news Karl

Almost 15 amps - wow. Keep the feedback coming - it's starting to look like Alden will be taking a back seat. Do let us know what your total amps for the day work out at.

BTW - France eh - I'm already green with envy

Have a great time

Pete

mangothemadmonk · NW Rally Co-ordinator

Hi Grommet, just got back from France myself and before we went I had a solar panel fitted. Just an 85w one to top up the 2 x 85 amp batts and it did a sterling job. We used the tv and lights et al and never were trouble with any shortage of batt power so with your two you should be well laughing.

Have a great trip and don't forget the wine.....hic

Johnny F

sallytrafic · Campsite DB Admin

15A is good in anybody's money but for sure some people will have been told or would have thought that with 260W you will be getting 21A.

For those who are puzzled about this seeming breech of the laws of electricity I suggest you read my articles here

gromett

Hey Frank,

In my immediate interest in solar I did the usual ohm law calcs and got similar figures. Then I lowered my expectations when i saw the charging voltage of batteries.. Then lowered it again when I saw the charge controller figures. Then lowered it again when I saw the solar panels max output (current) was only 7.39 from a 130Watt 12 volt panel. I was not expecting an awfull lot.

7.39 x 2 is only 14.78Amps. When I saw close to 15amps today it made me scratch my head big time as it breaks a few rules getting that when in the uk and mounted flat.. I looked at the spec sheets and noticed that the Maximum power voltage was 17.6V.

I can only surmise that 17.6V x 7.39 Amps = 130Watts (Yay, at least that bit adds up)

I have an MPTT charger, no idea what that actually stands for and can't be bothered to search just now. But am guessing that as it regulates the voltage down it allows more current to be delivered. Maybe a PWM type situation?

Needless to say I was extremely excited when I saw close to 15Amps going into my batteries from the solar panel in the UK and mounted flat Very Happy

I trust the Victron Battery monitor as the manual covers all sorts of stuff such as Peukert's law, it also asks for your type of battery, the maximum capacity plus more. All my power gear runs through the Shunt for the monitor and when I got this reading everything else was disconnected.

Any way, happy bunny here. And just had some beers with jim and his wife. Been a good day all round Very Happy

Karl

ScotJimland

Vennwood

On the strength of Karls results and the lack of any data whatsoever from the manufacturers on these Automatic rotating panels from Ten Haart Sun Mover or Alden Phenix (not to mention the price hike - now up to around £2k fitted). I have taken the plunge and gone down Karls route of 2 x 130w Kyocera panels, saved myself approx £1000 and they will be delivered next week. I'll let you know my daily results at the end of July - it would be nice to compare results with you Karl.

It does seem odd that both Alden and Ten Haart have no information to justify/backup their claims of 3,4,5, or even 7 times the output - I just wonder how they come up with these figures - random number generation perhaps?

Pete

wakk44

I reckon you'll both have a brilliant solar system with 2 x 130 watt Kyocera panels,I have the Kyocera 85 watt solar panel and that has been producing around 5 amps in the middle of a sunny day recently.I did get a bit envious when Karl was talking about his kicking out 15 amps recently but then mine is enough for us to be self sufficient in summer with our average consumption of 20A/Hours per day.Winter is a different matter but we only go for 2-3 days then and with 2 x 110 A/H batteries on board I find that is adequate.

Steve

eddievanbitz

Hi Vennwood, I have a Phenix fitted on my Minnie Winnie and it works very well.

I suspect that the reason for the claims of better performance can only be justified by the fact that the panel can be perpendicular for most of the day from early in the morning to last thing at night.

Alden claim that on average, the Phenix is, five times more efficient than their normal flat panels. As the panels are the same, it has to be based over a longer period and the fact that at sunrise the Phenix can be producing power near the maximum rating of the panel right until the Phenix parks at sunset.

Saturday night at Stratford we were sat at 20:30 and were still showing a charge of 6amps which isn't half bad that time of night.

Of course, the same results could of course be produced by climbing on the roof and rotating normal panels every hour Very Happy

but I think this would soon get tedious!