Quote:
Originally Posted by Pamc
OK, here's another post for those following our experience with the Super Solar Flex system on our new trailer.
It's 80 degrees and 80% humidity here in Florida where we are waiting to attend the SpaceX Falcon launch tonight.
We decided to do a test on the trailer's Solar to see how it ran on just Solar and no Shore Power.
Disconnected from Shore Power - it has been cloudy so panels are only generating 35.2v. I think that's the proper terminology...?
Appliances running: Everything except Refrigerator and Hot Water Heater (includes two air conditioners, lights, tv, radio, ceiling fan, hair dryer) The thermostat for the two air conditioners is set for 72 degrees.
10:15am - Batteries @ 100% load capacity -
11:15am - 89.2%
2:15pm - 50.6%
4:15pm - 34.6%
4:45pm - 16.7%
5:15pm -12.7%
Didn't want to take the batteries any lower - Reconnected to Shore Power.
So, Batteries held the Air Conditioners for Seven Hours. I think that's pretty good.
By 3:00am the Batteries were back to 100% - 10 hours to fully charge.
Pam
|
Hi Pam,
Thank you for sharing your real world examples!
I think your results might answer some of the naysayers, on this forum and others... those who would say it won't work, or that you cannot run the whole coach including both AC units and the other appliances at the same time.... or those who say that you might get an hour or 2 at the most when using both ACs... clearly the system is a lot more than a few panels and batteries just thrown together. I think your experience is showing this is a well engineered and very capable system!
For the power output, is it possible you might have been seeing 35.2 amps? (it may have been volts but that seems high; the panels are rated at a working voltage of 30.6 volts...). Check the monitor again and see if it is reading out the amps or the volts. And, if you have it set to read out the volts, I would personally change it to read out the amps, as volts stay pretty constant while the amps vary a lot.
For a bit of math... I checked the specs, and your 265 watt panels are rated to output 8.66 amps at 30.6 volts. All 4 panels will output constant 30.6 volts, but you multiply the amps to get a total of 35 amps... so if you were actually seeing 35.2 amps, it was actually charging right at maximum...
And, just one other note you may check. I think you said you have 4@ 265 watt panels, so I've done the math as above. But, Montana announced a change a few weeks back to upgrade to 4@ 300 watt panels... so you may have the 300 watt panels. If your dealer doesn't know for sure, I'm sure Matt would.
Either way, the results are very positive. I look forward to hearing more reports as you use the system more. I am especially interested to see if you can start monitoring the amps and report back what you see in ideal full sun situations.
Thanks again, Pam, your post is very helpful!!!
Brad