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Old 06-02-2022, 06:18 AM   #1
MAWilsonPE
Montana Fan
 
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Weddington
Posts: 143
M.O.C. #26813
Solar Test - 15 Days Boondocking in the Outer Banks in NC!

We just got back from a two week trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina staying at 3 National Seashore Parks, boondocking the whole way! Five days on Ocracoke Island, 5 days at Frisco, and 5 days at Oregon Inlet.

I have the Super Solar system with 1200 watts of solar panels and just over 500 amp-hrs of lithium batteries. I ditched the Jaboni 30 amp solar controllers for the Victron 100/50 MPPT controllers. I have connected the Victron components to a Raspberry Pi (which functions like the Victron Cerbo GX at a fraction of the cost) which allows me to record performance by uploading data to the Victron VRM site.

Below is the chart showing solar charging and battery usage during our trip. The yellow bars are the total charge in kW-hrs, the blue shows min, max and average battery percentage. I thought you might be interested in some real-world performance data!

We had really good, very sunny, weather with only two days of some rain. Temps were mostly in the 70's with a few days in the mid-80's. These sites are wide open with direct sun most of the day, so a good test. As you can see, we saw a maximum of just over 7500 watt-hrs of charging per day. That is 625 watt-hrs per day per 100 watts of solar panel!

If you are wondering how I got my battery charge up on May 23 & 24, I cheated and had to run my 2000 watt Honda generator for 1-2 hours as it was really hot in the camper, we did not have as much sun, and we had to run the A/C for about 3 hours in the afternoon to keep the wife and the dogs cool. I only used the genny those two days...

Best Regards, Mike
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Mike & Doreen
2021 Montana 3120RL Legacy - Sterling - Super Solar
2020 Chevy 2500HD High Country
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