Inherited solar panel....

topic posted Tue, February 21, 2006 - 6:04 PM by  TigerLily
Hi, new to the tribe, new to solar.
Question:

When we purchased our old van last year, the guy included a double solar panel and deep cell battery hookup, along with a 300 watt inverter. I'm trying to determine the actual wattage of the panels but there are no marking whatsoever. Can anyone tell me how to determine this?

2 panels, in a black hard folding case, approx. 12 x 20 each in size.
  • Re: Inherited solar panel....

    Wed, February 22, 2006 - 1:58 PM
    Set it in the sun and use a multimeter to measure the amperage with it hooked up to a battery. The basics are that you know the voltage, based off the battery, and the amperage is what you need to determine the wattage output. Or you could ask the guy you bought the van from.
    • Re: Inherited solar panel....

      Wed, February 22, 2006 - 7:26 PM
      unfortunately, he is long ago and far away and havent a clue how to reach him.

      But I'll sort the other out for certain.

      Meanwhile, I'm asking because I want to use it as a secondary to this system. I want to use this as a possible alternative to a gas gennie at BM. Can anyone tell me what sort of output I can expect? Can I run, say, a small boombox and an Evap Cooler in the day, or perhaps boombox and LED xmas lights at night?

      www.solarproductsource.com/stor....aspx

      and the pdf note page 2:
      www.katphish.net/katphish/...mplete.pdf
      • Re: Inherited solar panel....

        Fri, April 6, 2007 - 6:53 AM
        By "Evap Cooler" do you mean a Thermoelectric cooler? I traveled with a similarly described solar rig all over the country and the rate at which it uses electricity is nearly proportional to the temperature difference. I found it ran more and used more electricity in the desert because it was hotter and drier. Superinsulating it will go a long way to help keep the power usage down.

        I would vaguely wave my hands at yes, you might have enough, but your cooling load will be your largest. Radios and LED lights don't use very much. I would recommend trying to figure out how many watt-hours you will be using vs. how many you will bring in with the solar modules vs. what storage capacity you have available. There are probably some good resources you can find online to help streamline those calculations. Good luck.
      • Re: Inherited solar panel....

        Sun, April 15, 2007 - 11:41 AM
        it sounds like you might only have about 30W of PV power judging by the size. If it's charging the battery all day perhaps it could have enough juice to power the LED lights and a boombox, doubtful it can do the evap cooler. depends on wattage and how long you run it. You may need more modules of similar size.
  • Re: Inherited solar panel....

    Mon, April 23, 2007 - 6:03 PM
    Did your kit come with a charge controller? If not, you'll need one to prevent the battery from overcharging, which is very dangerous.

    There are many types of charge controllers, some costing as little as thirty dollars and which have no metering or displays. Get one that has a display and it will tell you what your panels are producing, the state of charge of your batteries, and it will prevent your batteries from overcharging, to boot! This is the safest, easiest way to measure panel output and have a necessary component to your system.

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