61 replies to this topic

[kmacafee]

Just an update on my solar installation.  I drove over 8000 miles in 2 months thru the Southwest and Pacific Northwest and never once plugged the truck in.  The 2 100W rigid solar panels kept the batteries topped up and based on my Trimetic meter, they never dropped below a 90% charge.  My compressor fridge, lights and devices were all kept running and charged with no issues at all.  

 

I was curious about the surface temperature of the roof when air temperatures reached 110 and using a spot meter, recorded a surface temp of about 130 degrees on the white aluminum.  Temp in the shade below the panel was in the 90's.  Based on that alone, I am very glad I did not glue the panels to the roof.  I have to think that panels are more efficient with air flow underneath.

 

Because the panels are mounted low utilizing the Yakima tracks, gas mileage did not change at all compared with previous trips.

[Ethergore]

I'm surprised that no one with a trimetric posted a real life voltage drop to this thread. One could simply remove the plug from the roof and take a reading at the plug and then another measurement at the charge controller to see how much volts/amps were actually lost. We could then compare that to kmacafee's setup and see how much benefit was gained. I would love to see those numbers and have this settled. A short run of wire is cheap and worth doing if there is significant gain.