Foldout Solar panels wiring questions ...

[threedogs]

Any scumbag wanting to relieve me of my panels would need to be fairly committed & come equipped with the right tools, a ladder, a means to carry them away & spend an hour or two to remove them. It’d probably be easier to just steal the car & there is a big selection of less identifiable vehicles out there to choose from. (Touching wood).

Just saying its defeating the purpose isnt it having to park your Patrol
out in the sun everything will be working harder to remain cool.
Sorry but I just dont see the point of mounting them permanently, one you
cant chase the sun well you can but you need to start your Patrol to move them.
But its your set up and if its works for you so be it, lol

[mudski]

Just saying its defeating the purpose isnt it having to park your Patrol
out in the sun everything will be working harder to remain cool.
Sorry but I just dont see the point of mounting them permanently, one you
cant chase the sun well you can but you need to start your Patrol to move them.
But its your set up and if its works for you so be it, lol

I have a 100w perma mount panel on my rack and its plenty. You dont need to chase the sun at all.
It would take a couple of days of no no sun and no engine running to flatten the battery.
How many times would anyone be in a situation like that?
I was skeptical first by perma mounting but now i think its great.
Even today. I was at BA's place. It was raining and my panel was still charging at 13.2v.
Since mounting the panel i have noticed the battery voltage sits at around 12.9v where it used to sit at 12.7v or lower.

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[Cuppa]

Just saying its defeating the purpose isnt it having to park your Patrol
out in the sun everything will be working harder to remain cool.
Sorry but I just dont see the point of mounting them permanently, one you
cant chase the sun well you can but you need to start your Patrol to move them.
But its your set up and if its works for you so be it, lol

Mate, depends partly on how many panels you have, & what the usage pattern is. Having to constantly move portables around throughout the day becomes a chore, particularly so once you have more than a couple, far easier to have enough extra capacity to not need to bother doing that & I sure don’t miss the unpacking, setting up, packing away part of the routine. What’s ok for an occasional weekend quickly becomes a pain when needing to do it every morning & evening for weeks & months at a time I can assure you. I think you often forget that aspect.

As for parking the Patrol in the sun - no biggie, I can put the Patrol in the sun & have the Tvan nearby in a shadier spot. It’s a non issue. Was also never a problem when we had the bus, Heat reflective paint, roof insulation + the panels creating a ’tropical roof’ , plus a awning & sunblock curtains & good internal airflow made for a comfy home on the road without needing to chase shade.

Added bonus is that the panels are a lot more secure & less likely to have someone walk off with them than portables.

[Hodge]

Well my panels arrived today and I wired up everything on the BCDC receiving end including the switch over relay. Just gotta cut the cables behind the panels, crimp in some plugs and then wait to test it all out .....

[megatexture]

I floss with wire like that, I'd be upgrading the lot but that's just me.

[the evil twin]

Any scumbag wanting to relieve me of my panels would need to be fairly committed & come equipped with the right tools, a ladder, a means to carry them away & spend an hour or two to remove them. It’d probably be easier to just steal the car & there is a big selection of less identifiable vehicles out there to choose from. (Touching wood).

Dare ya to come over here and park it at Perth Airport...

[Cuppa]

I floss with wire like that, I'd be upgrading the lot but that's just me.

Nice image.

The wire between the two junction boxes will be ok, but definitely go heavier on the cable between panels & BCDC. What gauge cable do you have with the anderson plugs fitted?

[Hodge]

Nice image.

The wire between the two junction boxes will be ok, but definitely go heavier on the cable between panels & BCDC. What gauge cable do you have with the anderson plugs fitted?

The whole lot from the BCDC , through the relay all the way to the solar panels is 8AWG (8.36mm2) hydraulic-crimped.
The cables from panel to panel, and the cables they included were all 4mm2.

[Hodge]

All wired up ready for the sun.
Excuse the following solar amateur question...
Is it normal for a solar regulator/charger not to charge below 17V or so under no load? Or is it mainly the bcdc chargers that do that ? Or maybe even only redarc?
It's 20% sunny now and I'm getting 15-16V at the connectors.... And the redarc isn't kicking in, so I dug this table up and it sort of made sense then.

Not the table below... Under no load, shuts off below 17.2V. This is my Redarc BCDC1240 unit rules. Am I understanding this right?
I assumed even at 15-16V the unit may keep "float" charging the battery....

[Nightjar]

Not too savvy on electrics.
Question: Does the ignition need to be left "on" for the panels to charge in the above set up?
If so, why not just use the panels + solar controller and connect directly to battery via a Anderson plug?