planing to travel from home (junee) to cairns then broome via savannah way.travel in navara and caravan with duel battery and 2 engels 45ltr,40ltr as freezer when required (for the odd barra) need advice on solar panels etc. would 180w Folding Solar Panels (Monocrystalline Cells) do the job of keeping battery toped up when camping for 3 to 5 days? also thinking of getting small honda generator to run smart battery charger if we get a run of cloudy days . any advice appriciated
-- Edited by sullyrs on Monday 9th of January 2012 09:27:03 AM
Hi Sullyrs, Sounds like a great trip, with plenty to see and do. I can't give very much advice on the size of the panels needed, however can tell you how I go with my van.
I had two 80 watt panels installed on the roof of the van and we found that we could run a light or two, also the Tv and Digital box at night. During the day, the meter showed the voltage when fully charged at around 13.5 and 13.6, and after the night usage would drop to around 11.4. Then once the sun came up it would start to recharge.
I have Waeco 50ltr, which we used as a freezer and found that when we plugged it into to the van on DC, it would set off the error light and struggle to cope. So we now keep the Waeco in the car using battery or 240v when available.
I also have a fold up panel, so I use that as a back up for the car (and Waeco).
Foldup, portable panels are good, because you can park in the shade and move the panels in the sun. The permanent panels on the van are great, because they are charging as you travel.
Do your research and find the best solution for you.
You may already be aware of this, but going from Cairns across to the West is definitely the right way to go. We did it the other way and the head winds were horrendous.
I have a 2 x 100Ahr battries with a 'manual' isolation switch and 120W folding solar panels. My fridge is the 50L waeco fridge, set temp at 5C.
I have LED lights for night but didnt use them much, so pretty much just the fridge. I ran it of the Second battery the whole time, (main battery isolated) for 4 days, I did shift the solar panels about 3 times during the day.
At the end the auxillary batery was down to12.1V with the fridage running and 12.4V on idle. The main battery (which was not connected, supposidly) dropped to 12.8v. So I think it went well.
I noticed each day the 'recharge' from the Solar pannels was less, so they were not replacing the power drawn by the fridge.
I would have liked to try my inverter for the computer, modem etc. but as it was my first non-powered trip I didnt.
I am thinking of getting a fixed solar pannel (200W?) and using the portable if I intend to stay longer in a place (and eventually a small genny for cloudy days).
-- Edited by Mergatroy on Tuesday 10th of January 2012 03:13:37 PM
the battery is a century deep cycle flooded battery ah75
Hi the max you should draw from that is 30<35amp hrs
That at the BEST will run ONE fridge as a fridge for 1day without requiring rechgarging but usually less depending on ambient temp ,frig temp & warm loading
The solar panel at the best will supply around 60amp hrs per day in bright sun
Theoerticaly that means you could be able to last 5days if the battery recieved sufficient solar input EVERYDAY to be fully charged
you could run the one engel as fridge but not a fridge & a freezer or even one as a freezer.
I would suggest a larger or another deep cycle battery to give you more back up capacity & better store the available panel output
Is the deep cycle battery also being charged by the alternator when driving???
