Overland Vehicle Panel Advice

[Bigcharlie]

Hi All,

I’m a total newbie here and a total newbie to solar power too, so I'll say sorry right now from the start.........

I have a 4X4 Overland vehicle I like to head off in to remote parts of the world in, my last trip was to the Sahara Desert, but I find when I’m parked up for more than a day I’m struggling for battery power. I don’t run much apart from a couple of LED light and a 12 V fridge, connected to a Optima Yellow top battery.

I have looked at a few websites, and now I’m totally confused about solar and which panels would suit me best. I’m hoping to get some advice from you guys….

The only roof space I have free is curved and quite narrow, so just on dimensions alone I was considering fitting a couple of “Flexible Photovoltaic Panel HFs40” (http://shop.en-eco.com/prodotto/5424...nel-hfs40.html). What would your comments be, good choice of panel or not?

Thanks, Charlie

[russ]

Others will make better comments but that panel is very overpriced.

What is the spec on the fridge?

[peakbagger]

The 12 volt fridge is going to draw quite a bit of juice. Its probably a thermoelectric style and they are known to be very inefficient. Based on some prior research you are going to need far more panels than will fit on your roof to supply the fridge.

If you really want or need a fridge, look around for a vaccine freezer. They are not inexpensive but are optimized to keep cold on minimal power. The link below is a illustration of what sort of power you need.

http://www.sunfrost.com/vaccine_refrigerators.html.

If you buy one of those you have a chance of being able to run them off solar panels.

[FunGas]

Park at the top of a hill so you can bump-start the vehicle (assuming it's manual transmission) if the battery gives up...

[Naptown]

I would hope that you are at least running dual batteries with a battery isolator so you have house battery(s) and a starting battery.
I always ran 2 battery banks on my boats. One exclusive was exclusive to engine starting and another for the "house" loads. Both were hooked to the alternator on the engine with a battery isolater.

[Bigcharlie]

Thanks for the replies.
I am currently running a split charge system with dual batteries, auxiliary isolated from the starter battery. The auxiliary battery is a 75 Ah Yellow Top Optima and the fridge is a Waeco CF-50ACDZ (http://www.waeco.com.au/products5.as...Id=60&catId=57) which is a compressor type. The spec’s for the fridge says 3.5 – 4 amp when running, and it seems to run about 30% of the time.
Charlie

[Sunking]

Your best bet is to run the engine for a recharge. Your engine running can do more in 15 minutes than you vehicle covered in panels.

[PNjunction]

Well, the faqs for the Optima yellowtop say that you can go as high as 10 amps for normal charge, and 1 amp for float.

Heat is going to be a concern, especially sitting on top of the roof. You may want to get the specs for that panel to see if it will even operate at 40C. If you want to get serious, perhaps look into Powerfilm, although you'd probably drape it across your roof gear. I'm thinking something like the foldable FM16-7200 panel at 7.2a along with perhaps a 10amp Morningstar charge controller. The Powerfilm panels can go up to 50C. You'll be dropping quite a few quid for these. They have quite a range of foldable and rollable styles that might suit you. My 20watt F15-1200 panel was doing just fine at 105F on concrete.

[PNjunction]

Well, the faqs for the Optima yellowtop say that you can go as high as 10 amps for normal charge, and 1 amp for float.

You know you've had too much coffee when you start to quote yourself. HERE are the real specs for the Optimas:

http://www.optimabatteries.com/us/en/support/battery-care/charging/

Looks like you can use a pretty large array if you wanted to as long as you stay under 125F / 51.7C temp.

[Sunking]

You know you've had too much coffee when you start to quote yourself. HERE are the real specs for the Optimas:

I was about to say there is no charge current limit on Optima batteries.