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I'm wanting to build a solar system for my camper.....not to power EVERYTHING, just lights, laptops and TV in the evening.....to start with. I will still use generator power in mornings and days when solar input is insufficient. I have purchased...not received yet...a Renogy 100 watt panel, charge control unit, 1000 watt inverter, and one 35 ah deep cycle solar battery. Do I have enough to at least get started? I'm quite certain by the reading I have done, I'll need at least one more battery and one more panel to meet my needs, but I want to experiment with what I have to start out with. We are currently on the grid work camping so solar power at the moment can be eased into. ANY input would be helpful.
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The problem with "easing into" an off grid system is usually the battery is too small for your needed loads and adding additional batteries latter to the first is not good practice since the first one already has some life depleted from it.
That 35Ah battery will safely only get you using only 25% DOD about 105 watt hours. So if your TV is more than 100 watts you will get less than an hour use out of it. Use it more and you start to drain the battery down to 50% or more. That single 100 watt panel with a PWM type charge really reduces it to about 67 watts. That low wattage and minimal useful sunlight will make it hard to charge a battery at 50% back to 100%. Do that a couple of days in a row and the battery will be down to nothing and fail.
Most people don't understand how much power is needed to run their electronics and how little batteries can provide that power. Your first steps is to determine exactly how many watt hours a day your loads will draw. You can find that out by using a "kill a watt" meter. Use that meter on all of your electronics for the amount of time you plan on running a day and it will give you the watt hours used. Total all those loads up and that is your daily watt hour load. Then size your battery so it will deliver 5 times that amount so you only discharge it 20%.
The link below is to one of our Stickie threads stepping you through the process of designing an off grid battery system. Check it out and don't purchase anything else until you understand what you really need for your system. Good luck
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You have quite a mismatch of components that will not play well together. A 100 watt panel with a PWM controller needs a minimum battery of 50 AH up to a 70 AH. A 35 AH battery can only provide power to a 60 to 100 watt inverter. What is really odd is you have not set any parameters of how much power you will need in a day. Just throwing things together will get you no where fast. A 100 watt panel can only supply a laptop, charge up a cell phone or two, and run a couple of LED lights for a few hours a day. TV is almost certainly out of the question.MSEE, PEComment
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