This is a follow-up to one of my previous:
With 8 solar panels atop the roof (660w in total…), I’ve now run out of rooftop PV real estate. But being mostly Nevada BLM off-grid campers who occasionally run the air conditioner via batteries (two, 200 a/hr lithium concurrent with harvesting), I’m always looking for new ways to feed my solar addiction - lol!
So, in my garage I found a new still in the box aluminum cargo hitch carrier which gave me the idea of carrying along a couple of ‘ground deployable’ panels!! After a quick amazon search I found a 120w panel that fit perfectly within the confines of the carrier, so bought three of these panels to provide an additional 360w!!
The nice thing is that by using an MPPT* type solar charge controller (of sufficient voltage capacity…), the panels can either be connected in a parallel configuration (using an available 4-way ‘Y’ connector…), or simply ‘daisy-chained’ together in series configuration to help maximize harvest recovery!
*Maximum ‘Power Point’ (i.e. ‘max wattage’) Tracking.
Pictured below, the two 200a/hr lithium batteries reside beneath the ‘U’ shaped dinette seating, with an aluminum bracket fashioned (just above the mid-seat battery) for the added Victron MPPT charge controller install…Controller access is somewhat limited, yet Bluetooth provides for all monitoring and adjustment via Smart Phone…
3 tons
With 8 solar panels atop the roof (660w in total…), I’ve now run out of rooftop PV real estate. But being mostly Nevada BLM off-grid campers who occasionally run the air conditioner via batteries (two, 200 a/hr lithium concurrent with harvesting), I’m always looking for new ways to feed my solar addiction - lol!
So, in my garage I found a new still in the box aluminum cargo hitch carrier which gave me the idea of carrying along a couple of ‘ground deployable’ panels!! After a quick amazon search I found a 120w panel that fit perfectly within the confines of the carrier, so bought three of these panels to provide an additional 360w!!
The nice thing is that by using an MPPT* type solar charge controller (of sufficient voltage capacity…), the panels can either be connected in a parallel configuration (using an available 4-way ‘Y’ connector…), or simply ‘daisy-chained’ together in series configuration to help maximize harvest recovery!
*Maximum ‘Power Point’ (i.e. ‘max wattage’) Tracking.
Pictured below, the two 200a/hr lithium batteries reside beneath the ‘U’ shaped dinette seating, with an aluminum bracket fashioned (just above the mid-seat battery) for the added Victron MPPT charge controller install…Controller access is somewhat limited, yet Bluetooth provides for all monitoring and adjustment via Smart Phone…
3 tons