# New 210Rs. Want Advice On Solar



## orygun (Sep 22, 2011)

I am new to the forum and an owner of a new 210rs. I am not interested in going the 6v route and am not ready to get a generator. I would like to use two 12v deep cycles and pair it with a simple solar system. I would like the system to be able to accomplish two goals: keep batteries topped off during the off-season and provide extended use for 5-6 day dry camping in the summer (won't need A/C, TV, or microwave). In my tent trailer, we could go 6 days on a single 12v running the furnace, water pump, and lights. I am assuming the Outback furnace draws more than the little tent trailer furnace, but I don't know.

As I browse the web or walk into camping world or my local RV dealer, what details should I keep in mind when purchasing my panels? I am aware that places like harbor freight sell cheap-o solar kits, but I am weary of the quality.

Should I get a small little 5w for the trickle charge and use that separately, or is there a way to use the larger panels (say 30-100 watt) in such a way that I won't overcharge the batteries during storage?

Finally, any advice on the 12v batteries?


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

The furance in the Outback will use about the same amount of power to run, however it will run a LOT longer to heat the Outback...simply due to a amount of space it needs to heat.

I'm guessing you have the ability to store your Outback at home? I don't think I'd want to put solar panels on my Outback in a public storage facilty....I'm thinking the panels would sprout legs.

For me, I decided I don't need to charge my batteries while in storage, I simply added a battery cutoff switch (see link in my sig for my mod page) and a simply flip of the switch and the batteries are cutoff. I bring the Outback from storage on Wednesday if we are leaving on a Friday. Then I plug in at home and that is more than enough time to fully charge my 2x6v batteries.

Costco has some great 12v batteries....that once you do the homework on, you'll determine they rival Trojan and Interstate..but at 1/2 the price.

I can go about 4-5 days on our 2x6v setup. We try to turn off lights and don't run the heater too much (except some mornings) and I'm impressed with the life of the batteries. I could go all out and replace the bulbs with LED's but I don't see the need at this point. Anything over 5 days of camping and I bring my little Coleman 1850 generator. Starts EVERYTIME on the first pull. Won't run AC, but here in Oregon I don't have the need for that.


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## orygun (Sep 22, 2011)

Oregon_Camper said:


> The furance in the Outback will use about the same amount of power to run, however it will run a LOT longer to heat the Outback...simply due to a amount of space it needs to heat.
> 
> I'm guessing you have the ability to store your Outback at home? I don't think I'd want to put solar panels on my Outback in a public storage facilty....I'm thinking the panels would sprout legs.
> 
> ...


Great. I will check out costco before I take delivery of the trailer this weekend. I have looked at some of the LED bulbs....they look like a constantly evolving product and the bulbs available next spring and summer might be better and cheaper than the ones available now. I do not have the ability to store my trailer at home, but I can put in my driveway for a few days to charge before any dry trip... I like your mods. Your "secret" camping spot has my interest piqued as well.

Go Ducks....


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

Add up your expected power needs, and that will help decide what size panels and batteries you need. You will also need an appropriately sized charge controller to regulate the flow of electricity from the panels to the batteries. Two 12 volt batteries will get you in the range of 200 amp-hours, depending on size (group 24 vs group 27). Plan on not discharging them below 50%, and you have around 100 amp-hours to burn. The furnace and water pump draw 4-5 amps each, lights can draw up to 3 amps per fixture, so it's pretty easy to use 30-40 amp-hours per day without realizing it.

I use a 15 watt panel with a 7 amp charge controller from Camping World to keep the batteries charged while in storage. The total cost was around $150, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if it disappeared from the lot. No problems with theft so far. The small panel wouldn't do the job for serious dry camping as it only provides about 1 amp, or 6-8 amp-hours per day. A panel or two in the 100 watt range would obviously provide much more power, but will cost a whole lot more. I have two Kyocera 135 watt panels that I parallel together and run through a 30 amp charge controller, and I can just about dry camp indefinitely with good conservation. With good sunlight I get about 15 amps, or around 90-120 amp-hours output per day. Enough to replace just about what we use daily (we're power hogs). That setup cost over $1,000 about five years ago, but prices have probably come down since then.


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## orygun (Sep 22, 2011)

Insomniak said:


> Add up your expected power needs, and that will help decide what size panels and batteries you need. You will also need an appropriately sized charge controller to regulate the flow of electricity from the panels to the batteries. Two 12 volt batteries will get you in the range of 200 amp-hours, depending on size (group 24 vs group 27). Plan on not discharging them below 50%, and you have around 100 amp-hours to burn. The furnace and water pump draw 4-5 amps each, lights can draw up to 3 amps per fixture, so it's pretty easy to use 30-40 amp-hours per day without realizing it.
> 
> I use a 15 watt panel with a 7 amp charge controller from Camping World to keep the batteries charged while in storage. The total cost was around $150, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if it disappeared from the lot. No problems with theft so far. The small panel wouldn't do the job for serious dry camping as it only provides about 1 amp, or 6-8 amp-hours per day. A panel or two in the 100 watt range would obviously provide much more power, but will cost a whole lot more. I have two Kyocera 135 watt panels that I parallel together and run through a 30 amp charge controller, and I can just about dry camp indefinitely with good conservation. With good sunlight I get about 15 amps, or around 90-120 amp-hours output per day. Enough to replace just about what we use daily (we're power hogs). That setup cost over $1,000 about five years ago, but prices have probably come down since then.


That is good info. Just what I was looking for. Since I will only be dry camping 1-3 times a year, I don't really need to go overboard with the system. I saw this at costco for $250:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11622528&search=solar&Mo=24&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=solar&Ntt=solar&No=7&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

It's not going to keep me going all month, but it's cheap and will provide me with some entry level experience. I just wonder if the 200 watt power inverter is enough to charge things like my ipad and computer. The ipad is almost as good as the stock outback tv. 
cheers.


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

orygun said:


> Since I will only be dry camping 1-3 times a year, I don't really need to go overboard with the system. I saw this at costco for $250:


I'd really think this over before you get involved with solar. Don't get me wrong, I think solar is great, and I actually bought the package from Costco and intended to install it (and we dry camp 90% of the time)

Then I started to think about where we camp....LOTS and LOTS of trees. After thinking it over, it returned the solar gear, and I'm glad I did. I took careful note to watch our camping this summer and see how much sunlight our trailer had....and it wasn't much. To really be effective you have to rotate the panels to line up with the sun. Heck...I'm camping! I don't want to have to work at stuff while camping.

You also said you only dry camp 1-3 times a year. How many nights would that be per trip? Anything under 4-5 nights and a 2 battery config (12v or 6vs) will do you just fine. IMHO of course.

...ah, the "secret site". Soooooooooooo nice!	That just happens to be where my signature picture listed below was taken.


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

orygun said:


> Add up your expected power needs, and that will help decide what size panels and batteries you need. You will also need an appropriately sized charge controller to regulate the flow of electricity from the panels to the batteries. Two 12 volt batteries will get you in the range of 200 amp-hours, depending on size (group 24 vs group 27). Plan on not discharging them below 50%, and you have around 100 amp-hours to burn. The furnace and water pump draw 4-5 amps each, lights can draw up to 3 amps per fixture, so it's pretty easy to use 30-40 amp-hours per day without realizing it.
> 
> I use a 15 watt panel with a 7 amp charge controller from Camping World to keep the batteries charged while in storage. The total cost was around $150, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if it disappeared from the lot. No problems with theft so far. The small panel wouldn't do the job for serious dry camping as it only provides about 1 amp, or 6-8 amp-hours per day. A panel or two in the 100 watt range would obviously provide much more power, but will cost a whole lot more. I have two Kyocera 135 watt panels that I parallel together and run through a 30 amp charge controller, and I can just about dry camp indefinitely with good conservation. With good sunlight I get about 15 amps, or around 90-120 amp-hours output per day. Enough to replace just about what we use daily (we're power hogs). That setup cost over $1,000 about five years ago, but prices have probably come down since then.


That is good info. Just what I was looking for. Since I will only be dry camping 1-3 times a year, I don't really need to go overboard with the system. I saw this at costco for $250:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11622528&search=solar&Mo=24&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=solar&Ntt=solar&No=7&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

It's not going to keep me going all month, but it's cheap and will provide me with some entry level experience. I just wonder if the 200 watt power inverter is enough to charge things like my ipad and computer. The ipad is almost as good as the stock outback tv. 
cheers.
[/quote]
For the amount of space that those panels occupy, you could probably do better with just one 50 or 75 watt panel. The Coleman panels may not be the most efficient out there. You can find inverters just about anywhere in the 200 watt range, and that will definitely be enough to charge a laptop or Ipad. Like Jim mentioned, you have to consider where you will be camping and the amount of sunlight reaching the panel(s). A general rule of thumb is to expect five hours of sunlight per day and do your amp-hour calculations from there. I used to spend a lot of time in the desert with not a tree in sight and I could get 6-8 hours of direct sun, but I would also have to rotate the panels once in a while. Solar is a different experience, and there's something slightly liberating about not using a generator or plugging into a power post.


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## mena661 (Feb 9, 2010)

With enough battery capacity, you don't need solar or a generator (although I'd like to get some solar to keep them topped off at home...won't need to keep the trailer plugged in). I have 4 pretty tall and heavy 6V's at 740 amp hours total and can do a week easily with a minimum 4 hours of TV watching everyday day using bluray player or sat TV (~40 amp hours per day for just TV watching alone). No recharging needed until I get home. You may not have the room for these nor use as much power as we do BUT because these are tall, you just might be able to squeeze a couple on your tongue. Trojan makes these batteries in capacities ranging from 370 to 435 amp hours. They're 12" x 7" x 17" each. And NOCO makes battery boxes for them too.


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