50 watt solar panel

[oly884]

What's your take on this? I have the option to get one for my FWC. It's not cheap, but while I'm already making the purchase, why not throw it in. As for charging a battery, how would it do? What about an engel fridge?

[Scenic WonderRunner]

Power System Requirements: Determining Capacity (http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134&highlight=solar)
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[OutbacKamper]

I did not go for the factory solar panel on my 2004 Hawk, Shell, 4WheelCamper. Maybe I should have, at $560 installed it is a reasonable price. I found installation on the roof of a pop-up to be more difficult than I had imagined. Also my 75watt BP panel cost about $1000. I found the 75watt solar panel to be very useful, in sunny Australia, not so useful in rainy BC.

If you plan to do lots of multi-day trips (that don't involve a lot of driving) in sunny climates, some type of solar panel is a great idea. Is 50 watts enough? I don't know. 125 watts would be great but......More power = More$$$

Perhaps you could try the 50 watt panel and add a second 50 watt if you find you need it latter?
Cheers
Mark

[oly884]

Excellent! Looks as if 50 watts should be enough. Especially considering i have a 125 Ah battery to use as well.

[Brian McVickers]

75w for $1000
Oh Man!
It reminds me of the three 50w panels I picked up from a guy on St. Thomas for $20 each! :shakin: :xxrotflma

They were a little old and I had to solder new leads onto them but they put out 100% of the juice they were rated for. $60 for all three, I guess he needed the rum money! :D

[oly884]

well, i had it added. It gives out 3.15 amps, so i figure it'd be plenty to run all the stuff i need it to during the day, and at night my 125 Ah batt should keep things running :)

Once I get the engel fridge i'll be able to run the sucker non stop during the day and not see even a blip in the battery! (assuming it doesn't get cloudy, which in MT it does, but we actually get quite a bit of sun even in the winter)

Since I have to deal with trees, snow, and the like I'm also going to be fabbing up a cover for it because I would cry if it broke.