First time Solar / battery user

Hey Jim · Guru

First time Solar / battery user

Jaahn · Guru

Hey Jim wink

The answer is yes and no !!

Yes if you are careful and have some meter to see how you are going with the power.

No if you think you can just use everything and hope for the best. hmm

That is a minimum setup and lots of people make do with it. confuse However twice as much solar and battery would be better. IMHO.

Jaahn

oldtrack123 · Guru

Hi Jim

With LED lights you should be OK most of the time.

But long spell of bad weather could lead to the charge not being kept up to the battery.

The answer to that could be a charger[ 10<20A] to run of the generator

However you should have a battery monitor fitted to protect the batterry life[ from over discharge:"]

Either

[a] a simple voltmeter, so you can either visually check the battery SOC [voltage]

Recharge voltage gets down near 12V with no load or solar charging[say first thing in the morning]

or

an automatic monitor that disconnects the battery if it's charge falls too low

PeterQ

PeterD · Guru

Jim, I have the same set-up as you. The only time I ran out of power is when the battery karked itself. In bad weather you just monitor the battery voltage when you are off power. If the battery voltage before sun up drops below 12.2 V then you severely limit your TV watching until the battery recovers.

Hey Jim · Guru

Hey Jim wrote:
Hi all,
We will take delivery of our first caravan in December a Jayco Journey Outback pop top 17.55 comes with 120w solar panel / 100amp battery. If we run the fridge on gas ( has 2 x 9kg bottles) while overnight free camping. Can we run all the Led lighting as well as our 19" TV / Sat Dish .from the fully charged battery alone or ( Will we need extra solar/ battery.) OR will we need to run our Honda Iu 1000 as well. In the past we used the geni to warm our elecie blankets before bed in winter plus all of the above.
Regards Hey Jim & Lambie

Hi all, thanks for all your imputs. I think from memory now the new van has a monertering unit up on the wall plus the water tanks as well. There was so little time left on the shopping day out, that I could not take it all in. I will check it up on their spec Sheet.

They at Jayco give us a two hour shake down on the big day.I not shaw if there would be enough space up top for an extra panel.

Question 2. If there were can this feed into the one 100amp battery? I'm up for a 2.2kva genie to run the A/C. as well. My Honda iu1000 has performed without fail since 2002 and I use that at work every week, in my work. Then play there after.

Oh better start another topic on Lambie's new shower.

Regards Hey Jim & Lambie