[tentcamper]

Congratulations on your new panels. If you install LED lights I think they shoud work well for you.

I have been testing our 80W panels this fall. Some of the nights the temps dropped to the high 30's and the DW at night likes the camper in the high 60's. So we ran our furnace. My best estimate is we use about 15-20 amps a day. We only use power for lights, furnace, water pump, water heater.

I think the folding panels work great for our needs. I was thinking about the difference between portable and permanent this last time out and doing some simple tests. My conclusion; I need to get the right angle and out of the shade. Permanent mounted panels; I would need 250-300 watts of panels for our area to do what my 80 W panel does in the sun and at the right angle.

We only need panels in the spring and fall during the heating season. Other non-heating seasons we can go 6+ days off one fully charged battery. We are in Ohio and being east of the Mississippi have shade in most CS we camp at.

On sunny days, in the fall we need about a 50 degree angle. This produces about 4.8 amps. When I dropped it to 30 degrees it read about 3.2 amps and flat it read about 1.5 amps. When the panels was in the shade and at 50 degrees I was seeing less then 1 amp. I have found I need to move the panels 3-4 times a day to stay in the sun or keep them facing the sun.

My cables have a reach of about 35 feet. My cable design was made from 2 - 30 amp, 10 gage extension cords. A 25' I carry in the camper for shore power extension and a 10' The 10' cord I cut in half and connect via quick disconnect connectors to the panel and the other piece to the battery. The pre-molded 30 amp plugs, plug into my 25' cord. My PWM controller is at the panels.