New ideas for solar panel installation

[Steph-WO]

Flexible Solar Panels

With the great flexible panels out there, there really is no reason to use solid panel on an RV anymore. They weigh only a few pounds and are only about 1/4" thick. Renogy makes flexible panels up to 175W. I installed two of the 175w panels on the rear of the lower roof and connected then to the existing 100W panel and 30 AMP controller in less than an hour.

 

[Wavery]

With the great flexible panels out there, there really is no reason to use solid panel on an RV anymore. They weigh only a few pounds and are only about 1/4" thick. Renogy makes flexible panels up to 175W. I installed two of the 175w panels on the rear of the lower roof and connected then to the existing 100W panel and 30 AMP controller in less than an hour.

If you connected 2, 175W panels to an existing 100W panel, the output of each 175W panel will be limited to the output of the 100W panel. You'd be far better off removing the 100W panel and allowing the 2, 175W panels to work their magic.

Having said all that, here are a few reasons to avoid flexible panels. 1, their lifespan is about 25% of the lifespan of "solid panels". 2. Flex panels laying flat on the roof get far hotter than solid panels properly mounted with 1.25" of air space for cooling. The hotter the panel gets, the less it produces. On a 80* day, a flat mounted panel might lose 20% of it's production compared to a similar solid panel.

 

[Shane826]

I’ll admit I usually skip over solar discussion but was bored so I took a peak. This is pretty brilliant, really.

Quick question… Why can’t a solar setup on the TM roof charge the batteries while going down the road?

 

[Wavery]

I’ll admit I usually skip over solar discussion but was bored so I took a peak. This is pretty brilliant, really.

Quick question… Why can’t a solar setup on the TM roof charge the batteries while going down the road?

Who said that they can't?

 

[Shane826]

Bill did, kinda. I missed the PORTABLE panel part.

 

[Bill]

I did? I certainly didn't intend to say that. I can't find that reference, but maybe it doesn't matter. For the record, I'm pretty sure that ...

A SOLAR SETUP ON THE TM ROOF CAN CHARGE THE TM BATTERY WHILE DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD.

Bill

 

[Shane826]

Like I said, I missed the “portable” part of the statement.