DIY Solar Panel Project
Before we dive full bore into the gritty details of precisely how my RV solar panels are powered by the sun for traveling for the next few years, and how easy it is to build your own complete off-grid solar system, I thought I would discuss a handful of the ideas and desired results as background. In fact, let’s keep it real straightforward.
Goals
1. Stay totally off-grid self sufficient using solely solar power. No plugging in, no propane generator.
2. Provide enough energy to power all electric systems (stereo, laptop, lights, DC to AC converter, and so on) without having to overly concern ourselves with conservation.
3. Buy solar panels, deep cycle batteries and a solar charge controller that will all fit on the RV in the highest efficiency configuration possible.
One of my favourite parts of putting all this on paper is that even though I created this technology to pimp my RV, there’s positively no reason you couldn’t do something along the same lines for your house, cottage in the hills or boat. Just make sure you have a straightforward and plainly defined group of objectives and that you do not stray from them. This might be as easy as deciding what you’re trying to pull off in your mind, but as you will observe from my explanation of every objective as it pertained to my project, it’s still way too tempting to get off line if you haven’t got some sort of reality check.
Goal 1 Defined: Exist completely off-grid self sufficient
I originally played with the idea of some kind of dual system involving less solar panels, a generator and figuring I’d use shore power occassionally. One day into my journey I reaffirmed my fears that if one hour my daily habit was listening to the growl of a propane generator, I would likely die. I also found out since my RV was built with ancient equipment, I’d need to plug in for 3 full days to refill my battery bank, also no good. So instead I opted to spend the additional dough and have sufficient panel capacity that regardless of where I was, I would always have power.
Goal 2 Explained: Provide enough energy
There’s numerous worksheets and helpful guides online that demonstrate the power utilization of a range of devices, so you only need to be aware of what you will be using and for how long every day. After that you can choose a practical solar battery and panel size. It’s extremely imperative to set up the right cushion or factor of safety so you can even work at the end of three cloudy days. As it turns out I totally over-budgeted the amount of electricity I’d use, and way under-estimated how much power I’d generate. It’s one of them good problems that I haven’t even been able to cure by playing extremely loud tunes night and day.
Goal 3 Defined: Pick solar parts that’ll fit as efficiently as possible
Even though I knew the BP panels I was looking at for less money didn’t quite fit, I wanted to get them regardless, so that’s why we’ve got our sanity check. The not quite as large Sanyo solar panels I purchased as a substitute only just fit, the BP ones wouldn’t have, but I just about almost went for it. There is an incredibly wide range of different measurements, shapes and technologies, so selecting a setup where every separate piece correctly interacts with all the parts of the system is crucial to achieving the greatest efficiency. Something below optimal efficiency is useless, it doesn’t make sense to buy $2000 worth of solar panels to then only ever anticipate extracting $1500 worth of energy.
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