Just over a month with Solar. Here's how it's working out.

This sickness started about a month ago when I decided to add a super simple solar system to my camper so I can boon dock camp instead of hitting the campgrounds all the time. Got a Renogy 100 watt suitcase with a charge controller. That exposed that my RV camper battery wasn't that great so I upgraded.

Somewhere right after that I thought I'd build up a small system and power items in the Master Bedroom. Despite the fact I'm still green around the solar edges I feel like I carefully did my homework and I have a small system that met the original goals that I had. Basically in an oversimplified way I wanted a 3 day lifeboat in the bedroom with a portable refrigerator, a TV and a shortwave radio.

After 2 days of darn near not a bit of sunshine I still have a considerable amount of power that probably could last me 2 more days if the sun doesn't make a showing. I'm not sure my SOC is really 80% as I don't have the whole calibration thing figured out (Victron MPPT 100/30) but I know based on the load I usually pull that I have an abundance of juice left. I'm only pulling 57 because the refrigerator compressor kicked on. It doesn't run that much over the course of an hour. Maybe 15 minutes. It might max out at 100 watts if the TV is on. So I don't pull much of a demand.

I credit most of that to my 2 Battleborn batteries. After a month I'm feeling that this experiment was more than successful. In fact it is so successful I think I can knock a hole in the master bedroom closet and push an outlet tied to the inverter and power my kitchen refrigerator in a power outage situation. I hate to knock a bunch of weird holes in the house and add outlets that aren't seemingly tied to anything but I'm 57 and this is probably my last home so maybe I'll just do what the heck I want.

We also like the Renogy suitcase. For a PWM, it really rocks.

orangeminnie said:

We also like the Renogy suitcase. For a PWM, it really rocks.

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I put it on a 20' AWG 10 extension cord to the ZAMP connector on the camper with a polarity switching adapter. It does indeed work pretty great.

Are those roof-rack rails on the front of your trailer?

We went with Anderson/PowerPole connectors, with jacks on the outside of the trailer.
Where does Zamp get off on reversing the industry standard polarity?

orangeminnie said:

We went with 100% Anderson/PowerPole connectors, with jacks on the outside of the trailer.

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Nice. I originally was using the battery alligator clips that come with the kit but my batteries are on the tongue which means they were exposed when charging. Had my camper for over a year or more and just noticed the ZAMP connector on it. It's very well hidden. Once I found the connector I just got the SAE connectors to use it.

Hmmmmm if I had the Anderson connectors on mine I could use my Jackery Solar Panel as well.

hagensieker said:

Nice. I originally was using the battery alligator clips that come with the kit but my batteries are on the tongue which means they were exposed when charging. Had my camper for over a year or more and just noticed the ZAMP connector on it. It's very well hidden. Once I found the connector I just got the SAE connectors to use it.

Hmmmmm if I had the Anderson connectors on mine I could use my Jackery Solar Panel as well.

Click to expand...

I had to cut a "big" hole in the sidewall for the Anderson. Thought about it really long and hard before making the leap.
Ozzie?

Yes those are luggage rails. I thought about mounting a panel or two on there but it might block the view and I love the view at the places I generally camp. That's a Rockwood A122 and I'm in Eastern NC.

I'm not much on drilling holes in my brand new stuff either.

I have used something like this with APP connectors instead of USB. I will have to look a bit to find the correct link but you get the idea: