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Hi - I'm interested in hearing other's opinions on the best way to mount flexible solar panels (MiaSole CIGS panels) to an RV TPO Roof? - My panels don't have adhesive, what do you recommend? Eternabond around the edges? Roll-on adhesive or peel-and-stick to the bottom? I'd prefer to not drill...

Hi - My work is pretty close to their office, been several times. My Victron supplier sent me to them for some 2/0 cable I needed, I also got my CIGS panels from them as well. They are a brick and morter store that have been around for several years, and while I haven't made the kind of...

Looks like OP has a Cerbo, visible in the first pic.

Looks like an interesting design - instead of the water flowing over the top of the water wheel utilizing gravity, the water builds up pressure and flows under the wheel. Clever!

No not really, I kind of gave up out of frustration. If I open the CSV files on another laptop running the EB Software the graph looks ok but the footer with the summary is still not correct, it likely pulls that info from the header of the CSV file. At some point I'll re-run the tests on a...

Hi @INCATFAN - since first posting this question I went ahead and got a LiFePO4 battery (200ah) - decided to keep the WFCO as stock and forego the DC-DC charger. It did fine - with the distance between the truck battery and the 7-pin there was enough voltage drop to not be an issue with high...

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OP here, nice to see this thread is still going. I stepped away from the discussion because to reevaluate our solar needs, but always remained curious of the CIGS performance vs the mono's - so in the end I got a couple 110w panels made by MiaSolé a couple months ago, the FLEX-02 110N model. I...

Will recently did a couple videos on this topic, showing the thermal runaway effect of lithium-ion based cells (similar to what's used in EVs): He repeated the test with a LiFePO4 pouch, much safer: These videos hopefully can put your wife at ease!

Do you have a link to a recommended one? I've only ever seen the blue plastic ones, which I have, and either I'm using it wrong or it's junk

Nice install! Could you share more about the IronRidge configuration? Are they mounted to the RV roof with adhesive or bolted down?

That looks really good! I love the symmetry and how clean it looks. Clever idea using the compression rods as posts, but doesn't that mean they are 'live'? Does the positive rod have any protection?

Hi, I picked up a ZKETECH EBD-M05 Mini Load Capacity tester to test the capacity of my 202ah and 85ah cells. I wanted an inexpensive solution since I only have the 8 cells and was only planning on running the tests only a couple times, and I liked the EB Tester software since seeing it demoed by...

Up here in Canada we don't have quite the same BLM land as the states - we have Crown land, some of which is available for camping. However, it seems like it's more set up for backpackers and portagers rather than boondockers. We do have plenty of amazing provincial parks but they have become...

Sounds like a good plan. I liked the idea of the sign board but always thought some kind of metal would be wise to act like a heatsink. Didn't know there was aluminum sign board. I was also thinking along the same lines as you with point A - especially if I got a flexible panel with an adhesive...

My use case would be for an RV, and while I enjoy watching videos of clever creators making motorized and manual tilt mechanisms for the panels to maximize the power, it wouldn't work for us since we're explorers and like to try different parks and sites and could never guarantee that I could...

How did you find the production with the sun at a lower angle during the day?

Nice find - I saw your other thread, have you settled on a way to mount them?

Thanks for this eXodus. Any information you could provide in regards to benefits vs crystalline panels? Could you speak to any of the points I mentioned earlier?

Nice setup! I love the clever use of different sized rails to mount the panel to the sloped RV roof. How did you secure them to the roof - were there any rafters you drilled into? Is yours a TPO roof? How has the Q Cell Panel performed?

Interesting info in that link, really makes amorphous silicon looks like a better option - It can be hard to parse out facts from marketing claims though (case in point, here is Ascent Solar with a similar chart that gives CIGS the edge over a-Si). So the one company I linked to in my first...

Thanks for offering to test, @curiouscarbon - I look forward to whatever data you're able to find. It's not that I'm sold on CIGS, I have just come across so many posts where folks like me are hesitant to drill rigid panels to their RVs and are researching flexible panels, only to determine...

Shade performance is also intriguing to me, but also the claims that they do better in low light/low angle situations. If power generation can start earlier in the day or maintain during overcast weather, that's a real plus. Here's the thing - lets say (for example) that a 200w solar panel...

Thanks for your replies! Interesting discussion. Regarding cost/watt, I'll concede to this point (especially as a Canadian). But what exactly do we mean by efficiency - the fact that CIGS tend to be around 17% where monocrystalline cells can be 23%? Wouldn't that mean (and I may be...

Hi, just wondering about why CIGS panels haven't really taken off for RV use in particular. I've seen that with many discussions of CIGS flexible solar panels that folks seem to get them conflated with some of the drawbacks of flexible crystalline panels, focusing on the 'flexible solar panel'...

I'd be interested in knowing of anyones experience or thoughts on these too - they seem to be a good choice for overlander and rv use... - CIGS more robust than crystalline based cells, no micro-cracking, and thus has a 25 year warranty vs most other flexible panels with 5-10 year warranties...

I have a 200w portable suitcase panel and I went with a Victron 100/20 MPPT charge controller with the intention of putting something on the RV trailer's roof someday. My Suitcase panels have a Voc of 22.80v. As I understand it, I'd need to select a panel with similar Voc specs for the roof if...

Hi, I just finished top balancing my 4 202ah cells to 3.65v last night, took them off the charger but left them connected in parallel. Now I'm wondering if allowing them to rest together has thrown off the top balance. Is it better to disconnect them from parallel promptly after reaching 3.65v...

Not yet. I found someone who used their WFCO 8955 to charge their LiFePo4's directly, and said it wouldn't damage them - it just wouldn't charge them fully. To get around this, he had a panel on the roof with a MPPT controller set to charge lithium, so the converter would bring (and keep) the...

...Ok, I see it now and not sure why I didn't see it before - connecting the lower power pack back to the bank would cause an inrush of current from the other packs as they'd want to balance. Would probably trip their BMSs. Lost sight that parallel packs work together as a whole. This...

I understand the need to keep the cells balanced within a pack, but do different packs also need to be balanced if they have their own BMSs?

Hi, rather than building a 4s 280ah battery for my RV, I'm wondering if I could set up 12x 100ah batteries like this: ...since I will occasionally use a trolling motor to go fishing when camping, I though about making one of them removable with an Anderson plug that I could use in the raft...

In the range of 30-40 feet, round trip from battery to converter. 8 gauge wire, with the chassis as ground. I'm considering keeping it in the Victron family and going with the Orion 12/12-30 (I like the name too ;))

I realized that I've been approaching this question backwards so please allow me to restate it - what I really wanted to know is if occasionally charging from the alternator through a DC-DC charger was valid (while parked, not driving) versus needing a generator. I googled 'alternator vs...

So I understand, you use this when you're parked as needed, not while driving? What's the logic behind the cable lengths and where is the Renogy when you're using it? Yes, the WFCO is probably doing the best it can with what it has to work with.