So… I’ve spent the last few hours looking through you website… and there’s some GREAT information here… but a lot of it is very technical… I’m looking for a solar unit to keep the battery on my motorcycle charged through the winter months…

Wow Thank You Aaron, this is an hobby site and reading your words is very important to me!

I’m looking for basically a trickle charger, but something with an automatic shut-off so it won’t overcharge and boil the battery…

Yes all You need is a simple solar charger with a solar charge controller

I’ve seen several different models, but I really don’t know what I’m looking at most of the time. If I need to add a 12V outlet to plug the panel into (as I’ve seen quite a few that just plug into the lighter socket) that’s no big deal, I can do that.  I was just wondering if you could give me
some direction on what I should be looking for… You may or may not be comfortable recommending a specific model, but if so, I’m definitely interested in that… You seem to know what you’re talking about on these issues.

Yes Aaron there are different types of solar chargers, some are good to charge and power batteries and some are good to maintain the battery charged. Here there is a simple “guess so ” Solar panels review chart with a series of points (n° of fingers) for each panel model. If You need a panel good only to charge maintenance and with a cheap price have a look at Coleman Solar 4.5-Watt 12-Volt Deep-Cycle Battery Charger #CL-300

Thanks in advance for your help, and for a wonderful website!!

Thank You too for reading and contacting!

Enrico

Post from: 12 Volt Solar Panels

Reader’s Q&A: Looking for a solar unit to keep the battery charged through the winter months

As part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the U.S. Investment Tax Credit provides another eight years extension for commercial and residential investments.

Trends in solar thermal power revolve more around mandates and financing than technology, thus the ITC provides the necessary financial support to ensure the growth of this emerging technology.

Within the solar market, solar thermal (concentrated solar power) installation is expected to surpass those of solar electric (photovoltaic). Research indicates that utilities firms are looking at solar thermal as the preferred alternative energy technology.

Solar thermal energy presents a more cost-effective way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and meets the renewal portfolio standards (RPS) that call for a certain percentage of renewable energy by a certain time.

Standing to the online report available here

U.S. Southwest has the highest amount of sunshine and open land, resulting in numerous suitable sites for solar thermal power plants. According to Abengoa Solar, U.S. southwest can support over 11TW of solar thermal, which is enough to support a capacity of more than 6 times the current electrical demand in the United States.

In the southwestern United States, the cost of electricity from CSP plants (including ITC) is about 13–17¢ per kilowatt-hour, meaning that CSP with thermal storage is competitive today with simple-cycle natural gas-fired power plants. The U.S.

Department of Energy aims to reduce CSP costs to 7–10¢ per kilowatt-hour by 2015 and to 5–7¢ per kilowatt-hour by 2020, making CSP a competitive alternative to fossil-fuel-based power sources.

Post from: 12 Volt Solar Panels

New Report on Solar Power Industry

Ohio State University chemists and their colleagues combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material.

“There are other such hybrids out there, but the advantage of our material is that we can cover the entire range of the solar spectrum,” explained Malcolm Chisholm, Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State.

Sunlight contains the entire spectrum of colors that can be seen with the naked eye — all the colors of the rainbow. What our eyes interpret as color are really different energy levels, or frequencies of light. Today’s solar cell materials can only capture a small range of frequencies, so they can only capture a small fraction of the energy contained in sunlight.

This new material is the first that can absorb all the energy contained in visible light at once.

The material generates electricity just like other solar cell materials do: light energizes the atoms of the material, and some of the electrons in those atoms are knocked loose.

Continues here

Post from: 12 Volt Solar Panels

New Material Captures Every Color Of The Rainbow

Place the solar panel towards the sun to collect energy (window, home, car, café, walk/bike around). The battery pack will hold the sun’s energy for several days.

Here the screen shot of the user manual available here:

The battery box will keep its charge for a few days if not used. The battery box will take about 6-8 hours of full sun to completely charge.

If the battery box is fully charged, you can get one full charge or more of your device depending on its size.

Technical Details:

• Selectable output voltage of DC 5.2V, 6.2V, 7.2V.
• Internal battery is 3.6V, 3600mAH.
• FCC certified and CE approved.

Solar Panel

• Output is 7.2v, 300mA.

Post from: 12 Volt Solar Panels

Noon Solar Powered Bag – Are You Ready to Dress the Sun?

They inaugurated a 100-meter array that sports parabolas made with the “ReflecTech” mirror film, a metalized polymer that can be laminated to aluminum sheets.

ReflecTech is actually more reflective than the best glass mirrors currently available, yet it costs 50 percent less.

Unlike photovoltaic, concentrating solar power uses massive solar reflectors to heat fluids to create steam for turbine generators.

From the website Reflec tech solar

ReflecTech® Mirror Film is a highly reflective, glass-free, polymer-based film for concentrating sunlight in solar energy arrays. ReflecTech® Mirror Film also has applications for concentrating photovoltaic systems, and other emerging CSP technologies such as linear Fresnel reflectors. All of these solar applications require the use of reflectors that have high reflectivity across the solar spectrum, are durable for many years in outdoor environments, and are low in cost.

Post from: 12 Volt Solar Panels

Prepare for a New Solar Thermal Reflector System

“By passing this bill, Congress has finally given the solar energy industry ‘policy certainty’ that will attract investment, expand manufacturing and lower the cost of solar energy to consumers,” said Roger Efird in a statement. “This will allow companies like mine to move forward with expansion plans to serve the growing U.S. market.”

The bill the House approved Friday calls for investment tax credits for solar developments for eight years. And unlike the current tax-incentive program, the new one will allow utilities to take advantage of the incentives. The bill also includes production-tax credits for renewable-energy power plants that already are generating electricity. The legislation extends the production-tax break by one year for wind and by two years for solar, biomass and hydro power.

Source

Post from: 12 Volt Solar Panels

The renewable energy tax credits are here to stay

Using a 12 volt battery full of charge let’s say … 120 amp/hours.

If we measure the voltage of fully charged 12 volt battery with nothing connected it should be around 12.6 volts.

If we connect a reasonable load to the battery the voltage will drop to around 12.1 but the battery is still full of charge at this point.

If we connect a charging source to the battery, for example an 80 watt solar panel, the voltage will rise to about 15 – 16 volts.

If the battery was flat we might see the following:

• No load: 12 volts
• With load: 11.0 volts
• Charge connected: 13 volts

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How to Monitor Your Solar Powered System

The basics of solar power:

Using solar power to produce electricity is not the same as using solar to produce heat.

• Solar thermal power is applied to produce hot fluids or air.
• Photovoltaic power is used to produce electricity.

Photovoltaic Panels

A photovoltaic panel is made of silicon, which becomes charged electrically when subjected to sun light. The more an array is situated off of true south the less the total insulation value.

To obtain electricity, solar panels are directed at south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern hemisphere at an angle dictated by the geographic location and latitude of where they are to be installed.

The most common output is intended for nominal 12 volts, with an effective output usually up to 17 volts.

The intensity of the Sun’s radiation changes with the hour of the day, time of the year and weather conditions.

How to Calculate Solar Power

To be able to make calculations in planning a system, the total amount of solar radiation energy is expressed in hours of full sunlight per m².

One hour of full sun provides 1 kWh/m² (the solar energy received in one hour on a cloudless summer day on a one-square meter surface directed towards the sun).

Before establish the size of our solar system we need to set:

• The sunlight levels (insulation values) of our area
• The daily power consumption of our electrical loads.

Insulation, or sunlight intensity is measured in equivalent full sun hours. One hour of maximum, or 100% sunshine received by a solar panel equals one equivalent full sun hour.

For 1 day consider only six hours of equivalent full sun

(Consider reflection due to a high angle of the sun in relationship to your solar array and high angle and the amount of the earth’s atmosphere the light is passing through).

Because of these factors the most productive hours of sunlight are from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Components used to provide solar power

The four primary components for producing electricity using solar power are:

1. A Solar panel Charger
2. A Charge controller (i.e. Brunton Solar Charge Controller)
3. A Battery
4. A Solar Inverter

Solar panels charge the battery (the controller insures proper charging) then the battery provides DC voltage to the inverter that converts the DC voltage to normal AC voltage.

Solar Panels

The output of a solar panel is usually stated in watts. Wattage is determined by:

V (volt) x A (ampere) = W (watt)

i.e. a 60 watt solar panel can (If an average of 6 hours of peak sun per day) produce an average 360 watt hours of power per day.

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The Basics of Solar Power Systems to Produce Electricity

Most solar energy systems generate DC current which is stored in batteries. Nearly all lighting products, appliances, motors, etc, are designed to use alternating current, it takes an inverter to change the battery-DC stored at the standard power (120 V AC, 60 Hz).

In an inverter, a direct current (DC) is moving back and forth to produce an alternating current (AC).

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How to Use Solar Inverters

It’s articulated in sections where each section explains a specific question.

How can I increase the autonomy power of my motor home?

In a camper electricity and water are precious. We must therefore learn to save without depriving the indispensable.

To increase its autonomy, for example, you can install a solar panel. Who stays a week in the same place needs to find a way to recharge the batteries, and a good solution is the solar panel.

Be aware that they are expensive and fragile, just the branch of a tree to break, and is an additional weight.

We also need to park in the sun, if you parked in the shade not serve. If we want to increase the autonomy of our campers we can increase the number of panels.

What and how should I install the solar panels on my camper?

A photovoltaic system area is based on:

• One or more photovoltaic panels
• A  charge regulator to measure voltage and current
• A battery.
• 1 Mounting kit
• 1 Display light to see the different levels of solar energy
• 1 Parallel to keep the battery engine charged after the service battery is loaded from solar
• 1 Set of cables to connect the panel on the roof and maintai an excellent insulation against the infiltration of water from the roof.

How many solar powered panels?

Example 1: Big motorhome then big consumer

• Using 2 lights, refrigerator, TV, VCR, etc.
• Having 3 evenings of autonomy in summer, 2 nights in winter
• Power panels: 140 watts with adjustable solution
• 180 watts with non-adjustable

Example 2: Average consumer

• Power: 90 watts with adjustable solution
• 110 Watt not adjustable

Example 3: Small consumer mini camper

• 50 Watt power adjustable
• 65 Watt not adjustable

What’s the right wattage  for caravans to run lights, TV etc?

In choosing the type of panel you can follow the following guidelines:

• 80 watt panel: It ‘a small plant, ideal for those who use the camper mainly in the warmer months and not use auxiliary utilities such as CTV or fans.
• 125 watt panel: The ideal solution for those who use the television.
• 140 watt panel: It represents the best solution for anyone, making use of summer vehicle, stopping long ago and wants to have a good availability of power for various accessories.
• 2 panel of 125 watt: The choice we recommend to all those who have a refrigerator compressor, or make an intensive use, even in winter.

How can I calculate the real power of a panel?

To calculate the power and let it work nearly 100% we need to consider:

1. Intensity of solar radiation (sunshine). The highest value is obtained only in exceptional weather conditions and practically never in real situations.
2. Temperature of 25 ° C but we all know that in a day of exceptionally high sunshine for sure the temperature is above 25 ° C. Higher temperatures cause a decreasing of the performance of the panel.
3. Incidence of perpendicular sunlight.

Below a screen shot on a free online tool to calculate how much power your panel could produce and how to calculate the photovoltaic module inclination based on your location and months of the year.

If you use the camper in the winter months (December and January) the solar panel should be oriented toward the sun otherwise its yield is too low.

Sometimes I read that the best location for a solar panel on a camper is to point it at 30° south…. but there is nothing more wrong …. then do not make this gross mistake .. because your camper is not on a terrace.

For example, in winter a panel on the roof of the camper (that is, 0°) means losing even 60% of daily energy.

Then the output power held by manufacturers is not “false” but based on laboratory parameters, but certainly better than those found in nature.

It ’s better a mono crystalline or a polycrystalline panel ?

Between two panels, one polycrystalline and other mono crystalline of example to 120W there are not so evident differences then it makes no sense to say that one is better than the other;

Monocrystalline: made from pure silicon has the best performance (13/14% yield).

Polycrystalline: made from recycled silicon has a lower yield to monocrystalline, then parity ‘power are more’ big 10% and cost less.

Amorphous: Amorphous panels are less subject to shading (or dirt) and produce about 15% more current at morning and evening.

The polycrystalline is suggested if the camper is used mainly in the Mediterranean area.

The panel chosen by me is a polycrystalline silicon that is better than mono crystalline silicon or amorphous; better in terms of performance and durability.

It’s true, over time the silicon loses its features and panels recharged always less.

How much energy produces a panel in one day?

To know the amount of energy produced daily we need to refer to the tables of sunshine, tabulations that indicate the monthly averages of sunshine for each geographical area;

For example, if your plant produces a maximum current, in full sun can get in 6A battery, then the power produced daily is: 6A x 5 (hours of sunshine) = 30Ah every day (on average) during the summer months and 6A x 2 = 12Ah in the winter months.

How to install the solar panels?

The ideal would always have the sun perpendicular. This is achievable only with a rotating and tilting variable, but this is not always possible.

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RV Solar Chargers – How to Charge Your Batteries with Solar Power