Reddit reviews Renogy 200 Watt 12 Volt Monocrystalline Solar Starter Kit with Wanderer

For 100ah goal zero price is $1599

For 215ah if you do it yourself (golf cart batteries, pure sine inverter, various plugs and meter) its about $400. It wont be as attractive,but for $1200 or so less and double capacity, ill buy some plywood for $20 and make a pretty vented box if i was worried about looks.

Even if you spend a little more for a 12v agm battery you will make out way better.

Its the same thing with the panel kits, less capacity for more $$. Their 1250 kit is 30watts in panels to charge 100ah battery ("generator")? Id not go much less than 1watt per 1ah or you'd be undercharging. So 1999-1599 (gen)=$400 for 30 watts in solar. You can get a 200 watt panel kit for $340, hook it into above.

Portable or roof mounted?

I used the renogy kit from Amazon, works good, very very easy. Id suggest 2-6v trojan batteries in series if you dont have any batteries yet.

I used this pump:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XERUTY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#

Powered by this battery:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DR3IIC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And this solar panel:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BCRG22A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This simple and cheap setup basically gave me 2 garden hoses (2ea 1/2 inch pipes t'd off of the main 1" line)

I could water for like an hour in the morning, an hour at sundown and probably 3-4 hours at mid-day in full sun with the battery never running down more than a tiny ammount. I also charged phones, computers, flashlights, etc with this system at the same time. You should be able to pump your ass off with a system like this.

Things to note... The pump only has about a 20 foot lift so if the top of the water in the swamp is farther than 20 vertical feet (not linear) from where the end of the hose is you may be in trouble. Also, make some sort of coarse filter so leaves and mud and such does not clog it. A few mesh bags around a 5 gallon bucket with a ton of 2" holes and a rock to weight it down did the trick for me! Good luck.

> Congrats on a well-executed model!

Thanks. :)

> Based on the size of the roof area for the solar panels, I'm assuming you've picked out the panels already. Have a link? I'm curious in learning more about what you've selected.

Definitely monocrystalline panels. As an example, Renogy makes a nice little 200W starter kit with charge controller and such. May or may not wind up going with that exact unit, but it'll be something similar.

As for the size, I just hacked together a couple of 24" by 48" scale blocks, since that ought to cover a majority of pairs of panels i might settle on.

The basic calculations here are based on several trips to the field with my current rig running on a 101Ah battery.

• I generally seem to use 15-20% of the capacity (so, 20Ah) for a full night's imaging. So I'm planning based on being able to deliver 20Ah to the batteries on a clear day.
  
  
• At 200W, at what is a nominal 14V or so from typical MC panels, we're looking in the range of 14A. I always cut that expectation in half, so I'm looking to get 7A out of these panels.
  
  
• At 7A, that says I need 3 hours of clear skies and good sun to refresh from a night's imaging.
  
  
• Did some poking around in some historical weather data and some solar planning sites, and found that it's pretty reasonable to expect 3 hours of sunlight within 48 hours after any given clear night.
  
  
• So...I'll double up my battery...go to 200Ah of capacity...which should let me image 6-8 nights without recharges EASILY, and that should cover any oddball runs of "clear night, cloudy day".
  
  The system is almost certainly overkill, but I like it that way. :)
  
  > Also, how do you plan on sealing out moisture at the roof seam?
  
  A little flap of shingles, basically...sort of how Harry Page did his as linked in the OP.

2 x 100watt panels, with an MPPT controller.

This kit exactly, with MPPT:

http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Solar-Starter-Wanderer/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1458866712&sr=8-2&keywords=renogy+solar+panel+kit

$220.00: (2) 6 volt golf cart battery's from Costco or Sams club wired in series to equal 12 volts and approximately 220 amp hours of capacity

$349.99: Renogy kit: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Solar-Starter-Wanderer/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542503494&sr=8-3&keywords=Renogy+200+Watt+12+Volt+Solar+Starter+Kit

Total equipment $570 dollars

various wire $40.00 dollars

PSW inverter $170.00, might not need.



So 200 watts of solar will work. You may NOT need an inverter because LED's will work from 12 volts directly, you may be able to take the light apart and work around the 120 volt power supply. or buy 12 volt LED lights.

https://www.amazon.com/Samlex-America-PST-300-12-Pure-Inverter/dp/B00DVYWP8C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542504072&sr=8-3&keywords=psw+inverter+12v

​

Final advice, inverters use power whether they are being used or not unless you shut them off when you are not using one.. I strongly suggest sticking to 12 volt lighting and skip the inverter

If you absolutely need 120 volts, get a pure sign wave inverter. They cost more but you wont have limitations like you would from a modified sign wave inverter. buy something good in the 300 to 400 watt range minimum in case you need to charge battery powered tools, a radio, charge a phone or other small loads. stick with brand name equipment for reliability.

For sure I will... I ordered these 2 Renogy panels and they should come in on Monday... of course I start work Monday too, so I will be working on it every evening next week. Mine will span roughly 8' x 2' across one side of the van on a hoisting ladder rack that will allow for tilt-adjusting towards the sun and easy cleaning.... I'll keep you in the loop with it

Amps x volts = watts. You only want to use 50% (Less if you can) for that battery life so 42amps at 12v or ~500 watt hours.

The panel will give 50watts around 4-5 hours a day. So it should generate around 200-250watt hours per day. (If you get more sun or constantly adjust the panel you can get more hours but I would be surprised if you got more than 350watt hours a day in the summer).

So lets say 200 Watt hours per day, that's around one LED light running around 20hrs.


I would suggest something more like this 200 watt system plus a few golf cart batteries. (Sams club has them for around $100 for 200ah 6v batteries). I put my cabin system together with this for around $700 total. 200 watt in panels, 230ah at 12v and lots of LED lighting and places to charge my cell phones and laptops.
http://www.amazon.com/200W-Mono-Starter-Kit-Controller/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1409684525&sr=8-4&keywords=200+watt+renogy

Well there is no complete set on amazon.com, but you can assemble it yourself just like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Solar-Starter-Wanderer/dp/B00BCRG22A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468309528&sr=8-1&keywords=solar+panel+200w

https://www.amazon.com/SolarEpic-Inverter-Stackable-10-8-30V-90V-140V/dp/B00XJCVC44/ref=sr_1_5?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1468310171&sr=1-5&keywords=solar+inverter

https://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Battery-Solar-Energy-Storage/dp/B018R8BRCG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468309743&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=AGM+battery+100ah&psc=1

You can scale with the numbers of solar panels, but then you probably have to consider a different controller. It depends on how much wattage your desired fridge has. You probably have to consider a powerful fridge with a good insulation, if it stays in the hot sun the whole day. You maybe have to scale the batteries, depends on how much "sun downtime" you have in your region.

You really need to research this a bit further, as I dont have any experience with your 115/120v grid/appliances and not much practical experience with solar panels and its combination with fridges.

And you need to consider if its worth the 600+ Dollar for a cold beer in the middle of nowhere. Those solar panels do have more uses, but I guess you know what I mean.