Solar Panel Wiring

I don’t know what the gauge of the factory prep wire, but if it isn’t 10-12 gauge wiring i would not use it for a significant solar plant. There will be too much line loss. It is quite easy to drop a line from the roof via the sewer vent next to the shower skylight on the 36fws. I mounted my solar controller and fuse disconnect flush with the rear black wall of the main storage, and ran even heavier wire from there to the batteries.

However, if all you want is a trickle charge for a single battery, the 12-14 gauge should be fine. If you have plans for more than that send me a pm and i would be happy to call you and walk you through what i did.

Rick here from down the highway in Williams Lake. We had solar installed on our Cameo at the selling dealer, and yes, there is a dummy vent type cap where the connections were made. It is located near the centre of the roof.

I have attached a photo – you can see the ‘vent’ cap

Image no longer available. Deleted by ImageShack – Please Repost Image if possible with new method

SNIPS wrote:Thanks very much guys. I am going to climb up there on the weekend and have a look. Seems like it would be a good idea to run heavier wire. Rick, that looks like a nice clean installation. What size are each of the panels. I have two 12v batteries and don’t do a lot of dry camping but would like to have the backup if i need it.

I had our 38RS ordered with 3 #6 wires run from the front compartment up on the roof for solar. #10 is to small.

Lillyputz

First task is to define your use, or think you might use, and then keep the battery bank(s) and panels in reasonable proportions. Line loss is a big deal with two 12-volt or 4 6-volt battery systems used for boon docking (no shore power and extended battery use for lights and 120 AC volt appliances), but not if you are just using panels to trickle charge the system.

The price of panels has dropped dramatically in the past 3 years, but still not cheap. Buy what you need, plan for what you might want/need down the road. The cost of good controllers ad copper wiring has not gone down. By all means size the wire and controller accordingly when you think you might want to boondock or convert to a residential refrigerator later, and plan out a roof layout for panels with a junction box to easily add them later.

A good first step is how much power you will use:
http://www.amsolar.com/home/amr/page_27

A great hand hold walk through an installation with extra resource references (including panel efficiencies, subpanel configurations if not already done, wire size and line loss to/from batteries/inverter/solar panels) can be found at:
http://rvecafe.com/solar.html

note that there is no www in the second site.

SNIPS wrote:Thanks very much guys. I am going to climb up there on the weekend and have a look. Seems like it would be a good idea to run heavier wire. Rick, that looks like a nice clean installation. What size are each of the panels. I have two 12v batteries and don’t do a lot of dry camping but would like to have the backup if i need it.

Snips, we have 2 of 95 watt panels. They are the more efficient cell type, which are compact, yet deliver a fair output, given their size. We have 4 – 6 volt AGM batteries and a 2800 watt pure sine inverter. Our weak link is lack of solar capacity given our battery bank. We have installed led bubs in our rig to reduce amperage draw when dry camping.

If you have the wiring harness and fuse holder labelled ‘solar’ the wiring should be closeby the roof vent – again, the dealer installed the system as part of the deal. should I do a future Lifestyle custom order, I would specify heavier wire for the solar system.

Rick

SNIPS wrote:Hey Rick Do you go south for the winter and if so where. I am retiring this year end and we are heading out around the end of January to go south. Thought we might head for southern California, but haven’t decided where yet.

We retired at the end of August and are presently in the Fraser Valley, where there are 4 other Cameo’s at our park. We intend to head into the California desert and Arizona in January. Seems the US economy could benefit from our expenditures.

Rick

rwb_wl wrote:We retired at the end of August and are presently in the Fraser Valley, where there are 4 other Cameo’s at our park. Rick

Do they know about our Great Forum???

B.W.

BWowner wrote:

rwb_wl wrote:We retired at the end of August and are presently in the Fraser Valley, where there are 4 other Cameo’s at our park. Rick

Do they know about our Great Forum???

B.W.

One of them does, but hope to speak to the others over the next week or so. It would be nice to have a card or decal that I could pass along/point out to them 

Comeupwithsomething wrote:Okay, so with every decal ordered could there be a full page of non cut cards so we can have them photocopied, cut them ourselves, and pass ’em out?

That’s not a problem. I can design a Forum Member Business Card Template with Logo & U.R.L. and post it. I can leave enough space so each member could add their Member Number, Name, Email Address, Personal Blog Address, etc., etc. I’ll post a draft and anyone can send me suggestions on improving it. Or anyone else can post one also.

B.W.