Solar panels stands? Folding, ground based.

[dylanear]

Originally Posted by JohnF

I just bought that exact panel for my 13' Scamp. I'm very happy with everything so far. I purchased their foot brackets and tilt bars also - liked the idea of the ease of adjustment they had and figured I'd try them by themselves or mount them to some support strips as needed for my free standing intended purpose.

The panel should fit great underneath the folded down table during travel. I also purchased 50' of 8 gauge 2 pair wiring from them for umbilicals. Plan to chop that in half and crimp on MC4 connectors. This is a bit more like frozen romex than I thought; probably should have sacrificed a bit of charge performance for ease of storage and coiling and gone with the 10 gauge in hind sight.

Solar controller and the 7 pin bargman receptacle are going into a pelican box. Not sure about ventilation there, may have to leave the lid open a bit on the pelican when in use.

I'm sure there are cheaper solutions, but I really valued the build quality and flexibility of the am solar pieces and have been happy so far. Might some day decide to roof mount it, but starting out with the free standing plan.

I called AM and they told me they had nothing but roof mount solutions for those panels, thus me starting this thread (which is now, somehow more about my solar choices and power requirements.)

What exactly do you mean by foot brackets and tilt bars? Is that what you get with the "kit" rather than the bare panel?

"I purchased their foot brackets and tilt bars also - liked the idea of the ease of adjustment they had and figured I'd try them by themselves or mount them to some support strips as needed for my free standing intended purpose."

[dylanear]

Originally Posted by KevinScamps

People always confuse Energy and Power. Power is the flow rate of energy. So a 120 W panel can in ideal conditions generate 120 Watts of power for as long as it is in the sun. So at approx. 12 V, that is 10 Amps of current since Voltage x Current = Power. Therefore under ideal conditions that 120 W panel can generate about 10 Amp Hours of energy.

Now since the conditions are never ideal because of shade, panel angle relative to the sun, bad weather, maximum power point tracking error, etc. The question is how much energy does a typical panel actually give you on average per day. The rule of thumb I have gotten from numerous sites is the total Energy stored per day will be amount of energy the panel could generate under ideal conditions in 1 hour. Therefore for you 120 W panel should be able to generate 10 Amp Hours on average. If you park in the sun and tilt the solar panels towards the sun you should be able to do 2 or 3 times that. That seems really conservative. If you use the NREL calculator you end up with 1.7 Whr per 1 W panel per day in Janurary (In Colorado) and almost 4.6 Whr. per 1 W panel per day.

I have a 30 W panel and use my laptop all the time. I also have LED lights. I've tracked my power usage at 3-5 Amp Hours per day. No issues with running the battery down.

Hope that helps

OK, let me try to verify. You say, "Therefore for you 120 W panel should be able to generate 10 Amp Hours on average. If you park in the sun and tilt the solar panels towards the sun you should be able to do 2 or 3 times that."

And I hope to have 220-250 amp hours, I'd need 6 or 7 120watt panels to max out those batteries under ideal circumstance? 2 or 3 times as many under minimal circumstance? Sounds like even the small panels I have and two of the GS100s wouldn't even be too much for my grp 24 80 amp hour I have now?

I'm heading to the foggy, rainy, deep dark forrests of BC. I'm pretty sure too much panel is not going to be HUGE problem. And if I buy $550 worth of panels and end up putting them on here or Craigslist for $400? I've got no problem with that.

NOW.... Can we talk about folding ground mounting options for a pair of 20x40"ish panels?

[JohnF]

I bought the rocker foot mount set and the 15.5" tilt bar set:

35mm Rocker Foot Mount Set | for Solar Panels
Tilt Bar Set - 15.5" | for Solar Panels

I did not buy them as a kit with the wire harness because the harness was roof mount oriented and I don't intend to do that. I just talked about wire with them and came up with that umbilical approach.

The rocker feet and tilt bars mount pretty slick to the panel and those easy to adjust knobs I liked. Can always convert to roof mount if desired.

I plan to just set the panel down with these feet directly. If that proves unstable, I can come up with a 1x3 wood strip or something that the feet could be attached to for additional stability.

Not the cheapest approach for sure, but I'm happy with them so far. Saturday will be the test run.

The MC4 connectors were easier to crimp on then I anticipated (though really better designed for 10-14 gauge wire vs. the 8 gauge I was trying to stuff into them - still worked so far - time will tell for durability).

I considered powerpole connectors for the umbilical also, but the MC4s were actually cheaper and much more weather resistant with the o-rings.

I have a TriMetric 2025RV and did a power budget usage based on real measurements so that's why I wanted an 80+ watt panel.

Originally Posted by dylanear

I called AM and they told me they had nothing but roof mount solutions for those panels, thus me starting this thread (which is now, somehow more about my solar choices and power requirements.)

What exactly do you mean by foot brackets and tilt bars? Is that what you get with the "kit" rather than the bare panel?

"I purchased their foot brackets and tilt bars also - liked the idea of the ease of adjustment they had and figured I'd try them by themselves or mount them to some support strips as needed for my free standing intended purpose."

[Ed Harris]

OK,I found one bad shot of the Panel and stand I was talking about but I think you can get the idea from the pic?

The Solar is in the background in the Sun not the shadow speaker on a similar tripod.

The back leg is slid over a Tripod stand in the pic and you can see the wood cross bar and the PVC cross piece with the T for the leg clearly.
The PVC Cross bar is attached with 2 Conduit Clamps 1 on each side which allows it to pivot the leg to and from the panel.

If not on the tripod the leg is the rear leg and the angle is easily adjusted too.

I have a digital meter that I use to "Aim" the panel and it is easy to use the meter to peak the voltage when it is in the best orientation that it can be.

I even leave the meter hanging there with Velcro and it is connected as well as the feed is connected all the time if wanted.

Make sense?

Ed

[Roy in TO]

I've pictured attaching a solar panel the adjustable part of the small home TV satelite dishes and using that on a similar tripod. Your rotation and tilt are built in.

[Ed Harris]

Originally Posted by Roy in TO

I've pictured attaching a solar panel the adjustable part of the small home TV satelite dishes and using that on a similar tripod. Your rotation and tilt are built in.

I have several Speaker and Lighting tripods already and they are strong and made to be moved around and knock down easily too.
Also they can go up higher than I want and hold a lot of weight.
The added feature of the way mine is done is being able to just pull it off the Tripod and set it on the ground and it has the angle adjustment needed to help it gather Sun efficiently.

I really like it because it is as simple as it can be.

[dylanear]

Originally Posted by Ed Harris

I have several Speaker and Lighting tripods already and they are strong and made to be moved around and knock down easily too.
Also they can go up higher than I want and hold a lot of weight.
The added feature of the way mine is done is being able to just pull it off the Tripod and set it on the ground and it has the angle adjustment needed to help it gather Sun efficiently.

I really like it because it is as simple as it can be.

I am carrying two tripods with me at the moment and one is pretty huge and heavy. Kinda regret hauling that, but perhaps it'll be useful!