Happy New Year & Solar Panels

welcome back, glad a good time was had by all, and good info re the panels too, what was the campsite like?

forgot to mention the camp fire/camp oven cooking was fantastic....and Glenn's boned and marinated lamb cooked on the bbq plate was superb....

I forgot to mention, the fridge wasn't hooked up to the car, it was outside the CT, as it was a communal fridge with a lead running through to the front of the camper to plug into the batteries via merit plugs...the cable length was approx 6 meters

Welcome back Lyn and intersting to hear the experiences. I guess I have never been in one spot long enough so far to need a generator or the panels. I wonder which would be the least fragile, I guess the panels would be lighter.

Nice pic of you and Callum, Lyn..

Lyn and Al,

Solar Panels,

Wonderful things. Your's worked great, mine worked great. Did things they weren't "supposed" to.

Such an easy way to keep power up to your batteries. Move them three times a day and no loss of power. Easy way to make camping more comfortable.

Thanks again for the invite to join yourselves, The Diamonds, The Tooney's and Glenn and James. Look forward to doing it again, soon.

I'll get Jenny along to the next one with a little more notice so she can get some time off work.

Cheers,

Jim and Stevo.

The way I understand it;
2 x 42watt panels (84 Watt) supplied the power to the 2 x 100 a/h batteries
without outside assistance from any other source
powering two Waeco fridges
given reasonable use by adults and billy lids for the duration, even though the weather was overcast on some days and you were in a shaded valley!!!

With those results I suggest you are proud you have a solar system that works as it was intended to by the supplier.

Giving credibility to the notion you really don't need 300 Watts of solar panel to power a couple of heavily used Waeco fridges.

Happy New Year to all the Al's. Glad to hear you had a good time and that you managed to keep all the drinks cool...very important that!

I am out here in the Flinders minding a dog, a cat, a kangaroo, a budgie and a guinea pig. Had a couple of showers of rain yesterday and this morning it was a fresh 10 degrees with a stiff breeze.

Logging on is a slow process out here on the station line and I am only registering 28,800bps

It is very quiet out here and I have the whole 355 square kilometres to myself.

The fact remains this system has been tested in not perfect conditions for a solar system and found to deliver sufficient power, totally unassisted to run the fridge/s for a minium of five days, (if not seven?)

In my own opinion it would be erroneous to attempt to denigrate the test results as there were too many people there to verify the results, and has been stated the system was a stand alone without the benefit of the vehicle alternator to assist in recharging the battery system in any way.
The test results are reliable as far as the system was still working after five days, albeit getting down to 11.7v under load, which I believe would return to a number around 12.2v when the fridge cycled and the solar panel would then continue to recharge the battery once again.

Tests of this nature are important to dispel the mumbo jumbo of uninformed people!

sounds like a good set-up Lyn, hmm wonder where Al will get the supplies to make a nice box....

PS- funny to see a fellow 4x4 driver in the servo today, being the economical beasts they are :-)) Did you know the safeway and fuel are going at Wallan now, you probably did, but i thought i'd let you know just in case.

See ya

David Au posted this followup

Quote: (Jimbo how about you get out a calculator or spreadsheet and work out the facts)

David, the facts were presented from actual use, not from any theoretical numbers!

Quote: (Unfortunately educated professional qualified people do not promote incorrect information that misleads people like you are Mainy are trying to do)

David, your knowledge of our English language is appalling, reread your statement above, fortunately no incorrect or misleading information has been posted!

Quote: (What you are saying is not correct and will not maintain the batteries in good condition and will not allow you to continuously run the system all year round)

David, yes a solar panel will maintain a battery in good condition, that is why you sell them, and no one has posted here the solar system will be "continuously run the system all year round" as it is very clearly posted "We now know what the panels are capable of, and for a 4 - 5 day stay with no additional power they will allow us to run our fridge[s] in an environmentally friendly way :)"

David may I nicely suggest you keep your vindictive and malicious remarks to your self, and if you can’t say something on a family read forum in a polite way please say nothing at all!

David a reply is not required to me, as this will be my last post here, I will not lower the tone of the thread by allowing you to continually disrupt threads by quarrelling with me!

Please don’t disrupt other people’s threads, instigate them yourself and allow others to participate.

Al & Mrs Al (Vic), a good thread, informative and helpful information, enjoy your camping adventures.

Hey guys- you can camp next to me anytime!
I'll enjoy the peace and quiet and clean air- (no vehicles running and no generator either.)
Well done!
Cheers and happy 2005