How much Solar do I (probably) need? (1 Viewer)

[Wissel]

I'm in the middle of planning a new van that will have a lot of electrics in it, for full-time use.

Thing is, I'm not sure of how much energy solar panels are "likely" to generate?

I'll have 320Ah of lithium batteries, so around 260Ah usable.

My total consumption of 12v per day is likely to be 50-60Ah (so I can easily run for 4-5 days without hook up and without solar)

I was thinking 4 x 100w panels, but I'm not sure just how many Ah these are likely to generate at different times of the year?

I'd like to be self-supporting (no EHU) during the Summer if I can, not so much of an issue in the Winter.

I'll tag @Gromett as I'm willing to bet he knows the answers

EDIT - Forgot to add - I'll be in the UK.

 

[funflair]

Hi

You will have a good amount of battery storage with 320ah and 400 watts of solar on top will be a great addition, even 300 would be good/enough if you ran out of space, make sure you fit a MPPT controller, you could easily see 25 amps going in on a good day down to nothing of course but even a dull day would give 5 to 10 so you should be pretty well covered.

We have 320 watts up top and 320ah or 440ah depending how you rate a EXIDE G80 gel, we can go for months without plugging in.

Martin

 

[Boringfrog]

Can I ask how much 320ah lithium batteries cost?

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[Wissel]

Can I ask how much 320ah lithium batteries cost?

Brace yourself - I haven't decided on exactly which ones and which chargers I'll fit yet, but I'm leaning towards a Victron setup which will cost around £3k

Thing is, I will be working from the van full-time (work online), so the cost is justified for me.

 

[Wissel]

Just another quick question for @Gromett if you do see this thread.

In next van I'll be working from laptops instead of Van PC as I have been for the last few years. Because of this I'm planning on using a NAS as a backup and as a media streamer to the laptops and phones etc.

Which software would you say is best for the NAS?

I'll build the NAS from my old Van PC as it's a low-power mini-ITX that runs on 12v. Spec is low-power i3, 4gb ram and it will have 2 x 6tb (probably) red drives in raid 1. Thanks.

 

[Alistair33]

We have he Super B 165 amph along with 2 x 115 w solar panels and as aback up, although not yet used an EFOY generator.

Our usage is

Charge 2 x iPhones,2 x iPads, 2 x fitbits, 2 x Bosch 500 w bike batteries (although to be fair we have only been using these for three days,50 km per day) say one hours tv and satellite per day, fifteen minutes hairdryer etc per day, one hours ironing per week, 2 x electric toothbrushes, 3 x laptops at say one hour total per day along with an external hard drive. A mifi and iboost
Also we use the normal things like light steps pump etc
So far we have not had EHU for three weeks plus and have a full battery

PS and a spin dryer

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[Wissel]

We have he Super B 165 amph along with 2 x 115 w solar panels and as aback up, although not yet used an EFOY generator.

Our usage is

Charge 2 x iPhones,2 x iPads, 2 x fitbits, 2 x Bosch 500 w bike batteries (although to be fair we have only been using these for three days,50 km per day) say one hours tv and satellite per day, fifteen minutes hairdryer etc per day, one hours ironing per week, 2 x electric toothbrushes, 3 x laptops at say one hour total per day along with an external hard drive. A mifi and iboost
Also we use the normal things like light steps pump etc
So far we have not had EHU for three weeks plus and have a full battery

PS and a spin dryer

As you've mentioned them, how are you finding the Bosch 500w bikes?

 

[Alistair33]

Excellent although we've only had limited use. They are KTM bikes.

The first day we did 55km,the first 10km was a gentle down hill on an old rail line. But on the way back the last 10 was the same in reverse so the eco boost on say two thirds was a welcome relief.

We both find that even in the off possition we feel better able to pedal...... obviously in the mind, but we don't mid !

 

[Alistair33]

I'll have 320Ah of lithium batteries, so around 260Ah usable.

.

With our lithium, I'm told we are able to use 95% of the available power ... although we've been nowhere near that

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[Gromett]

For solar, I have 240 Watts and did have 500Ah of battery. I could do 9 months of the year on that if I was reasonably frugal.

On the NAS software front. Me personally I would just use Linux and the BTRFS file system. However if you want proper nas software then FreeNAS is what everyone else uses.
It is based on FreeBSD and is very highly rated.

Avoid using ZFS on such a lowly powered system though. ZFS is very memory hungry.

What ever filesystem you use, ensure it support COW and Snapshots, as well as the usual replication stuff.

http://www.freenas.org/

 

[Gromett]

PS: Avoid using Shingled drives in your NAS though. Use a single shingled drive as your backup..

I have an 8TB shingled drive as my backup. And then use BTRFS for snapshots/COW on the RAID array.

 

[Wissel]

For solar, I have 240 Watts and did have 500Ah of battery. I could do 9 months of the year on that if I was reasonably frugal.

On the NAS software front. Me personally I would just use Linux and the BTRFS file system. However if you want proper nas software then FreeNAS is what everyone else uses.
It is based on FreeBSD and is very highly rated.

Avoid using ZFS on such a lowly powered system though. ZFS is very memory hungry.

What ever filesystem you use, ensure it support COW and Snapshots, as well as the usual replication stuff.

http://www.freenas.org/

Thanks Gromett. Do you know roughly how many Ah you use per day?

Also, WD Red drives (4 or 6tb) are not shingled right?

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[Gromett]

Thanks Gromett. Do you know roughly how many Ah you use per day?

No idea sorry. Back then I was using quite a bit though as I had an old knackered compressor fridge and a power hungry laptop.
Possibly as much as 80AH a day...

Now, My usage is much lower, but I haven't monitored it in a while as I always go for hookup these days due to work.

 

[Gromett]

If I was planning from scratch now. I would be aiming for 500AH usable storage. So 500AH of Li or 1000AH of Pb... I would be aiming for 500Watts of solar.

That way I would know I had an excess of energy and be 100% guaranteed not to need to start a genny or find a hookup.

I did one year without hookup and managed a whole 9 months and only started the genny once. The next year we had a long period of clouded over sky, that year I had to do the genny once a week for about 6 weeks...

I could do better now days as my new laptop is very low power in comparison..

 

[Gromett]

Oh and on the Genny front, I would scrap my petrol one as the fuel has gone off in the genny and the tank. I would go for an electric start LPG one.

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[Gromett]

For solar panels I am looking at these to go with my LiFePO4 bank.


A minimum of 2.

As they are 24V I would parallel them up and feed this to a solar controller capable of 24 in and 12 v out..

I would also fit one on my trailer to power the inverter for my chest freezer..

 

[Gromett]

Also, WD Red drives (4 or 6tb) are not shingled right?

I don't believe so..

 

[Wissel]

Thanks again @Gromett

We are planning on being on sites probably half the time, but more in Winter than Summer. So we will have solar, plus if wilding will usually be moving after a few days and as you know - lithium is fast to charge when driving (with the right charger).

This is why i think 320Ah will be fine for us, but I'll build the system with adding more batteries in mind just in case.

The only time that could change is the middle of Summer as sites can be extortionate down here and I like the idea of spending a few Summers at Praa Sands I think 400w of solar should easily cover us at that time of year, but can always run the engine for a while if needed (won't have a genny).

Should be fine shouldn't we?

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[Gromett]

Yes, that will most definitely be fine if your usage is similar to mine... I just wanted to go a bit bigger to make sure for my own usage

 

[138go]

A 100w panel will give you 6 amps for each hour the sun really shines. Google search shows about 30 amps per day. You need to watch where you park. During the winter I got less than 1 amp per hour on some days with a 100w panel POINTING at the sun. 4 100w panels would give you more than enough during late spring / summer / early autumn you just need something extra during the winter when the WIND BLOWS .. Ahhh ..

Small wind turbine .. Will work when the sun goes to bed and supply reasonable amps during cold windy winters days.