The following from a number of years experience as a power company communications tech with mountain top solar radio repeater sites and a long-time RV solar and wind power user.
Mounting solar panels in a flat position may turn out to be the most practical. The conventional way is to angle them towards the sun at an angle equal to your latitude, but even at 46 degrees here in Montana the difference in output between 0 and 46 degrees is only about 7%. Hardly worth the trouble of dealing with the mechanics of angle mounting or seasonal adjustment. At Wayne's lower latitude, this is even more the case. Our RV has 12A worth of panels and they're mounted flat on the roof. They charge four Trojan T-145 6V (440AH) golf cart batteries (via a regulator) and we've never run short of power. BTW, the batteries have been in service for almost 12 years. There's a 1500W inverter for the TV, SatTV receiver, computer(s), etc. The one thing we don't do is power the 1000W microwave oven via the inverter. It requires 90 amps from the batteries to operate the microwave and I hesitate to draw that from the battery for long periods of time for fear of warping the plates. I also have a small Air 403 windmill that mounts to the RV's rear bumper that's good for 25A in a stiff breeze. It also gets lots of interest from other RV'ers. Especially at the Quartzite, AZ gathering. (:-) 73! Ken - K0PP ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
