CaveVan Forum
Pictures and tall tales!! => Show off your projects here! => Topic started by: albertr on May 25, 2015, 02:04:44 pm
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Anyone installed solar batteries on EVC? How did you mount them and where did you run cables to charging controller?
I have about 12 mm clearance at the back of the van to garage door frame and that doesn't leave me much of the choice. Panels needs to be very flat and preferably light. I have found some bendable/flexible 100W panels on Amazon and thinking of mounting three of them serially. My charging controller is MorningStar which is MPPT type and supports input upto 150V.
I'm thinking on gluing some aluminum square tubes to rain gutters and use them as supporting rails for the panels.
Putting panels across the roof should give sufficient space to install three or even four panel.
Here're some of the pictures prototyping these mounts. Any feedback is much appreciated!
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_4851.jpg)
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_4854.jpg)
-albertr
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Those look really nice and fit great! I would worry about wind sneaking under them and tearing them off at 70 mph :o maybe some front and rear Z strips would prevent this. How are you going to attach to the pop top? It seems you would have to remove the interior liner, install the hardware, and then reinstall the liner.
Another option is to have remote panels that you can easily carry around and then plug them into the van exterior somewhere. That way you can put your panels in the sun and park in the shade 8) The panels could be stored in the upper bunk while traveling.
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I'm thinking of gluing aluminum square tube to the plastic roof directly with some two-component epoxy and using fiberglass cloth for reinforcement. No removing of interior liner would be necessary in this case.
Then I will glue the panels to the plastic roof and to the aluminum support rails with 3M 4000 adhesive.
Also planning to run aluminum 90' angle corner on top of it and bolt it down to support rails. I'm hoping that among aluminum corner and 3M 4000 adhesive it would have sufficient force to hold them down when driving at highway speeds.
I'm planning to close under panel opening in the front, but would leave the rear end open for ventilation.
My plan is to have everything attached permanently to the roof, don't want to deal with setting them up and packing/unpacking on every trip. Permanent installation looks compelling to me.
Still need to figure out how to run the cables from the rooftop to the solar charging controller inside the van. Will probably have to drill a hole thru the roof. Need to find a good location so it won't hit internal metal frame.
Let me know what do you think...
-albertr
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Found a passage to run the cables, it's in the rear of the roof just on opposite side from winnebago 12VDC cables. Plenty of space to run a couple of 10AWG wires up to the roof. Doesn't require to disassemble the roof layers, just need to drill a single hole through the roof.
-albertr
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Prototyping with three 100W panels. It's completely stealth when you look at it from the ground.
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5096.jpg)
-albertr
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You could use epoxy and fiberglass to do all your attaching of metal to the roof. It is readily made to fit all kinds of nooks and crannies and then can be nicely feathered into the original to make it look like it could be original. You can also add white colorant to the epoxy so it would look great! I really like the stealthy look!
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Yeah, I already played with epoxy and fiberglass on this van. Look at the last picture - the yellow spots on both sides of roof cargo carrier are molded aluminum plates reinforced with fiberglass and two-component epoxy. Worked out quite nicely, but I didn't bother to add a filler to match the color of original plastic.
-albertr
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Made a little progress this weekend. First, 3/4" aluminum square tubes were glued to the rain gutters with two-component epoxy and fiberglass cloth to use them for panel support:
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5147.jpg)
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5165.jpg)
Solar panels were glued to the plastic roof and alluminum support tubes with 3M 4000. Here's a shot of the first panel installed.
By the time I did all three of them, I got tired and forgot to take a final picture.
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5174.jpg)
-albertr
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All three panels installed. Haven't removed protective plastic film yet. I still want to add some aluminum corner on top of the supporting rails to re-enforce them, but ran out of 3M 4000 adhesive, so have to finish next weekend.
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5197.jpg)
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5202.jpg)
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5207.jpg)
Bench testing panels installed on the roof. Never had solar panels before, interesting that even in muggy cloudy day without direct sunlight three of these panels still pull more than 100W!
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5195.jpg)
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5194.jpg)
-albertr
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Wow that's looking great, some serious panel power and so streamline, those things are so thin. I will defiantly be looking into this type of mod in the future. I'd be interested to know around how much this project will end up costing with all the supplies.
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If you will be installing the same panels/hardware, for the costs of 300W project you can consider that:
- x3 bendable 100W panels - about $600 shipped (fleabay is less expensive than Amazon)
- MPPT charging controller - a good one like MorningStar TS-MPPT-30 is about $300 shipped plus $80 for a monitor
- aluminum alloy hardware to fab support rails and mounts - around $100 or so from your local hardware store
- good quality adhesive - around $60 if you are as liberal with applying it as I was (I had to buy x4 10 oz. cartridges - that's 40 oz.!). If you will be using 3M 4000, don't buy a large sausage pack, a 10 oz. cartridge is much more easy to work with.
- good fine-stranded silicone-insulated wires - 10AWG or 8AWG (fleabay is your friend) - about $20
Comes to around $1,160.
However, for additional $200 you can have 400W installed. I've just decided to go with 300W, but 400W is a possibility.
-albertr
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I installed the same panels on my rialta. Write on my blog page: http://hbrialta.wordpress.com (http://hbrialta.wordpress.com). Completely different installation but someone may find it useful as the components are more or less the same.
If you haven't already figured out how to fish the wires, take a look at this: http://gpelectric.com/products/cable-entry-plate (http://gpelectric.com/products/cable-entry-plate)
(http://gpelectric.com/files/gpelectric/styles/galleria_zoom/public/images/products/Cable_Entry_Plate_quick-connection_rendering2.png?itok=bmNz1hMC)
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For how long do you have them on your Rialta? I put them on last month and I already see some plastic deforming under the summer sun heat... Just curious how reliable they were for you?
I already did the wiring, cut off all the connectors and soldered everything ;-)
-albertr
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I only have one panel so far. It's been up there for 6 months and I haven't any significant signs of deformation. I taped mine down with 3M tape and dicor-ed the edges. Not as pretty as yours but it's flat and secure. I will likely install a second 50W on the opposite side of the van later on.
I'm consistently seeing 4-5A being generated under direct sunlight. ANY shade cuts the output down to a fraction of that. By having a second panel I hope to alleviate some of the shade effects. I was also planning on having a second 100W panel that I could store in the van and lay it on the ground as needed. Under ideal conditions, a single panel is barely enough to stay ahead of our usage pattern loads.
I think that for the amount of money I spent on this project, a smaller, dedicated trickle charger may have been a better option. The alternator does a MUCH better job at charging the batteries. The inner nerd gets a warm fuzzy when I see the charging light on so I guess it was worth it.
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It was definitely worth it for me. Every watt matters, and sunlight is free as far as I'm concerned. Still trying to find a high-output alternator (250A +) for EuroVan so I can charge my house batteries while driving. My original alternator is 120A and is not up to the task of charging 300Ah house batteries ;-)
Once alternator issue is solved, I'm hoping to become completely self-sufficient and should be able to ditch shoreline and my portable propane generator altogether.
-albertr
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The issue with self-deforming in one of these bendable panels turned out to the internal defect in one of its solar cells. It developed short circuit and rapidly overheated melting plastic and catching up fire! Luckly I was around when it happened and saw smoke and fire flames coming up the roof!
Before putting the fire off, I had to grab my camera to make this "historical" shot below... brand new panel (still has protective plastic on) is burning in flames!
(http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/IMG_5787.jpg)
Can only imagine what it could possibly do to EVC plastic roof...
-albertr
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Yikes!!!! :(
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Here's a full review of my solar panels setup: http://www.iral.com/~albertr/EVC/solar/solar.html
-albertr
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It was definitely worth it for me. Every watt matters, and sunlight is free as far as I'm concerned. Still trying to find a high-output alternator (250A +) for EuroVan so I can charge my house batteries while driving. My original alternator is 120A and is not up to the task of charging 300Ah house batteries ;-)
Once alternator issue is solved, I'm hoping to become completely self-sufficient and should be able to ditch shoreline and my portable propane generator altogether.
-albertr
Why won't the 120A alternator do the job...wouldn't it just take longer?
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120A alternator doesn't cut for me. My battery charger draws more that 50A and there's no way I can limit it.
I have upgraded to 220A alternator since then and it works fine to power up my charger if engine RPMS are above idle.
-albertr
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There are flexible solar panels meant for boat decks which I think are made in France. Am asking if anyone has mounted these inside of rigid glass-covered panels. Theoretically, these would result in even less height addition, and also remove the air space underneath.
Thanks
W. Li