Bendable Solar Panels and Compressor Refrigerators

[camper101]

Jim (or anybody else),

What did you use to make your electrical connections on the roof: butt splices from the panel wire to your plug wiring, or something fancier?

I can do butt splices no problem, but never learned how to solder (yet)... Seems like you want to seal up the connection really well -- lots of good tape and/or heatshrink I'd guess.

BTW your shorter wiring looks nice.

 

[photohc]

Best to seal the connection with Silicon Tape. This one.
This tape becomes waterproof as you stretch and wrap around the electrical connection. As you stretch and wrap the tape around it's self, the tape will self bond and create a very good water seal. To remove, use a razor and lightly cut and the tape will spring off the connection.

 

[billharr]

I like the tape. I did not have any so I soldered and used heat shrink tubing I put on before I soldered the wires. Note my wires are under my panel so no direct rain.


Bill

 

[billharr]

Jim did my first weekend with the 100 watt panel installed. Here are volt readings, don't have that fancy Trimetric gage so I have added what was running.

Friday 10:00 am 13.9 volts. Turned on fridge and dropped to 13.3 volts.

Saturday 7:00 am (dark) fridge running and loaded 12.7 volts left for the WTW Rally
12 noon 13.4 volts fridge running.

Sunday 7:00 am (dark) fridge and heater running 12.4
4:30 pm home turned off the fridge 13.06 volts.

I did not plug in the 120 watt Solar in a bag, not sure if I will need it if I move the truck each day. May if cloudy.


Bill

 

[camper101]

Thank you - got some tape on the way. Sounds better than what I was going to use (Scotch Super 88 and heat shrink), and it will be on the roof so I think it's worth it.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Camper 101
I used butt connectors, black electrical tape, then covered wire with plastic ribbed wire wrap sealed with tape . Since wire is off the roof and it doesn't rain much in SoCal. I'm going to take a chance that the joint will stay dry. Plan to check it every 6 months

Harv.s Silicone tape is better than regular electrical tape.

It never occurred to me to solder the joint. . That plus the silicone tape is very good if you can solder. Not very difficult to learn though. Buy soldering iron and solder at your electronic supply store, Some sell "How To" books or check Utube. Then just practice. till you are comfortable.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Bill I assume your start readings were with the panel in sun. Great readings . Roof panel is doing its job.

After 3 days in carport engine off - Just monitor load, our camper battery was down to 80%. I plugged in my shell shore power and after 36 hours percent of full - 91%. The charger maintainer says battery is full when voltage registers 13.6. Then amp charge drops to point 1 amp voltage cycles between 13.6 and 13,7 (only monitor Load). This morning after another 10 hours percent had increased to 94%. Unplugging shell-shore power voltage reading drop back to 12.9 after about an hour.

Ran some errands this morning for 3 hours. Battery now at 100%. Voltage 13.0

 

[DonC]

Do you guys just leave the wires laying on the roof? Don't they get blown around? What are the options for securing them to the roof?

 

[camper101]

Do you guys just leave the wires laying on the roof? Don't they get blown around? What are the options for securing them to the roof?

I used something like this: http://www.lowes.com/pd_292685-1781-45-1MBUVL_0__?productId=3128405

Make sure you get UV resistant. It's stuck to the roof with adhesive.

Caveat: it's only been on about a month and a half, but I've made plenty of trips around town and it survived the arctic snap (I'm finally giving it a 5 hour drive today, and that oughta yank those wires. Been a long wait). I know some people are only comfortable with something that's screwed in to the roof.

Really, I don't know how much the wires move around, but somebody did mention some scuffing around MC4 connectors(?). I have 2 of these on the roof, but on one the zip ties isn't closed -- I was waiting for some reason. From what I can tell, things haven't moved around much.

 

[craig333]

Mine are secured with adel clamps. Small self tappers covered with sealeant hold them down.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

January 17th 2015

 

[100acrehuphalump]

You guys ROCK !! Thank you for starting this thread and to all of you for your hard work and testing and posting of results. I've seen the light! So to speak...

 

[enelson]

Two 90W Global Solar peel and stick panels. I used vacuum bagging equipment from my boat project to suck the panels down to the roof. They are very well stuck. The solar electrical connectors were cut off and copper crimp rings from Lowes were used for the connections. The connections are sealed with a 3-layer concoction of of electrical tape, liquid electrical tape, and self fusing silicon tape. The wire runs were then taped down with foil tape from Lowes. The setup as seen in the pics has done several weekend trips and a high speed trip from CO to AZ and back without issue.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

eNelson
From the picture I can't see the location of the solar plug on your roof. Do you have the FWC factory plug or did you make your own?

The "perfectionist" in me doesn't like the raised cable loop (see picture) on our roof. I have been considering buying another male plug and increasing the loop size to lower the cable. Wish there was a 45 degree angle SAE plug available. So far none of us can locate a source? Anyone out there seen one?

 

[craig333]

I just knew mine was going to grab a tree branch one day and get ripped off.

Which is why I eliminated that connection.

If I need to remove it someday I'll add a connector inline closer to the panel.

 

[camper101]

The "perfectionist" in me doesn't like the raised cable loop (see picture) on our roof. I have been considering buying another male plug and increasing the loop size to lower the cable. Wish there was a 45 degree angle SAE plug available. So far none of us can locate a source? Anyone out there seen one?

Craig333's approach will certainly work. Now that I look at it I'm not sure why I didn't just do that.

I made a connection to silicone wire and ran it through a little "box" about 3/4" tall. You can see all that at the bottom the first post here.

Edited to add a new photo...

 

[PaulT]

Zamp provides these 3 port roof caps to do what you want.

Using their bulkhead connectors, you should be able to make your own equivalent.

Paul

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

Thanks Paul. That is a great idea. I will check the 3 port out.

Would you please copy this reply over to DonC's post "My Solar Project" as the guys that miss this one can see it over there.

 

[enelson]

eNelson
From the picture I can't see the location of the solar plug on your roof. Do you have the FWC factory plug or did you make your own?

The "perfectionist" in me doesn't like the raised cable loop (see picture) on our roof. I have been considering buying another male plug and increasing the loop size to lower the cable. Wish there was a 45 degree angle SAE plug available. So far none of us can locate a source? Anyone out there seen one?

The hole is through the Fantastic Fan mount. The wires were pulled through the liner to the fan mount and out to the roof by Hallmark during manufacturing. I recall there is only Sikaflex sealing the hole and no connector or even a cable gland. I'll try and take a closer pic on the fan to show how the hole is positioned. The advantage is that there are no holes in the roof anywhere.

 

[RC Pilot Jim]

6 month Field Report

The glued panel has been on two 750 mile trips in wind, rain, and dust. Glue is holding just as well as when new.
No degradation in the wire splice. As the sun moves higher in the sky the amps are increasing. The recent March trip to Saline valley showed charging rate at 3.5 amps out of a possible 5.8. Range of charge 84% - 95% with 13.5 hours of darkness per day.

The Exide AGM will be 3 years old in April-May.

I was wondering if I should wait until it fails? or replace at the 5 year mark?