radarcontact
Senior Member
Here's a specific set of questions tiered to my camper's configuration.
I have a 2015 Hawk w/a 160W Zamp roof panel. My batteries are two 6V flooded 230ah connected in series. Everything below is based on dry camping with no shore power/truck battery/alternator charging.
I've done the calculations as far as an 'average' amp draw/day. I have a 110L frig, a couple of Fantastic fans, and LED lights. Won't bore you with my math, but I'm coming up short about 50-60A/day (or 3+ hours of charging time), if I figure I'm getting about 10 hours of charging time out of my solar panel in direct sunlight. If it's a sunny day and the day is long, I can get into absorption and sometimes float if all that's running is the frig on medium temp. setting. Otherwise, there's many days where I stay in bulk for a long time.
Because of this I'm thinking about adding on a portable panel. Here's my questions:
1) I have a Blue Sky MPPT controller. I also have a rear Zamp plug on the back of the camper, for adding additional panels. Looks like I would need a separate controller for that plug, as I don't see any additional wires that I could connect into the Blue Sky controller. As far as I can tell from my research here and other places, I can connect, say, an 80W panel with, say, a 10A controller into that plug, as long as I put a Zamp-type plug on that controller. Mixing two controllers of different amperages shouldn't screw anything up, because each controller operates independently, and senses the battery voltages independently....?
2) Zamp has a parallel Y connector that I'm wondering would be of use:
https://backcountrysolar.com/products/parallel-solar-panel-y-connector
If I plug this into my rooftop Zamp connection, could I forget about the rear plug, connect both the rooftop and portable panels to the Y connector, and run them both off the Blue Sky controller? Seems like a more elegant solution. I would be mixing 160W panel with an 80W or 60W, but I think I'm OK on that.
3) If I didnt do #2 above, does anyone know of a not-too difficult way to tap into the rear Zamp plug line that goes directly to the battery, and wire it so that it goes to my Blue Sky controller first?
Sorry for the lengthy post. I think you electrical guys out there get the gist of what I'm trying to do. Any thoughts/input would be greatly appreciated.
I have a 2015 Hawk w/a 160W Zamp roof panel. My batteries are two 6V flooded 230ah connected in series. Everything below is based on dry camping with no shore power/truck battery/alternator charging.
I've done the calculations as far as an 'average' amp draw/day. I have a 110L frig, a couple of Fantastic fans, and LED lights. Won't bore you with my math, but I'm coming up short about 50-60A/day (or 3+ hours of charging time), if I figure I'm getting about 10 hours of charging time out of my solar panel in direct sunlight. If it's a sunny day and the day is long, I can get into absorption and sometimes float if all that's running is the frig on medium temp. setting. Otherwise, there's many days where I stay in bulk for a long time.
Because of this I'm thinking about adding on a portable panel. Here's my questions:
1) I have a Blue Sky MPPT controller. I also have a rear Zamp plug on the back of the camper, for adding additional panels. Looks like I would need a separate controller for that plug, as I don't see any additional wires that I could connect into the Blue Sky controller. As far as I can tell from my research here and other places, I can connect, say, an 80W panel with, say, a 10A controller into that plug, as long as I put a Zamp-type plug on that controller. Mixing two controllers of different amperages shouldn't screw anything up, because each controller operates independently, and senses the battery voltages independently....?
2) Zamp has a parallel Y connector that I'm wondering would be of use:
https://backcountrysolar.com/products/parallel-solar-panel-y-connector
If I plug this into my rooftop Zamp connection, could I forget about the rear plug, connect both the rooftop and portable panels to the Y connector, and run them both off the Blue Sky controller? Seems like a more elegant solution. I would be mixing 160W panel with an 80W or 60W, but I think I'm OK on that.
3) If I didnt do #2 above, does anyone know of a not-too difficult way to tap into the rear Zamp plug line that goes directly to the battery, and wire it so that it goes to my Blue Sky controller first?
Sorry for the lengthy post. I think you electrical guys out there get the gist of what I'm trying to do. Any thoughts/input would be greatly appreciated.