Solar Panels - Information and Questions

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The final part of my comments - If you rely on only one method to charge a battery, the law of averages and probabilities will at some time see things go wrong. The best setups have some redundancy.

These include - a DC-DC charger, 240 VAC genny charging and/or a spare charged battery, or even other lighting sources such as a headlight or gas light.

Redundancy planning becomes more critical when running something like a fridge. If things go wrong here, you lose food, go hungry or cut a long awaited trip very short.

I run an Engel in the rear of the 4x4 from a 100 AH AGM. I have 2 primary charging options, a DC-DC charger when driving and a 110 W panel on the roof when stopped. If solar is not cutting it, I can go for a drive. :)

And before someone picks up on the fact that my panel is not 2 x the battery size, this is a deliberate "mistake". I don't have room on the 4x4 roof for a bigger panel, plus the DC-DC was the original method of charging, so I'm using a mix of methods. The key thing is the BMS (Battery Monitor), so I know what the battery is doing.

I should add that as I carry a 2 kVA genset, I have other redundancy, lol.
 

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