Solar for Camp TV

Draw listed on the label is when its running. The comment on getting a kill-a-watt meter is right... and the Sudbury libraries have them on loan for free.

You'll need a solar panel and charge controller to maintain a battery, and an inverter for the battery to 120v conversion. The inverter will have losses as well. You're looking at a couple of batteries, a 100w panel, and all the bits and pieces. A friend just picked up one of these kits on amazon... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00B8L6EFA?...T1-EVAL-TBJQLT

Good price for a 100w panel and the charge controller. Now add two batteries... as you'll need a long enough backup for a couple of cloudy days. Assuming this is up there in the winter you'll also need to factor in reduced production due to snow on the panels.

A smaller inverter will have less standby losses.

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Originally Posted by JBen

If you need to leave it hooked up as you do, your probably going to run into more problems with the batteries, than the panels. Cold temps when your not there heating the camp, will gut them.

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Cold temps will allow the panels to over generate( an 80 watt may give you 86-90watts in the cold). A battery that is near a full charge will generate heat and in cold weather that helps the battery. What that means is that a battery that is being charged in cold temps will be heated by the charge current. This happens because the battery will never reach 100% in the cold. It will always be just short of 100% so the the charge current pushing against the INTERNAL resistance of the battery will make heat with in the battery case. You can trap that heat by insulating the batteries and preservation of heat keeps that batteries strong. A good use of this idea is to put a battery tender changer on you car battery and plug it in. The charger will top up the battery but because it can never get it to 100% it will keep you battery charged and "WARM".

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Originally Posted by northernontario

Draw listed on the label is when its running. The comment on getting a kill-a-watt meter is right... and the Sudbury libraries have them on loan for free.
A smaller inverter will have less standby losses.

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You should also tell him that his inverter is most efficient running at 80%. So a 100 watt inverter is most efficient supplying a 80 watt load. over or below 80% the net losses increase. It's like a car engine that gives the best fuel economy at 90Km/h above that the engine has to work too hard, and below that it's losing too much in gearing. Not a direct comparison but that is the idea.

That was a big question I had. The guy who gave me the satellite dish (I'm thinking now of going over to his place and punching him in the nose) has bits and pieces of stuff he wants to give me. I'd rather buy a compatible package. So, if I get a 100W panel for instance is the size of the inverter important?

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Originally Posted by sawbill

That was a big question I had. The guy who gave me the satellite dish (I'm thinking now of going over to his place and punching him in the nose) has bits and pieces of stuff he wants to give me. I'd rather buy a compatible package. So, if I get a 100W panel for instance is the size of the inverter important?

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The charging system and the inverter are different systems. The batteries are just a part that they both have in common. You have the inverter system with an inverter just a little bigger then you need, and a battery bank with enough reserve capacity to supply power. You have the charger system with solar panels that can deliver enough amps to recharge the batteries in the hours of daylight you have, and a battery bank that will be full charged in the hours of day light you have. I think I said before that the panels will still give you power as long as there is enough light on them but I will try to expend on the idea.

Lets say you have 6 hours of light per day and you are using two 80 watt panels( 160 watts total).
you will get:
3 hours of 100% power, 2 hours of 50% power, and an hour or 30% power, before and after that the controller will disconnect to protect the batteries.
So that breaks down to 3 hours of 10 to 12 amps( 30 to 36 Amp/hrs), 2 hours of 6 to 7.2 amps( 12 to 14.4 Amp/hrs) and one hour of 3 to 3.6 amps( 3 to 3.6 Amp/hrs)

All together you will get 45 to 54 Amp/hrs. That means that you have put 540 to 648 watts into your batteries to use. That comes up short of your 240 amp/hrs or 2880 watts per day. But the good news is that I don't think your receiver will be drawing a full amp when turned off. I suspect it will be only a few Milliamps.

Does your receiver have a power supply that you plug one end into the wall and the other end with a round plug that plugs into the receiver? Most of the Satellite receivers I have seen have a 12 DC input for power. If the receiver has a power supply with a 12 Volt output you can remove the inverter from the system and things get very simple. By that I mean even if your receiver draws 1 amps @12 Volts over 24 hours that is only 24 Amp/hrs or 288 watts. Only half(50%) of the amp/hrs or wattage your solar panels can put into the batteries.

I am working with 1 Amp only because I don't want to under estimate what you need. If you can tell me the output voltage and amps of your receiver's power supply that would help, because if you can feed it without an inverter it's a lot easier. Even if it's something like a 32V DC input it can be done.

Thanks Snowwaker.
the problem I run into though is at night when it can't charge. When the air around the battery is zero or below, I've woken up in the morning to a dead unit. I've taken to insulating it, and have been thinking about buying a small cooler I don't mind drilling a hole into.

My "solution " is portable power, as that's what I need. So it could just be a difference in the batteries. But yep, have learned when at deer camps, or other once into November and night temps drop below zero, if I can't keep it warm, it can be dead in the am.

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Originally Posted by darren123

Why not just buy a second dish they are a dime a dozen on kijiji. Bring it home and use it there as well.

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That would be the simplest and most cost effective way to solve your problem, unless you were already intending to set up a solar system for the camp. Mount a second hand dish, run coax to the receiver. Doesn't even need to be hooked up to a TV. Take it with you when you go, bring it home when you leave.

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Originally Posted by JBen

Thanks Snowwaker.
the problem I run into though is at night when it can't charge. When the air around the battery is zero or below, I've woken up in the morning to a dead unit. I've taken to insulating it, and have been thinking about buying a small cooler I don't mind drilling a hole into.

My "solution " is portable power, as that's what I need. So it could just be a difference in the batteries. But yep, have learned when at deer camps, or other once into November and night temps drop below zero, if I can't keep it warm, it can be dead in the am.

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What are you running with the battery? a C-pap? and how often and how long between charges? If it is a c-pap, don't play around with minimal gear you need to breath. A long hard day in the fresh air, a big meal and a drink( or a few) with friends and you may not even notice when you choke to death.

Hehe. Don't want to take away from Sawbills enquiry. Listed that stuff to give him a rough idea, of draw, watts, charge and battery capacities. The stuff works for me because I need portable power. I don't go back to the same places often, am in the field a fair bit. Have cameras to keep charged, my laptop occasionally needed because I'll be generating tons of pics and need to download them, and for convenience to power lights.

Will say when "not in use" I tend to keep trickle charging it, or if not that, plug it in to AC once a month, to keep it cycling.

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Originally Posted by JBen

Hehe. Don't want to take away from Sawbills enquiry..

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Not a problem in the least! Good information being exchange here even if I have to have a friend interpret most of it for me.