Solar for Camp TV

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Originally Posted by sawbill

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.

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I guess sending you schematics to build a 30Amp Solar charge control would not help then....:joker:


Did you look at the back of your receiver and see if it has a 12 Volt power socket? Most model of receivers I have seen have a 12 Volt socket. The power supply for you receiver has a list on one side...

Input: this will be 120 Volts AC
output: This will be 12 Volts DC

What model of receiver do you have? If you tell me the model I can look up all the info I need.

Brought the receiver in from camp today so this is what I have:
Model:DE01, DE04, DE06
There is also a sticker with a model no. 3100 which maybe refers to the Main board.
Connections on the back: Satellite In, S Video, Rt Audio, Lt Audio, Video, TV Set Out, TV Antennae/Cable in, Phone.
There's also a small channel switch 4 & 3.
The power cord is 120V~60Hz, 40 watts
On the front of the receiver it has Bell ExpressVu 3100

.....and I don't know where the face came from!

Simple,

Buy the 40 watt package at CTC http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/0112043P.html or Princess Auto. I got when it was on sale for $79.00. It comes with a charge controller and everything needed to charge a battery. Mount on a wall out side with a good used or new 12 battery. I charge during the day if I am not parked in full sun lite and it is enough for 6hrs of watching a 19" LED TV, with laptop connected to play movies in the truck camper.
Attachment 34036

The LED TV is 40watts .38 amps
The laptop draws 30watts when charging .26 amps
I have the cheap 200Watt inverter from CTC (draws .4 amps under heavy load)

I only charge the laptop in full sun lite when charging battery.

About 1 amp for system

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Originally Posted by line052

The LED TV is 40watts .38 amps
The laptop draws 30watts when charging .26 amps

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Your numbers are off just a bit. Your tv and laptop( well charging) do draw .38 and .26 amps but the is at 120 volts AC. The total load on your battery including loses in the inverter is around 6 amps @12 v DC.
You system supplys 165 watt/hrs and the load( tv and laptop) only draw 72watt/hrs.
I assume you are running the laptop off it's internal battery when watching tv.

By the way you can add a scond panel to your system up to a maximum of 80 watts between all panels. 40watts X 2 or one 80 watt panel. That would charge the battery faster, over let you charge a larger battery or battery bank. If you plan to add more batteries, you have to add them together, and do NOT mix old with new. If you dicided to add a second 40 watt panel and have two batteries, you need to buy two new batteries. You can not just add a second battery to the system, because the old battery would damage the new one.


There is a 10 to 1 ratio between the amps. To supply 1 amp @ 120v AC the inverter has to draw 10 amps at 12v DC. 1 amp at 120v AC is 120watts. Amps X volts equals watts. 10 amps at 12v DC is 120watts. Or for 120watts at 120v you need 1 amp. For 120 watts at 12v you need 10 amps.

Ok, got the Kill-A-Watt from the library and the receiver shows .16 amps while turned off. Thankfully, that's a lot less than the 1 amp you were working with in your examples. Now all I need to know is how large a panel and inverter that will give me some elbow room and I'm off to the races.

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Originally Posted by sawbill

Ok, got the Kill-A-Watt from the library and the receiver shows .16 amps while turned off. Thankfully, that's a lot less than the 1 amp you were working with in your examples. Now all I need to know is how large a panel and inverter that will give me some elbow room and I'm off to the races.

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Yes it is. I was using 1 amp at 120 volts....10 amps at 12volts.

So here is the numbers
Your receiver use: 38.4 amp/hrs ( just call it 40amp/hrs) at 12 volts DC.
That is 460.8 watt/hrs( just call it 500 watt/hrs).

So here is the easy part..
Since you only have to prove .16 amp at 120 volts or 19.6 watts...You can use any small inverter you like., but spend a couple dollars and get a good brand( cobra or ct model).

CT has a deep cycle battery ( product # 10-3199-6) it would give you almost three days run time without recharging it(100% discharge..)

As for solar panels I would not go with less the a 100watt panel. That will give you about 40.8amp/hrs in six hours of day light.

In the real world I would want to double that to a 200 watts panel ( two 100 watt panels or combination to make 200 or more watts).

If you had three hundred watts of panels, two of the batteries, a charge controller that can handle 25 amps or more( CT sells a nice digital that handle 30 amps), you should have more then enough so you would not have to worry.

CT sells 150 watt panels for about 600 each. Solar panels have a 25 to 30 year life on average but with care they can last a few decades. You are looking at dropping a few bucks, but the system ( except batteries. They have a five year life span) will last for 30 to 40 years.

Guess the price tag is the hard part.

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Originally Posted by Snowwalker

CT has a deep cycle battery ( product # 10-3199-6) it would give you almost three days run time without recharging it(100% discharge..)

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OK, just so I understand: The 3 days run time you refer to is the time I will get out of the receiver while turned off, and being charged at the same time by the solar panel.
Once I go back to camp I can fire up the generator and fully charge the battery. I'll be away for a month holiday in Texas so I'll have to disconnect the receiver, bring it home and plug it in here. This make sense?

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Originally Posted by Snowwalker

In the real world I would want to double that to a 200 watts panel ( two 100 watt panels or combination to make 200 or more watts).

If you had three hundred watts of panels, two of the batteries, a charge controller that can handle 25 amps or more( CT sells a nice digital that handle 30 amps), you should have more then enough so you would not have to worry.

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Very similar to what I run at my camp:

- 200 amp-hours of 100% discharge deep cycle battery
- 200 watts of solar panel
- 400 watts of windmill (for those snow covered months)
- 12 V LED lighting
- 12 V on demand water pump
- 12 V LCD TV/DVD player (draws 19 watts combined when running) - no satellite.
- 1500W continuous 1750W peak pure sine inverter for charging cordless tools, etc..

After 6 to 7 days use with 3 or 4 guys during the rifle hunt in november the lowest the battery has gotten is 60% and that was a few years back when the weather was snow and overcast the entire week.

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Originally Posted by sawbill

Once I go back to camp I can fire up the generator and fully charge the battery. I'll be away for a month holiday in Texas so I'll have to disconnect the receiver, bring it home and plug it in here. This make sense?

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If you have a generator with a 12V output for direct charging or otherwise you will have to use a battery charger plugged into the generator. Alternatively you could probably use jumper cables off a running vehicle - perhaps Snowwalker could chime in on this as I am not sure if the charge rate would be problematic or not.