battery capacity with solar panels

[rtatum]

Greetings, All.

I am a new Reflection 150 278BH owner. Took if on a shakedown weekend and was very happy with it. We are planning on going into a national park camping area in August. My question is - will the solar panels charge the battery enough to run the fridge overnight and is there a way to run my cpap machine off the battery over night and is there enough power stored to add that in?

Thank you.
Ross

[Conner58]

Run at home and see if it will only way to find out for sure .
If its a lead acid battery i doubt it will even be close.

[jkwilson]

GD isn’t very informative as to whether you have the 165W or 370W solar system or what size your refrigerator is, and since the dealer installs the battery, we have no guess as to its capacity.

Lights and your water pump will put a load on the battery as will the CPAP. The load from the refrigerator will vary with temperature so it’s hard to guess. It draws about 7A when running, so if it runs 50% of the time, it will use about half the output of the panels during daylight and use up about 42AH overnight.

My guess is you will run out of power the second night and never catch up.

Camping in an RV without shore power and no generator is something you don’t want to try without a little practice IMO. Even if the practice is just a weekend at home, it will help.

[Soundsailor]

Greetings, All.

I am a new Reflection 150 278BH owner. Took if on a shakedown weekend and was very happy with it. We are planning on going into a national park camping area in August. My question is - will the solar panels charge the battery enough to run the fridge overnight and is there a way to run my cpap machine off the battery over night and is there enough power stored to add that in?

Thank you.
Ross

Hey Ross (@rtatum), looks like you're new here, welcome to the forum. Hope you're enjoying the new coach.

First off, you don't say which 12-volt refrigerator you have. We have the 16 cf one and it draws at least 4 Ah (Amps per hour), if you have the smaller one it might be 3 A per hour. Over a 24-hour period that's 96 Ah that you need to run the refrigerator alone. The stock lead acid is usually 100 Ah, but only 50 Ah are useable since lead acid batteries can be damaged when discharged beyond 50%. You'll also need to run the lights, water pump, and other things. So the short answer is no, the stock battery will probably not be enough. You will get some charging from the solar panel, in Texas probably about 80 Ah with good sun in a day.

I'd recommend a good LiFePo4 battery, probably 200 Ah would be enough for basic needs. On the other hand, you mention your CPAP. If you want to be able to use AC-powered appliances you'll need an inverter. Your model comes with "inverter prep" which makes it fairly easy to add an inverter. Probably a 2,000 or 3,000-watt inverter will do the trick although you could get by with a much smaller one if all you want to run is the CPAP.

[rtatum]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Very helpful. Have a good one.
Ross

[jmbopp]

I don't use a CPAP, but people who do say to turn the heater off to conserve battery power.

[SolarPoweredRV]

Greetings, All.

I am a new Reflection 150 278BH owner. Took if on a shakedown weekend and was very happy with it. We are planning on going into a national park camping area in August. My question is - will the solar panels charge the battery enough to run the fridge overnight and is there a way to run my cpap machine off the battery over night and is there enough power stored to add that in?

Thank you.
Ross

First, I would take the CPAP machine out of the equation. I would buy a portable battery like the Jackery, or Bluetti to run my CPAP. I would probably get a unit that could power the CPAP for two or three nights (even with the heater on).

Next, based on what you have said, I would install at least 200ah of Lithium batteries (LiFePo4) in place of your existing Lead Acid battery(ies).

I would then take my rig to a campground with hookups and not use them to test out how long my new Lithium batteries will last (camping just like you intend to do in the National Park). The nice thing about camping with hookups nearby is that you can plug in and charge your batteries if you run short of energy storage.

One additional piece of information: Your Converter may not be compatible with your new Lithium batteries (some newer coaches have Lithium compatible Converters already installed). If your Converter is not Lithium compatible, your converter will only be able to charge your new batteries to 60 - 80%, however, your Solar system's Charge Controller should have a Lithium compatible setting and you can rely on the Solar system to charge your new batteries to 100%. Just keep in mind that the Converter will not fully charge your batteries (if yours is not Lithium compatible) without help from the Solar system.

If your Converter is not the new Lithium compatible model, you can replace the Converter to get your batteries fully charged. Progressive Dynamics is the brand most recommended.