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Words of Wisdom: I'm not sure people always grasp the concept of “minimum” either; they tend to think it means “all that you really need” when it fact it means “the least you can get away with provided everything else goes right”. After all, the sun does not shine brightly every day. – Cariboocoot1)
Solar (photovoltaic or PV) power is an excellent fit for 'dwellers and especially for boondockers. It is silent, nearly maintenance-free, and requires no infrastructure or grid.
Broadly speaking, solar power systems consist of panels to collect energy, house batteries to store energy, and charge controllers to regulate how those batteries get/stay charged.
Under normal use solar setups charge fully during the daytime and discharge at night; the lowest State of Charge will likely be just before sunrise. On a properly-sized deep cycle system the bank will have used no more than 50% of its capacity at this point. Then the sun comes up and charging begins again.
The most difficult part of a solar power system (other than paying for it!) is sizing it correctly for your needs.
When you use power from your system can be as important as how much power you use.
Solar sizing has been moved to its own page.
Most house banks and accessories are nominal 12v.
Reasons to go 12v:
Reasons to go 24v (or higher):
Cloud cover can have paradoxical effects:
Rainy weather causes a drop in current due to the cloud cover effect. An upside is it can wash dust off panels.
Dusty or snowy weather can cause a loss of output due to physical presence on the panels.
Panels yield the most power in cold temperatures. Since panels are dark and get very hot in the sun they are generally raised rather than directly mounted; this allows air circulation/cooling underneath.