Renogy Solar on 20% sale memorial day

[daleyocum]

I’m not associated with Renogy, just a satisfied customer of their solar panels but it seems they are having a site-wide 20% off sale this memorial day weekend. The Renogy Eclipse panels are the gold standard, in my opinion, for their performance and compact size.

[QC TORPEDO]

Which Renology did you buy? Was it plug and play into the Zamp plug on the trailer? Did your Renology come with the charge controller? Where did you purchase it? Did you purchase any add-ons, like an extension cable?
Thanks,

[Paprika]

Agreed--Renogy's Eclipse panels have served me well for years. They have the best combination of watts per square inch (in other words, you can fit more Eclipse panels on your roof) and reasonable price that I've found.

Most solar panels, including Renogy's Eclipse panels, don't have a built-in controller; they expect that you will supply a more sophisticated/efficient controller than the ones built onto some individual panels. And most panels that RVers would be interested in use MC4 connectors, so they won't be plug-and-play compatible with Airstream's Zamp-supplied setup, which uses automotive SAE connectors.

In short, Zamp panels with built-in controllers and SAE plugs are quick and easy to connect to an Airstream. But because of their low-cost, low-tech controllers, they're not the most efficient, especially in a multi-panel setup. If you want to upgrade to two or more panels, Renogy Eclipse panels plus an MPPT controller such as Victron's 75/15 will get you more power from the same roof real estate... but you'll have to do some rewiring.

(Note that the company is Renogy, not "Renology." I only mention it because you won't find them if you search resellers for the latter spelling.)

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by daleyocum

I’m not associated with Renogy, just a satisfied customer of their solar panels but it seems they are having a site-wide 20% off sale this memorial day weekend. The Renogy Eclipse panels are the gold standard, in my opinion, for their performance and compact size.

Thanks. I ordered 2 - 50W flexible panels with the discount and free shipping. I just want to maintain my flooded batteries while my Avenue is sitting and the factory 25W (don't laugh, I know it's tiny) is not up to the task.

(Just a note: The old flexible panel is 7 years old and remarkably still working fine as on a few really sunny days I've seen 23W registering on my Victron 75/15 solar controller. However, that's still only 1.3A max and I've only seen it occasionally. It's usually much less and around .5A of charging into the batteries. It can never get the batteries into float and after a week they are consistently resting at 12.45v overnight.)

Using a flexible panel is really my only alternative due the curve of the Avenue's fiberglass roof. Plus there is extremely limited space, but the new 50W panel is only two inches wider and four inches longer so it fits there.

My reason for buying two panels was if the other one should fail in a few years (as flexible's are reported to do), I'll have an exact replacement that is plug and play and won't require the drilling of any additional holes. Maybe I can even find a loication for the other 50W to boost my solar charging to 100W.

I've equalized my flooded batteries regularly and keep them properly filled. If I can get 2-3 amps consistently for 3-5 hours per day with the new panel, shouldn't that keep the batteries topped up? If not, maybe it's time to replace them.

[daleyocum]

Originally Posted by QC TORPEDO

Which Renology did you buy? Was it plug and play into the Zamp plug on the trailer? Did your Renology come with the charge controller? Where did you purchase it? Did you purchase any add-ons, like an extension cable?
Thanks,

I have five of the Renogy Eclipse 100w solid panels on the roof and a 100w portable Renogy suitcase. I use the portable for times where we are in deep shade and the sun is 50’ or less away. I had the portable left over from our previous RV so I rewired it to feed directly into our AS’s solar controller. It came with it’s own PWM controller which was okay with our old trailer but our current one has a fancier, more efficient MPPT controller, so it was better to let it do the charging.

[GMFL]

The Renogy Eclipse Panels are currently 18% off and if you use this link and enter Airstreamnutsandbolts as the coupon/discount code at checkout for an additional 5% off. THATS 23% OFF with FREE SHIPPING
SO USE THE LINK BELOW
http://www.renogy.com/?afmc=AirstreamNutsandBolts