We added a portable 200 Watt, 12VDC Monocrystalline Renogy Solar Foldable Solar Suitcase that charges our battery via an added SAE Port mounted through the floor of the battery compartment which keeps it out of sight and out of the weather. This SAE Port is connected to an added terminal block on the interior side of the battery compartment that is connected directly to the battery using Anderson SB350 Connectors rated for disconnecting/connecting the battery with a 450A active load. This SAE Port is protected with an ATC 30A fuse. We use one 10 feet long and two 20 feet long 10AWG Renogy Solar Panel Extension Cables that enables us to place our solar suitcase at either a 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 feet distance from the added SAE Port. We use a SAE to MC4 adapter to connect these extension cables to our added SAE Port while properly placing the IP67 waterproof and 20A charge current rated Renogy Voyager Solar Charge Controller in very close proximity to our battery as is required for good charging performance.
We also have a SAE to Anderson adapter to enable using this added SAE Port for other applications such as powering our 12VDC air compressor which we use for inflating tires and for blowing air out of our Casita trailer plumbing when Winterizing it and powering our spare backup Casita trailer OEM water pump (FloJet model R3526144D) setup which we use to enable easier potable water tank filling from 6 gallon jugs.
We also replaced our Casita trailer OEM 12VDC lead acid battery with a Renogy 100AH LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Self-Heating Battery...and modified it to enable providing a 300A maximum discharge current. For LiFePO4 lithium batteries, it is recommended to use 13.6VDC (i.e., the lower Idle Stage charging voltage) for battery charging calculations. Our 200 Watt solar panels use a 75% efficient, low cost, simple and robust Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) solar charge controller which can generate a maximum charge current of 11.0A (i.e., 0.75 times 200 Watts divided by 13.6VDC). We could fully charge a 100% depleted 100AH lithium battery in 9.1 hours (i.e., 100AH divided by 11.0A) under perfect solar conditions…and perhaps twice that long (18.2 hours) under marginal solar conditions. However, in reality, we will at most only need to fully charge 50% of our battery capacity (i.e., our worst case battery depletion given our worst case 24 hour maximum power usage rate) which will take 4.5 hours (i.e., 50AH divided by 11A) under perfect solar conditions...and perhaps twice that long (9 hours) under marginal solar conditions. If one elects to use a 98% efficient but much more complicated and expensive Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) solar charge controller which can generate a maximum charge current of 14.4A (i.e., 0.98 times 200 Watts divided by 13.6VDC), this time can be reduced to 3.5 hours (i.e., 50AH divided by 14.4A) under perfect solar conditions...and perhaps twice that long (i.e., 7 hours) under marginal solar conditions. Bottom line, we will always be able to adequately replenish our 100AH lithium battery with our 200 Watt solar panels with only 4.5 to 9 hours of solar exposure. So we think our 100AH lithium battery, our 200 Watt solar panels and our low cost, robust 20A rated PWM solar charge controller is about perfect for our Casita trailer.
Our portable solar suitcase in concert our added 100AH lithium battery and our added Renogy 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter easily satisfies all our 12VDC long duration power needs (e.g., our electronic monitoring, entertainment, internet, lighting, etc.) and easily satisfies all of our 120VAC short duration power needs (e.g., our coffee maker, hair dryer, microwave oven, toaster oven, toilet heated bidet seat, vacuum, etc.) without needing to operate our small Honda EU2200i propane modified generator when shore power isn’t available. Our only long duration 120VAC power need is our rarely needed air conditioning system (i.e., we can often keep our small reflective white trailer in the shade when camping in hot weather) and we can easily and economically operate our air conditioning system using our propane generator. Our portable solar suitcase enables us to easily and quickly move and place it in sunny locations to address the reality that these sunny locations often change over the course of the day when camping in forested areas.
As long as we can source food, water and propane, we can very comfortably dry camp forever in remote and scenic locations.
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