Solar!

When we were in Virginia, we got the solar panels placed on the roof of Gracie (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2020/07/on-road-again-but-first.html) but we didn't get them wired in to provide power to our batteries. Since we are planning to head out to Quartzsite where we'll be boondocking in the desert next week, we prioritized getting the panels wired in during the time we have been on the lot in Mesa. Carl was a little concerned about drilling through the roof to run the wires, so we contacted a local RV Mobile Technician to work on this with Carl.

The RV mobile mechanic, Mike, has created the connection from the roof down into the rig, with the wires you see on the roof heading off connecting to the solar panels. You can also see the mini-solar panel that was provided by Newmar to help to keep the engine batteries charged.

The panels were wired together...

... we had intended to wire the 4 panels as 2 sets of 2 in parallel, but for now, they are all wired in series. The choice on this is due to the fact that if portions of a panel are shaded, it may take the whole panel out of service, which would take all the panels wired together in series out of service. If we have them wired as 2 sets of 2 in parallel, and the shade is affecting only one panel or one pair of panels, the other pair could still produce electricity to our batteries.

In addition, if the panel is not receiving direct sunlight, it won't provide optimum power output. So, we can raise the panels to get better sun input during the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky). However, it can add to shading issues (as you may be able to see in this picture with the cover over our ceiling vent fan shading the middle of the three panels).

Raising the panels also helps with washing the roof, which was another to-do on our list!

After washing the roof, we applied wax to help the roof stay cleaner.

Much easier with the panels raised.

Carl uses the monitors inside Gracie to determine how well the solar panels are performing.

Here, the panels are producing 430 watts out of the 640 watts that they are rated for.

Net positive 13.4 Amps DC are going in to the battery (above the power load that we had going at that time).

The wire comes in from the roof into window valance above the driver's seat and runs down the wall...

.. where it is wired inside the rig to the solar controller mounted on the wall just behind the driver's seat. There are also both a battery cut off and a solar panel cut off mounted on the floor.

After the mobile RV tech had finished doing the wiring, we put wire loom on and cable-tied the wiring to the mounting points to keep it from rubbing (and getting damaged) during travel.

Then we let the panels back down and bolted them into place in preparation for traveling the first week of January.

Carl also checked out the wiring in the battery bay and made sure that the batteries have sufficient water. With the solar charging, the batteries will probably require more water as they will go through more charge/discharge cycles.

We will probably need to replace the aging flooded lead-acid batteries in the not-too-distant future, but they are serving our needs right now. We'd like to get AGMs (Absorbent Glass Mat) or Lithium -- Lithium would require quite a bit of additional research and possible reconfiguration of our battery compartment.