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How big of a battery do I need for a 160 Watt solar panel?
#1
I understand I need a deep cycle 12V battery. And I also understand that a battery shouldn't be used below 50% power. 

If I get one too big I might not be able to charge it up much past the 50% power mark, I might be only able to charge it to 60% then only have 10% use of it.

My question is; how big of a battery do I need for a 160 Watt solar panel?
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#2
Hop aboard , make a post in the welcome center forum telling us more about you , your rig and anything else you'dlike to share. So everybody has a chance to greet you .

Your IP indicates Luxemborg ? Is that right ? VPN ?

Need more info about your planned usage..
The uses you have for it are a factor here .
But skipping all that ,(dare I do that?) ~90 amphour capacity should be a good starting point.
stay tuned 
popeye


 Weirdo Overlord : FMS Fleet Ops , Awards , Badges ,  aka Tamerlane the Impaler Mod.
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#3
rvpopeye might know better than me.

I've always heard if you can afford to match your amp hours to solar wattage, you'll always have power. With having that knowledge I run out a lot of times with a 70 amp hour basis as being 50%, and my solar is 290w. I need bigger batteries Smile
Smile, laugh, it's free and makes others wonder what you are up too
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#4
^^^This is the reason for a power budget.
Brian

2000 Roadtrek 200 Versatile "The Beast" (it has been tamed hopefully)  I feed it and it doesn't bite me.   Angel
[-] The following 1 user says Thank You to B and C for this post:
  • frater secessus (07-17-2019)
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#5
Yep! New batteries are arriving before the end of the year Smile
Smile, laugh, it's free and makes others wonder what you are up too
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#6
You need to approach it from the other end. How much power do you plan on using? This will dictate the size of the batteries and then the solar size. Your devices will say how much power they use, multiply this by the numbers of hours of use and add all together. This is your power budget.

You are now the power company.
Brian

2000 Roadtrek 200 Versatile "The Beast" (it has been tamed hopefully)  I feed it and it doesn't bite me.   Angel
[-] The following 1 user says Thank You to B and C for this post:
  • TWIH (07-16-2019)
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#7
(07-12-2019, 01:05 AM)GimmyTree Wrote: how big of a battery do I need for a 160 Watt solar panel?

As the others have said, it's better to start  from a power requirements end.  

But to answer your question:  the classic rule of thumb says you could run up to 160Ah of battery bank.  But adding an isolator (relatively cheap) to the solar would allow for bigger banks and help hedge against poor sunlight.

If you are in the Pacific Northwet I'd say the isolator (or serious solar) is highly recommended.  If I were just running the 180w in poor sunlight I'd stick to 90-100Ah and would budget power with keen attentiveness.  

Here are some draft wiki articles on house power, intro to solar, and rationing power.
---
frater/jason - FT 2018.  Retired/boondocking 2020.  
159" Promaster, 570w:220Ah, 35gal fresh
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[-] The following 1 user says Thank You to frater secessus for this post:
  • TWIH (07-16-2019)
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#8
(07-12-2019, 05:20 AM)rvpopeye Wrote: Hop aboard , make a post in the welcome center forum telling us more about you , your rig and anything else you'dlike to share.  So everybody has a chance to greet you .

Your IP indicates Luxemborg ? Is that right ? VPN ?

Need more info about your planned usage..
The uses you have for it are a factor here .
But skipping all that ,(dare I do that?) ~90 amphour capacity should be a good starting point.

My IP is NZ,  VPN is turned off and even when it is on I have it on a NZ IP.

I plan to charge a laptop, mobile, kindle and two kontiki batteries.  I'll only normally be using power at night times.
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#9
(07-12-2019, 09:37 AM)frater secessus Wrote:
(07-12-2019, 01:05 AM)GimmyTree Wrote: how big of a battery do I need for a 160 Watt solar panel?

As the others have said, it's better to start  from a power requirements end.  

But to answer your question:  the classic rule of thumb says you could run up to 160Ah of battery bank.  But adding an isolator (relatively cheap) to the solar would allow for bigger banks and help hedge against poor sunlight.

If you are in the Pacific Northwet I'd say the isolator (or serious solar) is highly recommended.  If I were just running the 180w in poor sunlight I'd stick to 90-100Ah and would budget power with keen attentiveness.  

Here are some draft wiki articles on house power, intro to solar, and rationing power.
Okay, I'm going to do some research into isolators. Thanks.
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#10
NZ ! , great to have someone there to spread the word about our forums .
(We had a couple that just moved to AUS from here ...)

Your charge requirements seem fairly low , you mentioned batteries..are those the solar system batteries or something else ?
stay tuned 
popeye


 Weirdo Overlord : FMS Fleet Ops , Awards , Badges ,  aka Tamerlane the Impaler Mod.
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