Battery/solar panel advice

Looking for the best and most cost effective way to put a solar panel and battery pack in a 1993 Chevy G20 conversion. Wanting to power air/heater, water pump, tv/Xbox and occasionally induction hot plate. Clueless so all advice appreciated.

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Have you started looking for what solar panels you want yet?

Or are you at square one, with no clue what to do, let me know so I can guide you accordingly.

This is my son’s van. The only thing he has is a 3009 w pure sine inverter. He doesn’t have anything planned for certain and is really just over his head. I told him I would buy the battery and solar panel but really don’t know what will work and not cost me a fortune. He said something about needing a battery that could drain down to 10-20%. I’m lost. Just trying to surprise him for his birthday.

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He is probably talking about deep cycle batteries, compared to regular car batteries they can withstand being drained and recharged many times. Im no expert so correct me if Im wrong but I read somewhere that your battery capacity should be about twice the amount of power you use per day, because draining the battery/batteries too low too often will shorten their life span. In order to figure out how much solar power you need, you need to calculate how long he’ll be using the heater/tv/etc per day and how much power it requires to run those things :slightly_smiling_face::thinking:

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Draining to 10-20% is not a good idea. Most deep cycle batteries you prob don’t want to drain any less than 30-40% to prevent damage. You can spend a bit more on glass glass mat batteries which I think can be drained lower without damage. But secondary batteries can be quite expensive.

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Thank you all for the info. We are framing at this point and intend to prewire. What type of wiring would we need from solar panel to battery and from battery to 3000w inverter? Also, any recommendation on wiring out to plugs- just normal household wiring I am assuming.

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Check for the GoalZero batteries (and panels). Very easy installation, a little pricey but very reliable. You can even attach other deep cycle batteries to your GoalZero installation if you need more.

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Hi @HenryCooper , actually my boyfriend and me are going to install a solar panel as well and we have no clue at all. we are going to start a new topic …

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