Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Solar Panel Replacement and Upgrade - September of 2019 ($200)

The Serenity came with a GoPower GP-PWM-30 controller with a single GP-100W flex panel. In the spring of 2018 I noticed it underperformed and contacted the manufacturer of the Panel and Controller. 


By the fall it was doing nothing, GoPower put me through the paces to ensure that it was really bad but did eventually replace the panel. 










The flex panel is glued to the roof of the RV which seems like a good thing since no holes are made in the roof and it is low profile. 

In reality it been found is that glue-on solar panels under perform when compared to rigid panels due to overheating and the glue can damage the fiberglass roof. 





It is impossible to remove the panel without completely destroying it and what is found underneath is extremely difficult to remove. 







I spent hours on my belly scrapping with a plastic kuchen scraper and lots of solvent, but I did eventually get it pretty clean, the only thing left was a bit of staining. I placed the panel off center because I was going to add another panel.  






I would have liked to buy a matched GP panel, but the price was over $500, so I found a panel with matched specs on Amazon for about $180. I also did not want to use glue to put them back on so settled on using Industrial Velcro, hopefully when the time comes to remove them it will not be such a chore. 




I connected the panels in parallel and the performance seems about 2X what the GoPower put out when it was new.  So far so good. 







Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Sky Light Replacement - August 2019 ($500)

In August of 2019 I opened the skylight on the LTV while it was inside the barn.  I did not close it when I backed out.  This was a $500 mistake and I was lucky I was able to find one, it took some searching since LTV has long since changed what they use in their new RVs. 


It was only a $499 mistake.










The skylight is nice, but never open it inside a building and always close it. The LTV passes through our overhead door in the barn with only 1/2" of clearance. The LTV is spec'd at 10' 3" and our door opening is 10' 3 1/2". There is no margin for error.