Removing 30 w Solar panel

After removing The 30 w solar panel how would you repair the screw holes left in the roof .I intend fitting 120 w panel but undecided whether to fit a semi flexible or rigid panel any advice please

I doubt if it's hugely critical, as it doesn't need to be intrinsically very strong. I personally would use Sikaflex in white, but I think CT1 would work just fine (and CT1 seems to have a much longer shelf life than Sikaflex in my experience).

Rigid panel would have the four fixing points either screws or corner mounts with adhesive (have done that, looks professional even as a diy job). Have seen flexible panels on some motorhomes taking advantage of the curvature of the roof presumably to capture sun's rays on more than one plane? If this type of panel ever needed replacing, how difficult would it be given the amount of adhesive used?

Paramedic wrote:If this type of panel ever needed replacing, how difficult would it be given the amount of adhesive used?

It's something that worries me, having fitted two of them!

On the Celex (the first one done) it's going to be VERY difficult.

On the Trooper we fitted a layer of clear vinyl wrap and stuck the panel on top of that. The theory being that the vinyl will peel off the roof if we need to get the panel off. Hopefully we never need to find out if the theory will work in practice...

Paramedic wrote:Rigid panel would have the four fixing points either screws or corner mounts with adhesive (have done that, looks professional even as a diy job). Have seen flexible panels on some motorhomes taking advantage of the curvature of the roof presumably to capture sun's rays on more than one plane? If this type of panel ever needed replacing, how difficult would it be given the amount of adhesive used?

My thought process exactly, before I fitted a 100W panel to our MH a few weeks ago.

I went for a rigid panel and corner mounts with Soudaflex, no screws at all and it's pretty well stuck, looks good and leaves room to route and hide the cables neatly.

I also thought about how I'd remove a semi flexible panel if it failed, and preferred the rigid anyway as it gets better cooling from air flow underneath, which potentially improves the panel efficiency.

I recently swopped an 80watt for a 160watt panel and as the bigger panel completely covered the existing brackets I left them undisturbed.

As the Sargent control panel is restricted to 120 w did you fit a a new sp charge controller ?

Molly3 wrote:As the Sargent control panel is restricted to 120 w did you fit a a new sp charge controller ?

Yes.

The MPPT controller has made a noticeable improvement to the solar output compared to the original controller particularly on overcast days.

I fitted a Victron MPPT Blue Solar 75/10 which has a very useful built in safety feature that regardless of solar input it limits output to a maximum of 10 amps, with my 160 watt solar panel even in the Sahara desert I think I'd be very unlikely see more than 9.5 amps.

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Have a look at this post and Elektroblock Electronics comments regarding the EC500 
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I'm happy with my setup via a "Battery Master" type device and unless the panel is covered in snow my 3 batteries currently measure 12.7 volts

PM me if you wish