Jackery question

[Lee Mims]

BTW great discussion here I think this is productive, thanks everyone for contributing so far!

 

[Autism Family Travels]

The big panel on other forms is the renogy 120w suitcase panel. Thoughts on those?

 

[Lee Mims]

The big panel on other forms is the renogy 120w suitcase panel. Thoughts on those?

Rigid panels will likely last longer than flexible, due to less movement of connectors, over flexing on accident, etc. Taken care of, both will last a long time. Renogy makes good stuff, quality isn't a concern, dimensions on a suitcase might be. They are a lot bulkier than folding panels, and heavier. Probably more durable, though, so if space isn't a concern it's probably worth a go.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Rigid panels will likely last longer than flexible, due to less movement of connectors, over flexing on accident, etc. Taken care of, both will last a long time. Renogy makes good stuff, quality isn't a concern, dimensions on a suitcase might be. They are a lot bulkier than folding panels, and heavier. Probably more durable, though, so if space isn't a concern it's probably worth a go.

good to know.

I figure that will charge my jackery in a day

 

[MDevlin]

When I get my teardrop I plan on putting several lights in the interior (all LED) and 2 small 12v fans as well at the overhead fan and possibly install small TV for those nights when I am bored and even charge USB phones if needed. Well the fans and or ceiling fan may run all night. The TV may run most of the night if needed.

That shouldn't be to big of a draw, but I am looking at a Jackery and would like to get an idea as to what size to get for this and what size solar panels would be needed to charge it effectively during sunlight.
I like the though of a Jackery or similar as I don't know much about the proper stuff to get and I just want to hook up and go. I also want to easily hook up solar panels to it for charging.
I am wondering if the Jackery 500 with
518Wh
enough for the night, is it overkill or not enough?

Or should I just go battery route. and if so what size will last me all night for the fans?

I have the Jackery 500 with the 100 w panel. For one or two night you may be fine. My Teardrop has its own battery a 50 ah agm. The fantastic fan will use most of the power of the agm in two nights
I use the jackery for the dometic fridge mostly and that will run maybe 60 hours on a full charge. The Jackery will only take one 100 watt solar panel at a time. For me I can also use the solar panel to charge the teardrop agm.
For your needs I would think about the jackery 1000 with two 100w solar panels in series. it can do that.
Solar panels rarely get enough sun for a full charge in one day. normal output of the solar is 65 watts so may need 10 hours. if traveling you can charge it from your vehicle when moving.

 

[RickR]

Do you think it would be better to have a AGM battery in the tongue and just charge it?

 

[Autism Family Travels]

I’m also wondering about a deep cycle rev arm battery for my Jeep...any thoughts on that"?

 

[MDevlin]

Everything depends on your budget for the build. An AGM would be a good start to see how it goes. Mine charges from the vehicle as I drive or an ac cord or solar input.
You will save a lot of power usage not having a TV, An ipad or the like works great with its own power source. Just download some movies before you leave the grid.
Having a couple of power sources works great. For the fans they make some that are clip on with a built in rechargeable battery. I have two they work well, I can get two nights on a charge on low setting.
Limit the load on your main battery and you will be fine.

 

[Lee Mims]

For simplicity, AGM is fine and will charge easily from the 7 pin, albeit kinda slowly. Really better for topping things off.

Also, AGM wil charge slower than Lithium, and consider the 1C rate of charge for battery size. Certainly keep what you have and build up from it just in case so you don't output a ton of money to learn what you really want.

Also, the Jackery E500 will only take up to 80ish watts/hour on the PWM controller, but the E1000 has an MPPT controller and can go to 200W inputs.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Everything depends on your budget for the build. An AGM would be a good start to see how it goes. Mine charges from the vehicle as I drive or an ac cord or solar input.
You will save a lot of power usage not having a TV, An ipad or the like works great with its own power source. Just download some movies before you leave the grid.
Having a couple of power sources works great. For the fans they make some that are clip on with a built in rechargeable battery. I have two they work well, I can get two nights on a charge on low setting.
Limit the load on your main battery and you will be fine.

I would be running our new fridge off the battery on the Jeep. We have two tablets two iPhones, two cameras and one laptop plus a couple of rechargeable lights being run off the Jackery 240.

 

[cosmoblu]

Obviously there are a lot of options.

I have the Jackery 240, the Goal Zero 400 Lithium, and recently put a Northstar Lithium battery into my Tundra. I ran the my fridge, an ARB off the GZ one night and eventually just left it plugged into the back of the truck. I have a cap so it was out of any direct sunlight. Everything ran just fine, the GZ will run my fridge for about 24 hours in the heat. In my case we were driving daily to different hiking spots, and so recharging the battery was not an issue. As I mentioned there are several options and the this being my first full week out with all of this gear, it changed as we went. If you are starting and driving daily, with the right battery in the rig, you can alleviate the draw to your portable power. Doing this, I left with both the GZ and Jackery both nearly full.

Also agree, TV is far too big of a draw on power. IPad mounted with a small rechargeable speaker works perfectly and can last a long time. I will even bring along my Dewalt batteries to recharge smaller devices like the Ipad.

 

[defran]

I am running a goal zero 500x, regulated 12v and mppt charging with a 100w rockpals solar panel. I average about 65watts on the solar in normal sun, and 25watts in the clouds. with this said, the goal zero also has passive charge which means you can use while charging, that was very important for me. I can run my fridge 24/7 and other things and not worry about running out of juice. the reason I didn't go with the jackery was the long charge times, but it does have the regulated 12v in the 500 I believe. but, the battery is worthless if you can use it while charging.

 

[Lee Mims]

I am running a goal zero 500x, regulated 12v and mppt charging with a 100w rockpals solar panel. I average about 65watts on the solar in normal sun, and 25watts in the clouds. with this said, the goal zero also has passive charge which means you can use while charging, that was very important for me. I can run my fridge 24/7 and other things and not worry about running out of juice. the reason I didn't go with the jackery was the long charge times, but it does have the regulated 12v in the 500 I believe. but, the battery is worthless if you can use it while charging.

It's uncommon, but becoming more common for the 500wh series to have MPPTs. Yes, both Jackery and GZ have the regulated which is good. Also, good point about the 65W on solar in normal sun from a 100W panel. This is pretty much as good as it will get btw, so others who read this know that a 100w panel will not be putting 100 watts in your device. I run a 200W panel and i'm pretty happy when I see it hitting 130watts in.

The Jackery E1000 does have a MPPT solar charge, just not the 160, 240 and 500.

Also, both units have pass through charging, and so does a good bit of the other quality ones, such as the Bluetti. I would certainly consider this a "must have."

 

[RickR]

I ordered a jackery 240 just then. See how it works. I will be running my fridge off my Jeep battery so, the smaller battery will be fine for our needs.

Sp how is it working for you?

 

[Autism Family Travels]

Sp how is it working for you?

Everything will be here this week. I will report back after our first outing on August 1st. I should be in range of some sort of internet so I will post up some initial thoughts.

 

[Autism Family Travels]

I just received my 240 10 min ago. I have it charging up now. We are going camping this weekend with the go camper and our gear. We will find out how it works. I will report back.