Renogy 200 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar RV Kit Off-Grid Kit with Adventurer 30A PWM LCD Charge Controller+ Mounting Brackets+ Male and…

I bought the 200 watt RV “Kit”. I say kit lightly, it was a bit short.

The package arrived in great shape, in a well made cardboard box. This kit contains only the basic items for an install. The panels seemed very well built and strong.

I’ll get the bad out of the way first.

First there are no fuses, and I had to order these after the fact. I would of gladly paid more for a “kit” that had everything I needed. This is an electrical setup and circuit protection is needed. It would of been just to easy to have the inline fuse onboard in the first place, and IMHO, should of been.

Then I tried Renogy’s site to order one, but they want a ridiculous amount of money to ship UPS, it was like $57 to ship an item that would fit in an envelope and mailed USPS for ten bucks. It’s a $17 item. So that option was out, I ordered a fuse from Amazon, which can take up to 4 weeks.

Second, the through the roof housing gland for the cables, has no flange. There is no way to screw it down to the roof. Even pictures on Renogy’s site shows the housing, with a flange. As does other solar suppliers. Really quite dumb. I threw mine away as it was useless. What were they thinking?

Third, the blue tooth app is broken. A great idea, but it freezes up constantly to the point it is useless. I hope Renogy is working hard on this issue.

The kit does come with plenty of wire. But it is of some unknown white metal, not copper. Not aluminium, it won’t melt. I soldered the wire ends that go into the controller lugs for superior connections. And any ring connectors I cut off, and replaced with heavier better ring connectors, and soldered those on, and used heat shrink. Soldered connections are the way to go. Not the best wire IMHO, but adequate.

My RV is older, and has no plywood on the roof, just heavy metal. I had to buy two 10 foot pieces of Super strut cut down, and 1/4 in bolt receivers for the supplied Z brackets. And with that I was able to attach to the roof joices 16 inch on center, with 5/16 in x 1 1/2 inch lag screws. IT is very securely mounted. I placed pieces of plywood around to walk on.

Nothing about these panels lines up to standard American carpentry measures. Super strut has holes, that line up to 16 inch on center for easy mounting. I mounted the panels on the roof edge to make it easy to get to with a small ladder for cleaning. The panels can be removed without leaving holes in the roof.

The first thing I did with the wiring was to use red electrical tape, and clearly mark each end of the positive wires. Even on the panels, mark them, once mounted you can’t see the + or -. That will keep you from mixing things up. Then I made my wire runs.

The wall I mounted the controller on has a vent pipe, and that was my access point for the wires. The controller functions well enough. I was able to change the battery type to sealed (SEL) for my AGM 70 AH (x2) deep cycle 12 volt batteries. It has a log function to record how much power it makes. The phone app has much more in graphs and usage data, but unfortunately it don’t work very well.

I included an cutoff switch for the solar panels. IF the batteries are disconnected while the panels are connected, the controller will fry. This is clearly stated in the brief instructions. This is much easier then crawling up on the roof and pulling apart the connectors.

Once the batteries were reconnected, I turned on the panels, and charging began. So far it is working very well. I gave the batteries a work out yesterday, ran the inverter with a shop vac, turned on the vent fan, and I was getting 135 watts/9.3 amps of solar power in bright sunlight. I was impressed. The batteries were charged up and back in “float” mode quickly.

So far so good, we boondock often, and after a couple of nights, I need to hook up the truck and recharge. Those days are gone!

Edit July 20, 2020

I became so dissatisfied with the Renogy controller, I spent $120 and bought a better SCC, the Victron 75/15 MPPT SmartSolar. It works flawlessly in all regards. Especially on cloudy days, this became an issue. I have a review on that unit here. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075NQQRPD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In essence, in the Renogy “kit” I ordered, only the solar panels and wire were worth keeping. My advice, buy the panels, get some wire, but pass on the Renogy controller, bluetooth dongle (a total waste of $45, and I do mean a waste of money), and most certainly the threw the roof glan.

For all that I am reducing the stars to two.

I’m able to power just about everything in my rv, including my confection oven, though I haven’t pushed it to see for how long. Keeps my 4 six volt batteries topped off with ease and runs my 2k watt inverter beyond my expectations. Great addition to my coach and I’m looking forward to seeing how long I can go off the grid using the system. Can’t comment on the effect of consecutive cloudy days yet, system was installed in the spring. Will update when I put it to the test.

I’ve always wanted my trailer self sufficient and hate generators. Been using this for a few months and super happy with it. Bolted it to the roof and tied it in at the converter. Took some work to install but a great DIY project if you have a little wiring knowledge. The bluetooth app is finicky. Has no issues keeping up to the demands a family of four weekend warriors can put on it. Came with everything needed. Switched to two high amp hr 6v batteries and all LED lighting at the same time.

Solar power is awesome!!!!! I love camping in the woods and never listening to our loud generator. The kit contained everything I needed although it would have been nice to have more cable in between the panels so I could have spread them out more. The tricky part was running the wires through the Trailer and to the batteries. The batterie temp. wire is only 5 feet long but the batterie charge cable was more like 25′ so I could not use the temp gauge. The system has kept my batteries charged up since. Seems to work in the shade as well but really pumps it out in direct sunlight. Great product well worth the price.

Excellent kit. Pretty much everything you’ll need to wire it up for your RV. I installed these on top of my trailer – 300W – and I”m expecting that this set up will fairly easily keep my 200+ Amp (dual 6v golf cart) batteries charged during extended camping trips, eliminating the need to carry a generator along. During a sunny day in Seattle (a rarity!), I am getting about 16 amps at 14v (224 watts) in full sun at 3 PM (July) – with a bit of sun angle diminishing full output.

The solar panels and connectors are first-quality, the solar charge controller works great (and tapers the charge as the battery voltage increases to a full charge.

NOTE: Because you are not to have the panels connected to a load without the controller being attached to your battery – I added a 30 amp switch between the panels and the controller allowing me to shut off the panels if I need to disconnect the battery. Also – I purchased a 30 amp fuse for the hot wire between the battery and the controller – I would certainly advise always putting an appropriately-frated fuse in line with any power wire coming from the battery.

Installed 2 days ago. First advise…. READ EVERYTHING FIRST! including the full manual available from Renogy website as this does not come with the kit. I did notice this in a few other reviews as well.

Pro – Kit was fairly easy to install once directions are full understood.
Pro – Kit comes with more than enough wire for the install on my Jayco 212QB
Pro – It was unclear in the Amazon description weather or not the BlueTooth module was included as it sort of made it look like an add-on option. Good news this kit does include this module and it works very well. I would say this module is a MUST HAVE.

Con – My kit was already opened by another customer. One solar panel was dirty and one bag of wiring was opened and repackaged. I paid for a brand new kit not a kit that was recycled.

Con – As mentioned READ EVERYTHING. It is mentioned 4 times in the install manual that you MUST have a battery connected to the charge controller BEFORE attaching the leads from the solar panels. BUT there is no way other than climbing onto the roof and manually disconnecting the solar panels at the connectors to disconnect solar supply when changing a battery or disconnecting a battery for long term storage. If a user MUST connect a battery before solar panels are hooked up why does the charge controller not have an on/off switch or have a inline switch a user can mount themselves. I got around this by routing the solar panel leads through the exterior refrigerator access panel and mounting a switchable circuit breaker there. I have a tag on my battery leads reminding me or perhaps a repair tech of the need to turn off solar system before disconnecting battery.

Con – no fasteners or even suggestions to secure wiring to roof. I ended up wrapping my wiring in a flexible conduit and fastening to A/C housing before sneaking into the refrigerator roof vent.

Hope this helps. All of this known I would buy again and might still add 2 additional panels if ever needed.

Steve

Fonctionnent parfaitement. Instructions d’installations claires. Une version en français est disponible sur le site du fabricant dans la section download. Pour l’installation sur un VR ultraléger avec mûr et plafond sandwich, la solution des coins en PVC avec colle Sikaflex 252 est à prévilègier au lieu des z braquettes