Home Forums Truck Camper Adventure Forum Combining Zamp 160 portable solar with rooftop solar system Reply To: Combining Zamp 160 portable solar with rooftop solar system

#26020
Mangoes
Participant

Thank you, Phil for the information. We will be having 2 monocrystalline panels of 170 watts each on the roof of our camper. The controller we plan on installing is a Blue Sky Solar Boost 3024iL MPPT (30/40 amp) with a Blue Sky IPN-ProRemote battery monitor. The Zamp portable is 160 watts (2- 80watt panels) and comes with a ZS-15AW PWM controller. So if I understand what you’re saying, if we took out the Zamp controller and wired those panels into our main controller, that would cause the voltage of the 170w rooftop panels to drop to the voltage output of the 80w Zamp panels?! I don’t think we would want to do that. Would we be better off keeping the systems separate (as is with the two different controllers) and only use the portable Zamp when we need extra solar power or are parked in the shade? Or should we replace the Zamp controller with a single stage controller like you have? I’m unsure of how to proceed now.
Mike, did your voltage in your rooftop panels drop to the voltage of the Zamp 80w panels? Or do the 2 Zamp panels act like one 160w panel, which would be close in size to our 170w panels? I’m confused.

2014 Northstar Arrow U
2012 Ford F-350 4x4, CC, SRW