I'm doing a three-plus month time-lapse of a building being constructed in hot, sunny Texas. There is a company called Harbortronics just up the road from me in Colorado that sells a kit for just such a purpose, but it comes with a small 5 watt solar panel. The kit includes the camera, camera housing, intervalometer, solar panel, battery, charger, converter and pretty much everything needed to set up and go. They also customize the kit if needed.
In my research, I've discovered that some have had issues with getting enough power from that small solar panel to keep the battery charged enough to last for months at a time, so I was considering adding a second solar panel in parallel that is 100 watts, and much larger. I could probably get these guys to implement the second panel, but I thought I'd see if anyone here had tips or advice from experience in such projects.
My idea is to use the standard 5W panel as built with the kit, facing east at 45 degrees tilted to capture morning sunshine, and install the second 100W panel tilted facing west to capture the afternoon sun. The 45 degree tilts would be to minimize the risk of hail damage, and to gather sunshine longer in the day on both ends. The reason for the larger panel facing west would be to charge the battery more after the camera has been running all morning, thus being drained further, so that it hopefully gets fully charged by sunset, ready to go the next morning.
I'm curious about any issues with overcharging, or anything else I haven't thought of, as I've never built or modified any sort of kit like this before. The shoot is scheduled to start around mid to late May, so I have a bit of time to buy, build and test before heading down to Texas for the job.
Any tips, advice or other help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance.
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