Buzz Lighting
New Member
Hello everyone. My first foray into the solar avenue was with our 2015 Airstream Interstate Sprinter Van that we bought new back then and still have as we love traveling and camping. In January of 2022, we got tired of only being able to boondock for one night without draining our 180 Ah’s of AGM batteries with just the fridge/freezer running overnight. So I dove into reading and researching everything that I could on upgrading our system and caught the solar bug. I must admit upfront that I’m definitely in the blue camp with Victron. I ended up upgrading our system to 600 Ah’s of lithium, 500 Watts of solar, two Victron 50A Buck Boosts for alternator charging and the rest of the Victron goodies for our Sprinter B van. I’m constantly tweaking it and a big fan of Nate from Explorist Life for van related components. However, I’ve become a big fan of this forum and have been reading everything that can from some very knowledgeable folks here.
Now, after shaking my head at our outrageous electric bills, I told my wife that it was enough and I started doing some research on our home system. I’ve slowly begun setting up our system with the smaller electric stuff such as a critical loads panel, transfer switch, 100A cutoff switch, wireways, bussbars etc. I’m fairly comfortable doing electrical work and if not comfortable - research the heck out of it or ask the head of electrical department at the University where I work at. However, even he is not too familiar with solar setups and my go to guy reading info on is timselectric here - thank you Tim for your input! Again, I’m really partial to Victron as that’s what we have in our Sprinter Van and I’ve become accustomed to their ecosystem and I really like it. The only other system that I’m somewhat interested in is the new Midnite Solar “The One” and still not out of the running. That would be the only AIO system that I would even consider after all the research that I’ve done. Solar panels will also be ground mount and not going on the roof. I’m going to buy a few different ground mounts to see which one I like. I’m picking up a new EG4 BrightMount Ground Mount that I found on Craigslist this Saturday for $150 new.
I must admit that this has been a PITA. Instead of running only one ground for the wireway, I decided to run a ground bushing at every connection coming from the electrical panels as I’ve copied from Dexter’s YouTube videos from CC. Probably overkill but what the heck. No inspections as we’re not planning to sell back to the grid. I’ve installed 3 Emporia Vues so far to get an idea of what we’re using for power. One in the main panel, one in the basement’s first sub panel and the other in the garage sub-panel. Planning to install a fourth one in the CLP as well once it’s up and going.
The two questions that I have and a bit confused on are:
2 Victron 5K - Waiting to get ordered
1 Victron 450V/100A - Waiting to get ordered
2 EG4 Indoor Wallmount 48V 280 Ah batteries - Waiting to get ordered
Solar Panels - waiting to get ordered *** Looking to end up with around 6-10k watts but to start more realistically starting out with about 4-5k.
1 - 100A Reliance Grid / 50A Generator Transfer Switch - Installed
1 - 100A Critical Loads Panel - Installed
1 - 100A Eaton Double Throw Safety Switch - Installed
2 - 6 x 6 x 60 wireways - Installed
1 - 8 x 8 x 36 wireway - Installed
1 - Lynx T- Class Fuse Power In - ordered and in route.
2 - 250A Class - T fuses - ordered
1 - Lynx Distributor - ordered *** Initially ordered the M10 Version but returned it as the Lynx shunt only comes in with M8 connection and I didn’t want to deal with modifying four connections and decided on only dealing with two modifications going to the Lynx Class-T Power In.
1 - Lynx 100A Shunt - ordered
1 - IMO PV Disconnect - ordered and on hand.
1 - Pulsar 9,500 Watt Dual Fuel Inverter Generator - Propane/ GAS - In place. ***I know that it’s not enough but decent enough to get by***
2 AWG L1, L2, N and #6 AWG Ground ordered and on hand. Decided to go with 2 AWG just in case for future upgrades.
Thank you for any and all feedback - greatly appreciated!
Now, after shaking my head at our outrageous electric bills, I told my wife that it was enough and I started doing some research on our home system. I’ve slowly begun setting up our system with the smaller electric stuff such as a critical loads panel, transfer switch, 100A cutoff switch, wireways, bussbars etc. I’m fairly comfortable doing electrical work and if not comfortable - research the heck out of it or ask the head of electrical department at the University where I work at. However, even he is not too familiar with solar setups and my go to guy reading info on is timselectric here - thank you Tim for your input! Again, I’m really partial to Victron as that’s what we have in our Sprinter Van and I’ve become accustomed to their ecosystem and I really like it. The only other system that I’m somewhat interested in is the new Midnite Solar “The One” and still not out of the running. That would be the only AIO system that I would even consider after all the research that I’ve done. Solar panels will also be ground mount and not going on the roof. I’m going to buy a few different ground mounts to see which one I like. I’m picking up a new EG4 BrightMount Ground Mount that I found on Craigslist this Saturday for $150 new.
I must admit that this has been a PITA. Instead of running only one ground for the wireway, I decided to run a ground bushing at every connection coming from the electrical panels as I’ve copied from Dexter’s YouTube videos from CC. Probably overkill but what the heck. No inspections as we’re not planning to sell back to the grid. I’ve installed 3 Emporia Vues so far to get an idea of what we’re using for power. One in the main panel, one in the basement’s first sub panel and the other in the garage sub-panel. Planning to install a fourth one in the CLP as well once it’s up and going.
The two questions that I have and a bit confused on are:
- Do I have to use a grounding bushing at very connection coming from the Victron 5K Inverters and solar charge controller or can I get away with just running their grounds to one of the wireway grounds? I intend on somehow separating the AC from the DC side in the wireway by adding an additional 4” wireway for the DC side. I’m still not sure if I do this or use some type of separator in the 8” wireway.
- I intend to just move over the breakers and the hot wire for every circuit that I intend to move to the Critical Loads Panel. I’m already going to run a L1, L2, N, & G from the main panel to the Eaton Panel and from the Eaton Panel to the Generator panel and then to the CLP. Do I still have to run an additional N & G from the Main Panel to the CLP panel even though there is already a N & G wire ran connection from the other panels to connect my CL’s circuits? The main NG bond is at the main panel on the outside panel.
2 Victron 5K - Waiting to get ordered
1 Victron 450V/100A - Waiting to get ordered
2 EG4 Indoor Wallmount 48V 280 Ah batteries - Waiting to get ordered
Solar Panels - waiting to get ordered *** Looking to end up with around 6-10k watts but to start more realistically starting out with about 4-5k.
1 - 100A Reliance Grid / 50A Generator Transfer Switch - Installed
1 - 100A Critical Loads Panel - Installed
1 - 100A Eaton Double Throw Safety Switch - Installed
2 - 6 x 6 x 60 wireways - Installed
1 - 8 x 8 x 36 wireway - Installed
1 - Lynx T- Class Fuse Power In - ordered and in route.
2 - 250A Class - T fuses - ordered
1 - Lynx Distributor - ordered *** Initially ordered the M10 Version but returned it as the Lynx shunt only comes in with M8 connection and I didn’t want to deal with modifying four connections and decided on only dealing with two modifications going to the Lynx Class-T Power In.
1 - Lynx 100A Shunt - ordered
1 - IMO PV Disconnect - ordered and on hand.
1 - Pulsar 9,500 Watt Dual Fuel Inverter Generator - Propane/ GAS - In place. ***I know that it’s not enough but decent enough to get by***
2 AWG L1, L2, N and #6 AWG Ground ordered and on hand. Decided to go with 2 AWG just in case for future upgrades.
Thank you for any and all feedback - greatly appreciated!
