System can't keep up after upgrades and reconfiguration

[dixonge]

What if you disconnected two, ran inverter with just two batteries connected 2s (12V). In the mean time, charge and equalize the other two connected 2s. It takes a number of hours to fully charge and equalize. Once equalized, cells should stay that way for quite some time and battery regains capacity lost from differing SoC.

Yeah, I just finished trying that over the last few days. I even spent many hours being powered by the existing house batteries in an attempt to get the 4 deep cycle batteries both charged and equalized and even. Between clouds and rain and usage it just didn't work. I got them into float stage but when I tried to manually equalize it never lasted more than 5 minutes. Just not enough sun.

Couple of ways to charge:
1) AC powered charger, plugged into the inverter and charging the other two batteries (while the sun shines.) Yes this may draw down the batteries on inverter, but what it could accomplish is fully charging the other two and bringing their cells to same SoC.

So it would look like Solar panels > SCC > battery bank #1 > inverter > AC charger > battery bank #2?

That's interesting. And even if I don't go that route initially, it does give me an additional option if I'm low on gas or just really, really don't want to run the generator.

2) Disconnect SCC from system, (so inverter is running off batteries without SCC as if sun has gone down.) Use SCC to charge & equalize the other two batteries with no load connected.

I looked into doing this, where one set of batteries was connected ONLY to the SCC and the other was connected ONLY to the inverter. Here is the problem I ran into...

Currently the SCC negative out (to the batteries) runs to one side of my smart shunt, which is connected to the inverter as well. Maybe I could run that directly to the batteries, except ... it's too short! And I'm not sure I have any more cable in that gauge. And the shunt has very difficult lugs. So I was always charging two and the other two were disconnected from everything, w/ the inverter off.

 

[Wellbuilt]

I think the iota would work for you .
Power factor Dosent really use extra power , it more or less ties up available genarator power .
It Dosent amount to much on a electric bill .

Now you are wasting a ton of power charging your 2 battery’s with the coach power converter !
I was wondering how you’re using so much power .
It costs 20 % to go from dc and invert to ac with the inverter then another 20% to run it thru the power converter in the coach
Then you are losing mor power just having the converter on
This is a huge problem .
you using the coach to power the 12v stuff thru the converter and the ac equipment .?
Sooooooo you are not charging 4 battery’s with your solar power you are charging 6 battery .
You are probably just wasting all the extra coach battery power charging like that .?
This is not as simple as just charging your battery’s .
You would have to run the genarator every
3 days at least for 2/3 hours .
Your inverter and converter are probably
Using 2000watts every 24 hours
If you have 600 watts of solar
Colorado get 6sun hours in June so
You could bring in 3600 watt buttttt
The panels only give you about 80% of the rated power so that get you down to 2800watts +- subtract the 2000 watts from the equipment and you can use 800watts or so if it never rains
Then the panels are flat
You really need to fix this , are you full time rvers ?
You could do any thing for a month or 2 .

 

[Wellbuilt]

One other thing , remember that your power converter allso has bad power factor
They don’t put really good converters in the Coaches

 

[dixonge]

I think the iota would work for you .
Power factor Dosent really use extra power , it more or less ties up available genarator power .
It Dosent amount to much on a electric bill .

I'm thinking so too...

Now you are wasting a ton of power charging your 2 battery’s with the coach power converter !
I was wondering how you’re using so much power .
It costs 20 % to go from dc and invert to ac with the inverter then another 20% to run it thru the power converter in the coach
Then you are losing mor power just having the converter on
This is a huge problem .
you using the coach to power the 12v stuff thru the converter and the ac equipment .?
Sooooooo you are not charging 4 battery’s with your solar power you are charging 6 battery .

Yes, *except* - I'm not charging the 2 house batteries. I hit the disconnect switch so those aren't charging off the solar battery bank. If I don't disconnect them it *KILLS* the solar battery bank very quickly. (ask me how I know)

are you full time rvers ?

Yes, and we haven't plugged into shore power in 14 weeks.

 

[dixonge]

One other thing , remember that your power converter allso has bad power factor
They don’t put really good converters in the Coaches

Yeah - I would like to figure out how to wire the battery bank *directly* to the existing DC fuse block. Then I could turn off the converter and let the AC come in through the shore power cable as it is currently wired. Unfortunately the WFCO unit doesn't have any existing open DC connections that I could find. And now we're back to me not being an electrician...

In an ideal world I'd replace the WFCO w/ something more modern that had 3 or 4-stage charging built in. But that's hard to picture, plus - the wiring.....

 

[Wellbuilt]

Yes I think you need to get on one battery bank for solar house bank
And one bank to start the rig .
What year and model is your rig .

 

[dixonge]

Yes I think you need to get on one battery bank for solar house bank
And one bank to start the rig .
What year and model is your rig .

2013 Four Winds 31L - V10 Ford engine
1 - Starter battery is new
2 - Two house batteries are 2 years old, seem to be doing well. They also serve as emergency starter batteries if main battery gets dead (have used them twice in the last year)
3 - Four 6v deep cycle batteries. These are the solar battery bank.

If I replaced the existing house batteries I would lose emergency start capability.

I guess the best compromise would be to tie the solar battery bank into the house system but replace the WFCO power unit w/ something more modern that would *still* allow for charging of the two house batteries via both solar and shore. I should take a picture of the main electrical area of the rig

 

[dixonge]

I took this with the intention of demonstrating how difficult it is to work in the electrical area which is under the bed. You have to find somewhere to put the bulky, heavy mattress, then probably do lots of contortions to work on anything. However, looking at the picture, I notice a couple of things:

1 - maybe not quite as crowded as I remembered?
2 - what the hell is that 25 feet of extra cable all rolled up?

 

[Wellbuilt]

It Doesn't look to bad in there , the panel on the rite looks like the 12v stuff .
It there a separate ac panel ?

 

[dixonge]

It Doesn't look to bad in there , the panel on the rite looks like the 12v stuff .
It there a separate ac panel ?

AC and DC panels are both in the box on the bottom right - looks like this from the front/outside

 

[Wellbuilt]

I see the ac now
I’m on my phone , so it’s small
It looks like the thick red wire is your feed from the battery .
The white wire could be a - from the battery or not ?
They like to ground to the chassis sometimes .
I would see where the red wire go’s , I’m thinking battery + but the panel could be feed from the converter

 

[Wellbuilt]

 

[dixonge]

I see the ac now
I’m on my phone , so it’s small
It looks like the thick red wire is your feed from the battery .
The white wire could be a - from the battery or not ?
They like to ground to the chassis sometimes .
I would see where the red wire go’s , I’m thinking battery + but the panel could be feed from the converter

That was just a sample photo from the internet. Here is my actual panel - can't find an open connection for extra wire on the DC side...

 

[Wellbuilt]

Red and whit Wire one must come from the battery red and white 2 must come up from the power converter under on the bottom .
The power gos from the converter to the big lugs and powers the 12volt panel then gos to the battery to charge .
( You need to verify this )if you join the fat white and red wires together you can run shore power to the converter and power the AC side of the panel and charge the coach battery’s for starting .
Then power the 12v panel from the solar bank . That solves one problem I think .

 

[Wellbuilt]

2 looks like your transfer switch .
1 ? Maybe battery maintainer

 

[Wellbuilt]

Heavy black wire must come from your generator confirm ?

 

[HRTKD]

Device #1 could be an EMS.

 

[dixonge]

1 is slide motor control.

2 looks like your transfer switch .
1 ? Maybe battery maintainer
View attachment 64486

2 is this

 

[Wellbuilt]

Yep transfer switch ?

 

[dixonge]

Heavy black wire must come from your generator confirm ?
View attachment 64491

The #1 in this photo is going into this box:
(looked it up - Generator transfer relay)