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Sorry for such a long pause in replying. I was flatchat getting the camper ready for the trip :) I'm happy to report that I completed the installation of the Hotspot 48v minisplit and that it is working well. Ran it for over a month in the driveway and then used it on the road on a drive from...

160w CIGS panels from Rich Solar. These were warranty replaced (I received a "store credit" and bought the 200w glass panels). So while I'm bitter about the whole thing at least Rich Solar did honor their warranty. My advice, though: if you have these panels remember to do this before the year...

I did think about that, also diagonal, as we were figuring out the mounting. Not enough room on our tongue between the jack and the trailer. Also there are side fins on this model that are meant to have 6 inches on their side. We also had to raise ours to keep access to the weight distribution...

Anyone have any idea why Signature Solar sells the hybrid "solar" air conditioners (which directly connect panels via MC4 connectors) rather than the straight 48vdc ones? They sell this one https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-hybrid-ac-dc-solar-air-conditioner-1-ton/ but it uses grid power when the...

Yes, the generator interlock does this. The breaker for the generator inlet can’t be in the on position without turning off the main breaker to the grid. That’s all code compliant :)

One other thing to consider is that the fuses and distribution for lower amps for 48v can be tricky. Eg Mega fuses for 48v are not available down below 100amp (although a recent thread found newly released littelfuse at 60amp for 48v). This can be a problem for space in an RV. The things...

For charge controller selection try the Victron mppt selector, can use the specs for other brands too. https://www.victronenergy.com/mppt-calculator You’ll have a total of 400 amp hours at 12v which is about 5KwH of energy. If your AC draws 1000W an hour that is 5 hours run time. But they often...

I'm late to this thread but you might find http://coolcalc.com a useful place to start to figure out HVAC loads. It's a full on Manual J approach and free for homeowners (they charge to download the official forms for code officials, like $15 or so, it's a cool business model)...

Hah, Not me, I’ve got Jakiper batteries hooked up to Victron :)

This might be of interest: https://www.hotspotenergy.com/solar-air-conditioner/ Runs on 48vdc, does not require a battery and states between 3-6 panels of 290-375 watts (so big ones). Optional 240v grid connection as backup for cloudy times (or heating at night).

In my case I have a set of 9" red/black and a set of 12" red/black. I have two 48v LFP server rack batteries wired in parallel. I used a black 9" and a red 12" to one battery, and a black 12" and a red 9" to the other. So that seemed to mean that I have equal length round trip (ie both round...

Think of this in watts, not amps. The DC system is lower voltage (12/24/48), thus higher amps. The AC system is higher voltage (120/240) thus lower amps.

My understanding of this is that you can't use voltage to see differences in charging (ie one cell taking more or less) until the very top/bottom. Because both cells could be at 3.2v but one have charged to 20% of capacity and one to 80% of capacity. Then the one with 80% of capacity will show...

Think of this in watt hours, those translate across volts and amp hours. 12v 300ah = 12 x 300 = 3,600wh But 30 kwh is 30,000 watt hours. Just about 10 times more. Sure that's the number you need? Doesn't matter if you have those as 12v parallel or wired up with groups of 4 in series to make...

I've been looking at the Midnite solar wiring diagrams, such as this one: https://www.midnitesolar.com/pdfs/classic_simple_flow_diagram.pdf The confusing thing is that they don't seem to include the equivalent of a Class T fuse on the battery positive. I see that in almost every other wiring...

Fuse Battery to busbar. Any shutoffs. Fuse between Busbar and mppts Fuse Busbar to inverter. You are right that the lower amperage part is the MPPTs. Usually 30 or 40 amps. Options are mbrf, midi, or there may be a littelfuse mega 58v someone linked recently. I had a 48v DC aircon as well...

More here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/hotspot-energy-48v-dc-air-conditioners.23937/#post-550530

Perhaps consider a Jackery 240 or similar? You can plug the solar into that (it has a built in MPPT), or charge it from the 12v circuit when on shore power. The little inverter would handle the sort of things you are talking about (laptops etc). I used it to grind coffee with a burr grinder...

The panels I posted about had full butyl backing and were completely stuck down. No airflow. The part that delaminated was a transparent plastic cover that is part of the panel. Search CIGS delaminating for symptoms pics. After whole cover blew off, see pics at...

Thanks all. Some good options there. FWIW, I wrote to Blue Sea technical support with: And they replied:

Yes, this is a right pain in the ass, especially for 48v. One option are DIN mounted DC breakers, such as the MNEPV breakers, available in each amp rating up to 63 amps. These can be linked with the comb style breaker bus bar "MNPV6-BREAKER-BB" (although when not used in the large Midnite...

I have the Victron 120v 48/3000/35-50 in a converted 30amp RV. It's working fine, but a few points to consider. - It is hard to find 48v rated MEGA fuses in smaller enough sizes for the Lynx distributor. Victron makes "58v rated for 48v nominal systems" but not in small enough sizes for the...

I agree, I'm mildly annoyed that it's unclear what my v1 batteries can communicate with (if anything), and I think they should have had a firmware update approach in place from the start. But that was never a make or break feature for me. But my interactions with Jakiper tech support have been...

Hah, I think that did the trick. I guess I thought it was the crimp part causing the interference but it was the heat shrink. Definitely wouldn't get more than two on there though :)

Hmmm, learning over here. I thought lock-washers created tension, but now I read they just create additional friction with the cut edges. I think I'll explore the nordlock washers.

Yeah, I'm skeptical of that claim as well :) But I haven't found anything in my RV that it isn't true for, everything I look at says 12-24v (lights, usb chargers) That said, I removed the absorption fridge and I haven't checked the tongue jack. I have the trailer brakes connected to a...

Ah, so the booster would always keep the voltage coming from the donor battery higher and therefore power would keep flowing. Got it, thanks!

I think you just add their PV kit to each foot and then no strut needed.

When you say “top balance already done” what do you mean? What capacity is the battery showing? I had a similar experience and worried about it for quite some time. In the advice of Jakiper, I did use a torque wrench to confirm all connections were up to spec. That helped some. I’ve had to do...

My impression is that "passthrough" means when the inverter is connected to the grid. It can "pass through" AC current, meaning that the inverter is not converting the DC power in the batteries to AC, but just passing through the AC current from the grid. Conversely, AC output power would be...