The garage door opener is one that can be operated by a battery backup. It’s a little 7.2ah 12v battery that runs it but I can connect any 12v source to the opener’s 12v input leads and be good to go. I was going to just run it permanently by that method and not even bother with having it...
Fast forward 9 months and the only progress made is lighting and the battery. I bought 6 sticks (LED lights) that run on 110v and have so far installed two of them over the work bench. For the battery, I picked up an Anker 767 in July and intend to use it as a dual-purpose unit. For...
Like @Jbird2000 said - there is no grid to interfere. The shed is a stand alone entity with the only incoming source of power being the eventual panels on the roof.
While I agree that more power-consuming items might come along, I don’t think they will be anything that is 24/7 consumption like a fridge or cooler. Those items are in the garage and my shed is mainly for storing stuff as well as a workbench for fixing things that break. It’s not even...
I do like the idea of getting used panels for a cost savings. I’ve never looked into getting used residential panels. I guess I thought they might have been much higher voltage than I could use. Time to do a little digging - thanks for the ideas!
We currently don’t have an inverter nor transfer switch. Our trailer doesn’t come with one from the factory and we don’t have plans to add one at any point. For the size of our camper we tend to not spend much time inside enjoying the creature comforts inverters typically provide. A majority...
Does your camper have a 12v residential fridge? Ours does and it is a real power hog - hence going with the second battery. If it were propane we would have likely stuck to one. Since we don’t have panels up top and many of the Harvest Host locations don’t allow generators, we wanted to have...
I think it have a little better grasp now. When I first starting researching panels and the differences between 12v and 24v, I thought for a 12v system you’d use 12v panels and for a 24v system you‘d use 24v panels. Not sure why it didn’t dawn on me to just split the wiring to both parallel...
Seems similar to my setup. Thanks for sharing your situation. I too roll to the house occasionally to charge up - normally after a 12-hour smoke with my small pellet smoker. Once the panels are on the roof I figure it might be an indefinite system!
Weather is definitely not cooperating. I’d like to get the underbelly opened up and start rerouting the cables, but of course another 12” of snow is forecast between now and tomorrow afternoon. Can’t wait to get this ball rolling!
Unfortunately I didn't find a way to measure the average daily usage prior to wrapping up this past camping season. Of course now, in conjunction with the battery upgrade, I'm installing a Victron Smartshunt that can track the daily amp consumption for me. But even if I had it all finished...
Well this is just for the roof of my shed, lights and garage door opener are likely the largest loads it’ll see, and the inverter will only be used occasionally to charge up my 60v lawn equipment batteries. I think I’ll keep it simple and stick with 12v. Man you guys are smarter at this stuff...
I’m planning to increase the available 12v power to my RV but am not dabbing in solar yet. We only need the ability to get a couple days off-grid as we spend one or two nights in the camper while traveling longer distances from origination to destination and then are plugged back into shore...
If I’m hooking up two batteries in parallel, what are the pros/cons of the two wiring layouts below? I see examples of both on the internet and I don’t know which way is better and which way is worse. To put this in perspective, it will be a simple dual LFP4 battery setup in my travel trailer...
I’m looking to power my shed/man cave with solar panels on the roof, a fully wired shed (lights, 4 duplex outlets, garage door opener, etc), a circuit breaker panel, and my Anker 767. Occasionally I use the 767 camping so having the mobility option of taking it with me and then plugging it back...
Thanks a lot, @rmaddy! The top one is how I have it laid out right now anyways (on the board, but not wired up yet due to temps outside) so I’m happy I don’t have to change anything.
Correct - the Renogy unit is rated for a max of 5.56 amps. Like I said, I never have an expectation of it being a game changer. Still it never hurts to stick a little back in if the conditions are right.
I made some progress today. Mounted plywood vertically and horizontally, boxed in the base of the batteries and then anchored them with straps. Also mounted the shut-off switch, 60A fuse, and the battery-monitoring shunt. After looking back through this thread, I’m pretty sure I forgot to...
New to the site, new to solar, and new to lithium. Planning an upgrade to my RV‘s battery system for longer trips away from shore power. First phase this year is a large battery bank and the second phase likely next fall will be solar on the roof. Hope to learn lots here and will likely ask...
I want an outside light over the roll up, another over the man door, an outlet in the ceiling for the garage door opener, another in the wall to plug in the mower’s battery tender, and another at the workbench for the greenworks and dewalt battery chargers. Having the shed all wired to a panel...
Thanks @rmaddy for the questions and input.
First, I’ll definitely flip the orientation of the fuse and shut off switch like you said.
Second, it is an ANL 60 amp fuse. It was recommended by a few folks on an RV forum I frequent based upon my appliances and 12v demand. The fridge draws a...
@smoothJoey it’s a WFCO lithium charger. 14.6v in bulk and 13.6v in absorption. It will run for a max of 4 hours in bulk which is likely not long enough to charge my 412ah bank back from a low SOC back to full, but I am installing a switch next to the panel which will reset the 4 hour timer...
Thanks @jberger. I’ve thought about that and came to the conclusion (after speaking with my wife LOL) that we will not be in those colder environments with our camper. I think the coldest we have ever experienced while camping was a dip to 49 degrees this past fall while in Gettysburg one...
That might a good idea for me. At least if I needed to run a cord from the house to the shed (if the battery is unavailable) I could run over and extension cord from my RV’s 30A plug on the side of the garage. Good temp solution. Thanks for the idea, @Mattb4
Ah, I understand. It was also WFCO’s charger - a 55 amp 3-stage charger. But the profile wouldn’t have me in the correct higher range of voltage to suit the new lithium batteries so I purchased the new one. I am keeping the old one so it is possible to return things to how they were in case...