My goal was to be able to live normally for a minimum of 3 days with no solar input. Three days wasn't a completely random number, last year while traveling, we had 3 days of heavy cloud cover and almost constant rain/sleet/snow. I struggled with everything, including limited battery capacity...
Thank you to everyone who put up and answered my seemingly endless questions. This was an extremely steep learning curve, as I knew nothing about solar, and enough about electrical to make sparks happen. I was able to keep the 5th wheel operational with the two existing 100ah batteries and...
Sigh. I struggled with this myself.
First get rid of the ferrule. MP doesn't seem to like those. 2nd, make sure the stripped distance is long enough. IRC it's 3/4", and I made mine ever so slightly longer. Once I got rid of the ferrules, and stopped trying to release the clamp and just...
Even after inadvertently leaving the electric hot water heater energized my 600ah and 1200w did very well after 48 hours of normal living. My goal was 72 hours, and it looks like I'm well on my road to success. Decided to let the fridge run off electric, and it uses a lot more watts than I was...
Somebody sent me a most interesting panel configuration. Panels are hard mounted (not adjustable) where he lifted the center mounts to the height of the AC and other crap on the roof. Now, this puts one side, as being much lower production than the other side. In the winter, I'd expect very...
you really hit the nail on the head that most people don't understand, wind resistance is NOT linear to speed. to use your example, even 3% is not measurable in real world driving. Wind, elevation, barametric conditions, speed, and even fuel can disrupt the measurements. I'm a recently a...
With that much roof space, go big. Plan to use a rail system to mount the panels, and push them all the way to the outside edge. Leave some walking room to get on the roof to do repairs as needed.
I would rethink using the existing equipment. My intermediate step was to do exactly that. I...
.223 will cut that in half :)
Will, some great detail in the analysis. I love seeing REAL DATA, not opinions. I got into with a guy on a FB page today, who insisted deep discharge would damage LFP batteries, and even admitted his one off anecdotal experience was with a battery that had a bad...
The actual part cost for my model was $795. I chose the installation option, 1st because it was only $250, and 2nd because they are only a hour away from me. That and right now I'm on weight restriction from surgery for several more weeks.
We looked at all the options, and putting in the same...
I was wrong. Dragonfly was wrong. Short story, six 100ah batteries in parallel config, feeding MPII 2x. When I first assembled the system, I stress tested the system measuring wire and connector temperature. My worst measurement was +15F over ambient. I declared it good, and everything was...
Found more of the issue, wire connection to the charger, is an issue, almost 0.5v at that connector. I put a ferrule on the wire (larger strands), and tightened it down, and saw an immediate improvement. It appears the neg wire runs back to the fuse panel, but not to the buss bar. I'll have...
My issues with propane accelerated this winter while snow birding. It literally became a daily challenge to keep it running. Potpourri of issues like build up on spark igniter to some unknown issue with coolant flow, to just being cantankerous.
I knew putting in the 12v compressor system would...
Nope, they are totally useless. They flat out don't work. Since you're in a stationary application, you can use just a flat washer if you need the added contact area. The theory is the spring from the split puts a longitudinal load on the connection. There is almost zero additional force on...
For my TT running on a 2500w generator, i installed microair easystart. aircon went from stalling the generator to running fine. .
Got a bit more interesting in the 5th wheel Multiplus II 2x. It would start the aircon, but MP went into overload, and I was scrambling to shut off anything 120v...
MP II 2x
600ah battery
1200w solar
I sized it for 3 days with no solar and no AC nor resistance heat. Going into day 5 of heavy cloud cover and rain. I probably would have made it, but one day I turned the fridge to electric, and used up what little I was getting off of solar to run the...
Push the panels all the way to the outer edge. You can see shadows from the aircon units, shadows are devastating to a panels output. With as many panels as you have, I'd look at a rail system. Carefully consider how they are going to be wired and the impact to the system. I don't have...
Thank you to everybody that has been helping with my difficult 5th wheel installation. If you're just joining, I'm already at 13'5", so higher was not an option.
Total of six panels in two independent strings (driv/pass sides), 24v 200w panels.
The drivers side, I left enough room for on...
Well written as I have gone from knowing nothing to putting together a system I'm hoping to be proud of. hopefully smoke test will be in a couple of days.
I did tire of the absolutes without reasoning. I'll question everything as I'm learning, it was a process that served me well in my...
As I came to realize my 5th wheel factory installed system was woefully inadequate, started down the path of Victron and Battleborn. Yes they both cost a lot more, but the system just works wonderfully well. Dragonfly put up with my hundreds of questions, and the system worked perfectly well...
RV Airflow Improver. An expensive piece of hard foam that smooths out the airflow It's been measured to improve airflow up to 40%. Makes a HUGE diff.
Perfect. I'll just limit power to a small amount and if I need 2nd AC, it is powered off of L2. I'll have to figure out what else is...
We looked at doing what you did, your unit would have been a perfect fit. however, we both like the decor of the factory nevercold. I wanted DC, because even when I'm hooked up to park power, I tend to run 120v off of park power, and DC off of battery. If I'd get off my rear, and do the...
Got the wires down today... it was a bit challenging. I wanted to use a cute aerodynamic gland housing, but just couldn't find one big enough for 4 8mm wires. So, my project box combiner is partially in the slip stream, with wires to SCC coming up through the bottom of the box. Was able to...
150a/6 batteries is 25a per battery, System in perfect conditions is capable of roughly 200a total, or 33a per battery. Battery case temps matched ambient.
Sigh, I have found more bad connections than I care to find. I finally had to turn my 120v 60a Lithium battery charger on, and I'm getting a whopping 25a out of it. Something is wrong somewhere. Most everything is being replaced with my upgrades, so hopefully that whole circuit will be disabled.
I pulled off the Rich Solar 12v panels and replaced them with 24v. I was shocked to find two attachment screws that worked their way loose :( Guess this will have to be an annual inspection point. It's kind of late to think about loctite in my setup. I really don't want to pull the panels...
Did you check the price of Zamp solar panels? Holy brown stuff, must be gold plated.
Each SAE connector is rated for 20a..
I'm completely pulling out all the Zamp stuff and redoing the solar.
Top wire is the parallel connection to the top battery. Everything else is going through shunt. Two wires connected to shunt, one to the trailers buss bar (previously connected to battery), 2nd wire is connected to the inverter (which is currently turned off).
How did you get the line graph? I see the bar chart in the dashboard, and it's remarkably accurate. The only change I'd like to see, and it may be a bit more complicated to achieve, forecast battery SOC.
Generis,
I'm constrained on height, width, and junk running down the entire center of the roof.
I decided on 2 strings of 1S3P and going with two SCC. As much as I hate two SCC, given some of the physical constraints, this came out to be the best solution. I did go with 24v panels on 12v...
I decided to run two independent strings. If I had gone with one SCC, I could have used existing wires. BUT, it was the desire to keep pass and driv side strings independent. Right this second, I'm regretting that decision :)
Incorrect, a 50a trailer is actually 50a on EACH leg, for a total of 100a. Look at the circuit breakers, there are two breakers, each one is listed at 50a.
Also Multiplus is 3000VA, not 3000w, distinct difference.
Ok, after rates go down tonight, I'll turn the charger back on and bring SOC back up
Loads are a lot lighter right now
We were overcast for most of yesterday, and peak solar was up from before the dirty panels were cleaned. Today is supposed to be full sun, but wind will be high which creates...
I have 1200w/600ah, and mostly pleased. My personal experience, 400ah can be a bit light. I find 600ah gives me enough head room for multiple days in a row with little to no solar collection. I'm seriously considering increasing my solar to 1600. As a test I let my propane fridge run on...
I'm finishing an "upgrade" on my 5th wheel. Few things I've learned, from the factory and my first upgrade. This upgrade is ripping out everything and starting over.
First and this is not something to take lightly, pay very close attention to how close you are to things like air conditioning...
Generator is 2200w running, 2500 peak. I turned it down to quiet it down a bit. I'm wondering if there's a muffler issue, it's louder than I remember. We were at a harvest host, which did allow generators. I found 10a to kind of be a sweet spot between too loud and still holding it's own on...
Those are 12v panels. VOC on 24v panels would be 43-46ish volts
To directly answer your question, my 24v panels are 46voc running through a victron 100/50 to a 12v battery bank. There is a slight advantage with 24v panels over 12v panels... but you have to watch out for exceed max volts on...