Most reacted posts

We have been truck camper owners for almost 25 years. Recently I took an interest in developing a generator free truck camper that would power all our AC circuits on our new unit. After doing a fair amount of research this is what we built a couple years ago. This is a 2018 Host Mammoth slide...

Right, look at the picture in the link. That is a poly panel. The panels on your roof are Mono though. Not really a biggie. Most people would prefer the mono panels. Note the diamonds in the corners.

Built in the basement of our new 5th Wheel. The stock wall was moved and all components mounted on newly claimed space. (Blue tape shows old wall layout. The battery bank slides in under the staircase to the bedroom. Time to hit the road. ;-) 600Ah CALB 3s/8p w/ Daly 200Ah@24v BMS (12) 200 watt...

Quality dc circuit breakers work fine. They are more expensive but Blue Sea 187 series breakers have always worked well for me even near rated max. They are designed for marine use and very well made.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Samlex they make a 2000watt 24v unit. UL listed, commercial grade. Can be plugged into or hard wired. I'm pretty sure made in the USA. Unlike most of the Chinese cheep units a Samlex will run at its advertised max and surge without making smoke...

Thanks. No alternator charging. The solar has been enough. The diagram doesn't show an 80 amp circuit breaker between the dc distribution panel and the pos busbar. Also a 250 amp T fuse for the inverter rather than the 400amp shown. No top balancing BMS

I am confused by "connect the positive lead from the charge controller directly to the inverter" Not sure the video you are referring to but both positive and negative leads from the solar charge controller should be attached to the battery through a fuse or circuit breaker. The inverter should...

We run our 11k unit from our 600ah lithium battery and 1080 watts of solar. Conditions dictate for how long. If it's not too hot and the sun is good we can go pretty much all day with the air cycling 50-70% compressor. If we have no sun and a full battery and 100% compressor about 4.5-5 hours...

The instructions aren't correct. I contacted Renogy a while back and they sent me the corrected instructions. See attached from Renogy

Sounds like a fun project. If your battery bank is 48v you will need a solution with high voltage panels. The roof space might be a limiting factor. Perhaps a pair of 24v panels connected in series. If they overhang the roof a little it shouldn't matter. Golf carts have a sizable battery bank so...

You have a great set up for testing. What happens if you cover a cell similar to the video I posted by Per? Ideally it would be better to test on a sunny day when the system is more optimally utilized. It looks like your array is producing 54v at 1.2 amps. Your MPPT is converting that to 13.7v...

I concur with Rider. The inrush amperage for fridge compressors can be 5x or more the running amperage. If the fridge draws 5-6 amps running it may be pulling 30+ LRA.

Most of the items you list are DC loads and won't be running through the inverter. The combination of the items you list both dc and possibly AC through the inverter should be under the recommended max discharging C rate for a single 100AH lithium battery even if they were all being used at the...

Nice build! Pretty similar to ours as far as array and battery bank size. Great amount of power for all sorts of things. BTW those are mono panels not poly.

Cell balancing is typically done at the bottom with individual raw cells in a system without a top balancing BMS. (what I did) This allows the cells to be tight at the bottom end of their capacity and hopefully keeping any one cell from falling off before a low voltage cut off disconnects the...

This is what I bought and has worked fine. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HJWTBYS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It didn't make sense to me either. I noticed in some advertising the say "panels have the same diodes as everyone uses" They don't mention that they are useless. My own 2 year old Grape 180 watt panels have diodes but according to GrapeSolar they are blocking diodes. This explains why I had...

Check with the specific manufacture of the solar charge controller. Some can handle excess amperage. It won't pass through as charging though and can cause the SCC to get pretty warm. Many manufacturers list a maximum PV array size in their specs. Good to follow their design limits. As an...

I'm sure you could buy just a holder and a fuse but kits like this are so inexpensive and you have all the parts for future projects...

The word shunt has various meanings but in this context a shunt is a device that passes electrical current with a very small amount of resistance. By measuring this very small voltage drop across the shunt a meter can determine the current passing back and forth across it. A shunt allows us to...

Each panel makes about 40v and about 10 amps If they are in parallel you will have about 40v at about 30 amps total for all 3. In parallel voltage stays the same as one panel and amperage accumulates. In series you would have about 120v at about 10 amps. If you are going to wire them in...

The advantage to poly is the price. The advantage to mono is the energy density, so if space is at a premium mono panels are smaller for the same wattage. In a mobile application and a small array a suitcase design can be a nice way to go. You may often find you can put your trailer in the shade...

Alternator charging is tricky. I decided to go with solar and plug in only. Not surprisingly most vehicles alternators are designed to maintain the vehicles battery and normal 12v loads, a trailer plus a margin of safety. Throwing on another large load can overload the alternator and wear it...

A shunt is only needed if you desire to know with a high degree of certainty where your batteries remaining capacity is at. Most charge controller give you state of charge based on the voltage it is reading. This is a very inaccurate way to measure state of charge unless the battery is...

Looks pretty good. Lithium batteries typically don't use a temp compensation for any chargers. Battleborn specifically clarifies no temp compensating which could cause the BMS to shut down charging. Unlike traditional batteries lithium accepts a good charge under a wide variety of temperatures...

With your MPPT solar charger you can run your panels in parallel, series, or a combination. The MPPT charger will then make the high voltage input into 12v output current compatible with your 12v battery bank. In general series will give you better efficiency of wiring and some possible better...

Our 12v bank has LVCO at 12v (3v/cell) and our max charging is 13.6v. (3.4v/cell) That range captures almost all of a LFP storage capacity while staying safely away from the cliffs. So little to gain pushing for that last little bit. Testing our CALB cells our capacity is still above the listed...

lol our dog farts near it in our camper and it screams...And yes, I am sticking with it being the dog!

I think the delineation would most likely be if someone were to purchase a service such as paying for advice or "blueprints" At that point one has reasonable expectations for accuracy as a contract where both parties received benefit has been fulfilled. Sharing what you built without receiving...

Cable/wire gauge is a function of load and cable distance. Inverter companies may recommend cable sizes but you should really use a voltage drop calculator to determine what is correct. A much smaller cable is needed at 1 foot then at 20 feet for any given load. The numbers don't lie. Voltage...