48V system install into my home, a 27' travel trailer.
- Thread starter thebeavesknees
- Start date
thebeavesknees
New Member
Thank you! I do, too. I am more confident now since I have got the wiring figured out.
thebeavesknees
New Member
It's been a while, but things are escalating nicely. I've got two panels mounted on the roof, the 3048 working with the solar input, plugged into an outlet, and have had it running with the 20Ah Moseworth batteries. Nothing crazy, but, just proving the system.
I recently bought 16 105Ah EVE cells and an older JKBMS. (I don't need the inverter functionality since the 3048 doesn't seem to interface with batteries the way newer designs do.)
Yes, it's a mess currently. No, it won't stay like that.
My trusty bench power supply is slowly charging the battery with ~5A as I watch what's going on the three JK app, which is mostly good.
So far, I'm very pleased with the system, though, I do have some issues with a few specific things.
I recently bought 16 105Ah EVE cells and an older JKBMS. (I don't need the inverter functionality since the 3048 doesn't seem to interface with batteries the way newer designs do.)
Yes, it's a mess currently. No, it won't stay like that.
My trusty bench power supply is slowly charging the battery with ~5A as I watch what's going on the three JK app, which is mostly good.
So far, I'm very pleased with the system, though, I do have some issues with a few specific things.
thebeavesknees
New Member
I just topped off the battery pack again and I'm very pleased. Only .003-5V deviation ABC settles down to a reasonable voltage. I need to pick up a few things to more permanently affix the cells to each other, but, so far, the cells and the BMS work exactly how I'd expect them to work! 
thebeavesknees
New Member
Thank you! Everything is working well so far, though, I'm having issues figuring out what to use to separate the cells before I tape them together, but I know I just need to search a bit more.Looks good
thebeavesknees
New Member
I have a few updates. I poked around the forum and found some suggested settings for these kinds of inverters, and, well, let's just say that they were effective, even if the cause is a silly firmware bug in the 3048LV-MK that is never going to be fixed. That being said, my goodness am I excited! I finally got Watchpower, the MPP logging software, running. My goodness is it ever a steaming pile of poo. But I guess it works well enough to get this kind of data:
The system seems to peak at ~516W input at the 9A indicated in the chart about. It will not go above that 9A, so I wonder if that is the max the panels will output through this setup, even if the rated short circuit voltage of the panels that I am using is a nominal 10.3A.
Still, getting 62% of rated input on essentially flat mounted panels in February is stellar. This is only with two panels in series, as I did not get a chance to finish mounting the other two before the weather turned cold.
The sharp drop off is the batteries being full. I don't have the system directly hooked into the RV yet as I have been planning to make some changes to my original plan to accommodate some additional nonsense that I like to punish myself with. Much more on that to follow.
Anyway, if anyone has any input on the seeming 9A limitation, I am all ears. I am still new to all this and am learning a ton, and am much happier with this now that I have a larger, useful battery and a substantial amount of power coming in (for what it is).
The system seems to peak at ~516W input at the 9A indicated in the chart about. It will not go above that 9A, so I wonder if that is the max the panels will output through this setup, even if the rated short circuit voltage of the panels that I am using is a nominal 10.3A.
Still, getting 62% of rated input on essentially flat mounted panels in February is stellar. This is only with two panels in series, as I did not get a chance to finish mounting the other two before the weather turned cold.
The sharp drop off is the batteries being full. I don't have the system directly hooked into the RV yet as I have been planning to make some changes to my original plan to accommodate some additional nonsense that I like to punish myself with. Much more on that to follow.
Anyway, if anyone has any input on the seeming 9A limitation, I am all ears. I am still new to all this and am learning a ton, and am much happier with this now that I have a larger, useful battery and a substantial amount of power coming in (for what it is).
thebeavesknees
New Member
I've had a few days where input has peaked much higher. This is fascinating to me!
The sun is finally high enough in the sky to clear the roof peak. When the trees start to leaf, that will kill early mooring production, but, the peak should more than make up for it. With just the two panels installed, the system is pretty much sold sustaining with the light use in putting it through. I use it to run my electric kettle and toaster oven. I also keep the laptop that's logging the system plugged in to the output. It's pretty great running the system on itself!
I did order some ESP32s to slowly attempt to build a logger of my own. (This will not go well. Heh.)
I also ordered another 3048LV-MK which came in. I've swapped the original one out to test the new one. Both now have the parallel board installed.
I still have some things left to get/put together in order to test the 240V split phase output, but that should be soon enough.
I've pretty much decided on a mini split to install, also. I'll probably make a separate post about that, since it seems to be a very debated topic. I've got most of the wiring figured out for that. I'm still figuring out some of the junction points and how best to effect those, but, the setup will be pretty sweet regardless of what specific unit I do settle on.
I am just so very excited!
The sun is finally high enough in the sky to clear the roof peak. When the trees start to leaf, that will kill early mooring production, but, the peak should more than make up for it. With just the two panels installed, the system is pretty much sold sustaining with the light use in putting it through. I use it to run my electric kettle and toaster oven. I also keep the laptop that's logging the system plugged in to the output. It's pretty great running the system on itself!
I did order some ESP32s to slowly attempt to build a logger of my own. (This will not go well. Heh.)
I also ordered another 3048LV-MK which came in. I've swapped the original one out to test the new one. Both now have the parallel board installed.
I still have some things left to get/put together in order to test the 240V split phase output, but that should be soon enough.
I've pretty much decided on a mini split to install, also. I'll probably make a separate post about that, since it seems to be a very debated topic. I've got most of the wiring figured out for that. I'm still figuring out some of the junction points and how best to effect those, but, the setup will be pretty sweet regardless of what specific unit I do settle on.
I am just so very excited!
thebeavesknees
New Member
Another update:
I did get the twin 3048LV-MKs paralleled. They do output 240V when configured that way, both via inverting from the battery and being fed 120V input. I don't have an easy way to test their load capacity in this configuration at the moment, but, meter checks do show 240V output on the lugs.
At this point, I discovered a fairly significant snag: when paralleled to output 240V split phase, you cannot charge the battery via 120V input. This was exceptionally frustrating to discover, as, I do need utility or generator input to charge the batteries in bad weather or if the grid is down. This is a big deal that isn't at all mentioned in any documentation, and I only infered that this was the situation due to watching one of Ian's videos on the bigger brother 60-something AIO that's got two internal 3kW inverters. I had watched that video at least two times before, but it didn't register that he had to apply 240V input in order to get that unit to charge the batteries via utility when configured to run at 240V output.
I read as much as I could and determined that the best solution was simply to get a Victron autotransformer, which I did, and I installed for testing, and it works perfectly.
Annoyingly, had I known about this limitation, I would have likely picked a different setup, but, as it is, it's fine and also affords a degree of flexibility that I would not have otherwise. My thinking is that if I don't need the extra output of the second 3048LV-MK, I can just use the autotransformer to create 240V from one inverter and save the running wattage of the second inverter. 3000W is more than enough for all my needs as long as I don't need to run a minisplit at full tilt and a high draw appliance like my electric kettle at the same time, at least from battery and not utilizing grid pass through.
Still, for now, I think I'll install it as I've got it now, with the autotransformer feeding both 3048LV-MKs as that's more convenient in some ways for wiring the whole thing.
As usual, one step at a time.
I did get the twin 3048LV-MKs paralleled. They do output 240V when configured that way, both via inverting from the battery and being fed 120V input. I don't have an easy way to test their load capacity in this configuration at the moment, but, meter checks do show 240V output on the lugs.
At this point, I discovered a fairly significant snag: when paralleled to output 240V split phase, you cannot charge the battery via 120V input. This was exceptionally frustrating to discover, as, I do need utility or generator input to charge the batteries in bad weather or if the grid is down. This is a big deal that isn't at all mentioned in any documentation, and I only infered that this was the situation due to watching one of Ian's videos on the bigger brother 60-something AIO that's got two internal 3kW inverters. I had watched that video at least two times before, but it didn't register that he had to apply 240V input in order to get that unit to charge the batteries via utility when configured to run at 240V output.
I read as much as I could and determined that the best solution was simply to get a Victron autotransformer, which I did, and I installed for testing, and it works perfectly.
Annoyingly, had I known about this limitation, I would have likely picked a different setup, but, as it is, it's fine and also affords a degree of flexibility that I would not have otherwise. My thinking is that if I don't need the extra output of the second 3048LV-MK, I can just use the autotransformer to create 240V from one inverter and save the running wattage of the second inverter. 3000W is more than enough for all my needs as long as I don't need to run a minisplit at full tilt and a high draw appliance like my electric kettle at the same time, at least from battery and not utilizing grid pass through.
Still, for now, I think I'll install it as I've got it now, with the autotransformer feeding both 3048LV-MKs as that's more convenient in some ways for wiring the whole thing.
As usual, one step at a time.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
In his video on the 5048 big brother, at about 7:20, he finds a work around for that issue. That might work for you as well.
thebeavesknees
New Member
Thanks! But, that didn't work when I tried it with my twins.
Oh! He doesn't have his set to run split phase.
If I simply parallel my twins, they will charge on single phase input. They will not charge from utility if I set them to output split phase.
Oh! He doesn't have his set to run split phase.
If I simply parallel my twins, they will charge on single phase input. They will not charge from utility if I set them to output split phase.
