basic design sanity check

[codigorojo]

I'm planning my small off grid power system for my tiny truck camper in the coastal Pacific NW USA. My only significant loads will be:

medium sized 12v bougerv cooler, 50w or less with a duty cycle of about 50%. I'm calling it roughly 50Ah per day at 12v
starlink mini, 50w 6-8 hours per day, so 30Ah per day.
phone and laptop charging, a few 12v led lights, 10Ah a day.
total load about 90Ah per day

I'm assuming no shore power available most of the time. Solar will be weak on the coast in summer and non existent 9 months a year. Most of my camping will be weekends, so 2 days of juice should get me by if I charge batteries at home. In summertime I'd love to get an extra day of power from solar before I need to hit a grid outlet.

The system I'm considering is the following:

2x watt cycle lifepo4 12v 100Ah batteries
victron 12/20 ac-dc charger
victron smart solar mppt 100/50 controller
renogy 400w suitcase solar panel

Does this sound like a smart combination? I'm open to criticism or any feedback. Thank you.

 

[WorldwideDave]

no to the watt cycle. see other threads. especially if in parallel - just...no.

I wouldn't expect much from a 400w solar panel - maybe 200w - but who knows. Go big on the panels they are stupid cheap right now.
for the charger, get the orion XS 50a one for lifepo4 maybe?
Don't forget bus bars, t-class fuse, conductors, PV disconnect, fuse for the solar charge controller and the Orion XS device. Small things add up. Also have a disconnect for the batteries - 60v victron kill switch will work - $40.

 

[codigorojo]

Thanks for responding. I was looking at the old model wattcycle dumb 12v100Ah battery. It was my impression that the dumb version were ok to run parallel with a different bms than the newer smart ones. I don't have much roof space for hard-mounted panels and I don't expect to get much out of them anyway. This will be a shore-charged system 90 percent of the time. I almost hate to spend the money on solar with the amount of low stratus clouds we get on the OR and WA coast during the only viable months of the year.

My reasoning for the victron charger was so it could work with the victron scc and I wouldn't need to invest in a transfer switch.

Also I will be wiring it all up neatly with bus bars and all the right fuses etc. I'm ocd. And I will brace myself for nickel and dime action adding up.

 

[WorldwideDave]

Go with eco-worthy or something. See other threads where watt cycle not responding to customers now. Be careful!