Yossarian
New Member
I posted much of this in another part of the Forum, specifically looking for help with mobile mounting. Now that I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on the equipment, I need some help with a few more things, hence the new post.
The basic background is that I'm planning to add a battery generator to provide backup power to a small vacation house. I also want to add some solar charging for those times when the power outage may be extended. I'm planning to purchase a pair of EcoFlo DeltaPro's with the 240V hub and NEMA L14-30R TO L14-30P Generator Cord (I need 240v for the well pump). As an aside, if anyone is interested in the EcoFlow, Costco has them with "special event" pricing through 11/26.
As far as the PV panels, I recently purchased 4 older, but new and unused ET Solar M572175 panels from a guy who does storage unit cleanouts. The plan is mount them on a trailer so they can be pulled into place and adjusted when needed. While I'd prefer to mount them permanently, the heavy tree cover on the property, along with HOA restrictions, make that difficult. As far as specs. the panels are 175/155 watts with a Voc rating of 44.25V and Vmp of 36.24V.
The EcoFlow has a built in MPPT controller that can accept 1600W / 15A Max at 11-150V. My understanding is that one drawback to the EcoFlow is that each of the two units needs to be charged independently. With that in mind, I thought that I would wire two panels in series and connect each pair in parrallel to the EcoFlow. This should mean a nominal input of 88.5 volts (72.5V actual), 350 watts (310 actual) at something on the order of about 4.25 amps.
The first question is about the series/parrallel wiring. My thought was that it was a way to keep the voltage under the max of 150V that the EcoFlow can handle. Is this a viable way to achieve that? The second question is about my calculations in the para above - are they correct?
Finally, there's the questio of the approprate wire gauge. My ballpark estimate for the length of the run I need is 100 feet. The calculationed wire size seems to vary quite widely based on the percentage drop over the run. If use 70 volts at 5 amps with a 3% voltage drop at 100', then 12 AWG seems to be sufficient. If I changethe voltage drop to 1% however, the guage needed increases to 8 AWG. Given that the range of acceptable voltage for the battery generator is pretty wide, it would seem that the system could easily cope with a 3% loss. Is that a fair assumption, or should I just bite the bullet and go with a heavier guage?
Any advice and suggetions welcome; apologies in advance for these pretty basic questions.
The basic background is that I'm planning to add a battery generator to provide backup power to a small vacation house. I also want to add some solar charging for those times when the power outage may be extended. I'm planning to purchase a pair of EcoFlo DeltaPro's with the 240V hub and NEMA L14-30R TO L14-30P Generator Cord (I need 240v for the well pump). As an aside, if anyone is interested in the EcoFlow, Costco has them with "special event" pricing through 11/26.
As far as the PV panels, I recently purchased 4 older, but new and unused ET Solar M572175 panels from a guy who does storage unit cleanouts. The plan is mount them on a trailer so they can be pulled into place and adjusted when needed. While I'd prefer to mount them permanently, the heavy tree cover on the property, along with HOA restrictions, make that difficult. As far as specs. the panels are 175/155 watts with a Voc rating of 44.25V and Vmp of 36.24V.
The EcoFlow has a built in MPPT controller that can accept 1600W / 15A Max at 11-150V. My understanding is that one drawback to the EcoFlow is that each of the two units needs to be charged independently. With that in mind, I thought that I would wire two panels in series and connect each pair in parrallel to the EcoFlow. This should mean a nominal input of 88.5 volts (72.5V actual), 350 watts (310 actual) at something on the order of about 4.25 amps.
The first question is about the series/parrallel wiring. My thought was that it was a way to keep the voltage under the max of 150V that the EcoFlow can handle. Is this a viable way to achieve that? The second question is about my calculations in the para above - are they correct?
Finally, there's the questio of the approprate wire gauge. My ballpark estimate for the length of the run I need is 100 feet. The calculationed wire size seems to vary quite widely based on the percentage drop over the run. If use 70 volts at 5 amps with a 3% voltage drop at 100', then 12 AWG seems to be sufficient. If I changethe voltage drop to 1% however, the guage needed increases to 8 AWG. Given that the range of acceptable voltage for the battery generator is pretty wide, it would seem that the system could easily cope with a 3% loss. Is that a fair assumption, or should I just bite the bullet and go with a heavier guage?
Any advice and suggetions welcome; apologies in advance for these pretty basic questions.
