diy solar

diy solar

Is there anyone that I could pay to draw up a DIY solar blueprint?

Mister Mike

New Member
Joined
May 29, 2021
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28
Hi Folks,
If anyone that knows how to design my DIY solar I would be more than happy to pay for it. I bought the book and can't get very far. Here's the run down of what I have going:
Dodge Caravan, I stripped the inside to bare metal and will soon be done with the sink, plumbing, woodwork but I need to plan the solar. (side note): I thought I'd be done by last Christmas, then certainly by summer and now I'm hoping I can finish before I'm too old to drive :) I'm 61 years old.

I pulled the trigger and ordered a NEW 4 piece 3.2v 280Ah Lifepo4 (see spec below). This is way more than I need, my energy audit was about 150Ah.
This is what the spec sheet said: Model: 3.2V LiFepo4 280Ah, Real Capacity280Ah, Nominal voltage 3.2V, Maximum Discharge Current 280A,
Max charge voltage 3.65V, AC Impendance Resistance < or - 0.25m ohms. I ordered the battery from AliExpress from China so it'll be a couple months before it makes it to me in Tennessee.

In the book it says find the "maximum safe charging rate" in amps and as long as the maximum power produced by the solar panels is less than the maximum charge rate of the battery bank, we will be good to go. As you can see from the specs it shows the max charge in voltage 3.65, not amps, I don't know how to convert this.

There will be a rack on top the van so fitting enough solid panels will work. (how many and what size though?)

That's as far as I've gotten. please let me know if you would like to blueprint this start to finish and how much you would charge me. The batteries and all accessories can be placed very close to each other inside the van. 3 feet apart max.

Again, I have Will's book and the "Classic 400" design is probably close to what I'm after so that info is at my finger tips.

Thanks very much, Mike Embody
P.S. I may not be very smart but I can lift really heavy stuff :)

Here's the link to my order, the spec are towards the bottom:

Price Per UnitQuantityTaxOrder TotalStatus
NEW 4pcs 3.2v 280ah Lifepo4 Rechargeable Battery Lithium Iron Phosphate Solar Cell 12v 24v 280ah Grade A Lifepo4 Cell Tax Free
Ships From: CN

(Blmpow Official Store)

 
Good Luck in finding someone. If there’s no responses here, then you can try your local Craigslist. What makes it harder will be having some parts already including batteries. The more detailed you want these blueprints, the harder it’ll be.

If you have specific questions on one issue, you’d get plenty of answers.

I found Will’s book very good at concepts, but there was a lot more needed to be done for finding out instalation. There was either a paragraph or sentence on drilling through a roof, but I needed so much more than that before I was comfortable drilling through the roof.
 
Hmmmm if you go to a supplier and tell them what you want to do , they can design a system for you and give you
help to install it , it’s not really hard once you have some one spec the equipment and make a balanced system .
Plus if you have a problem later you can call on them to help trouble shoot .
I bought my system from AWS just the inverter cc panel , every thing else was source locally .
ALTE is allso good .
I just bought some Chinese batteries and they look good all had the same voltage ,they sent me the bus allso
My buddy is setting up a camper .
He is using a Samlex inverter charger 1200 watts small mppt charge controler and 2 300watts panels that he is going to set up on the ground at camp .
You should get as much solar on your roof as possible , the charge controller can be adjusted to charge the battery .
A 300watt panel should get you 800 watts mounted flat in not so great a location this time of year .
 
Hi Folks,
If anyone that knows how to design my DIY solar I would be more than happy to pay for it. I bought the book and can't get very far. Here's the run down of what I have going:
Dodge Caravan, I stripped the inside to bare metal and will soon be done with the sink, plumbing, woodwork but I need to plan the solar. (side note): I thought I'd be done by last Christmas, then certainly by summer and now I'm hoping I can finish before I'm too old to drive :) I'm 61 years old.

I pulled the trigger and ordered a NEW 4 piece 3.2v 280Ah Lifepo4 (see spec below). This is way more than I need, my energy audit was about 150Ah.
This is what the spec sheet said: Model: 3.2V LiFepo4 280Ah, Real Capacity280Ah, Nominal voltage 3.2V, Maximum Discharge Current 280A,
Max charge voltage 3.65V, AC Impendance Resistance < or - 0.25m ohms. I ordered the battery from AliExpress from China so it'll be a couple months before it makes it to me in Tennessee.

In the book it says find the "maximum safe charging rate" in amps and as long as the maximum power produced by the solar panels is less than the maximum charge rate of the battery bank, we will be good to go. As you can see from the specs it shows the max charge in voltage 3.65, not amps, I don't know how to convert this.

There will be a rack on top the van so fitting enough solid panels will work. (how many and what size though?)

That's as far as I've gotten. please let me know if you would like to blueprint this start to finish and how much you would charge me. The batteries and all accessories can be placed very close to each other inside the van. 3 feet apart max.

Again, I have Will's book and the "Classic 400" design is probably close to what I'm after so that info is at my finger tips.

Thanks very much, Mike Embody
P.S. I may not be very smart but I can lift really heavy stuff :)

Here's the link to my order, the spec are towards the bottom:


System blueprints are a click away at the top of the forum page. Will has a few linked up there with pictures as well, and links to parts you would need...

as for the charging issue you are having, let’s break it down one step at a time.

it states max charging rate of 280Amps. And each cell has a max charge of 3.65V
You have 4 cells, so, the max voltage is 4 x 3.65V and the max amps is anything below 280A
 
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