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Multiple Charge controllers to one battery bank

pbuck00

Bucky
Joined
Jan 2, 2020
Messages
31
Location
California North Coast
Greetings. I have a system currently at home so I am not a total newbie... but it is a fairly straight forward system.... now plotting on to upgrade an RV I have coming next month.

It comes with a gopower package....200 watt panel on the roof/solar charge controller/1000 watt go power inverter/standard RV type power converter and probably the cheapest 12 volt battery they can find.

Current plans:
Swap out stock battery for 350 AH of lithium battery bank (2 Big Battery 12volt Owl)
swap 1000 inverter/power converter for Victron multiplus 3000 12V

RV comes with a go power PWM. without actually seeing the specs yet, I figure I could put an additional 400 watts of panels into this.. but I am nervous about punching a bunch of holes in a brand new roof.. so going with 2 200 watt flexible panels and using VHB on all four sides.. giving me 600 watts on the roof.

Today's question is on Solar Charge controllers. I am pretty sure I can't just connect the new flexible panels into the existing solar controller.. way different specs on the panels. But can I put a second solar charge controller (Victron) and connect both the existing system (gopower controller with 200 watt rigid panel) and the new system (Victron controller with 2 200 watt flexibles) to the same battery bank and let the batteries get their power from where ever they want?

Along the same lines, since I am planning on heavy boondocking usage.. down the road I may add a Renogy DC/DC charge, which would also give me an option of adding a charge from by tow vehicle and a set of portable panels I can set up away from the RV. Again feeding into the same battery bank.

My other option is to just add to the battery bank up to 500 AH, which would probably do me for quite a while boondocking (without using AC/TV).

Which way I go depends on if I can mix and match charge controllers into the battery bank, as costs seem to balance out.

Opinions ??

Thank you
 
 
Thank you Snoobler... Looks like it was already posted.. thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I really did look before I asked... ((sometimes it is not running a search but knowing the right words for the search.)
 
Skip that Renogy DC-DC/MPPT device. It's going to be too limiting for what you want to do.

In my RV trailer I have 560 Ah of LiFePO4 batteries @ 12v, charged by 640 watts of panels on the roof through a Victron 100/50 MPPT solar charge controller. I also have 640 watts of panels available for ground deployment, using another Victron 100/50 MPPT solar charge controller. I get no charge from the tow vehicle into the LiFePO4 battery bank. I have an on-board generator that is used to run the microwave and air conditioning. I don't run the generator to charge the batteries, but the LiFePO4 batteries do get some charge when the generator is running.

So far, I've had plenty of power, but I'm running an inverter that is only 1,000 watts. I eventually plan to put in a Multiplus. I don't think I'll need to change my system much for the new inverter.
 
would reconsider your panel choice... a few holes is not a big deal... once that flexi panel dies, how you gonna get it off?
 
I think 2009Bounder2020 has a good point. I was also thinking of adding flex panels but then realized that those panels would add heat to the RV being mounted directly on the roof. I opted for Z brackets to mount rigid glass panels that would shade the roof and help keep the rv cooler rather than hotter. My RV is only 22 ft long and 8 ft wide with no slide outs - very old school similar to AirStream in shape and exterior aluminum riveted skin.
 
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