ericfx1984
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2021
- Messages
- 741
Hello and thank you for all your help in advance
I recently acquired an RV... 2009, 34 foot, 5th wheel, bunk house, master bedroom in the front, kids double bunk in the rear
It is already setup with solar and I have been living in it off grid on our property in rural Kansas for nearly a month now... RV is parked MOSTLY South with the panels pitched a hair to the West... might move it at some point to fix this
Currently getting between 1Kwh and 2Kwh a day... batteries are staying charged
I have several questions and have noticed several little issues
setup is as follows:
3x Hitech 200 watt solar panels, in parallel
Victron 100/50 MPPT
4x Duracell GC2 golf cart lead acid batteries, setup @ 12v
1/0 wire on the batteries to the inverter (2 foot run)
cheap china 300 amp breaker
AIMS Power 3000 watt inverter charger, etl rated with the remote control panel
additionally I have a battery display also mounted inside
Adding 2x Silfab Sil-330hl in series and a EP Ever Tracer 40 amp MPPT in the next few days
Additionally i will be building a large off grid 7500 watt, 16s 30khw, 10000 watt system, but this will be SEPERATE from the RV system, it will RUN the RV and the entire property (shop and eventually a 700 square foot cabin)
On to my questions:
1.) does the inverter NEED bigger wiring (currently 1/0, 2 foot run)? I have noticed that IF I run the microwave OR the electric tea pot, it will sometimes pop the breaker... To experiment, I had my wife fire up the tea kettle which pulls around 1200 watts on the DC side of the inverter (so maybe 1000-1100 on the AC) What I noticed was that the voltage measured at the battery was around 12.6 vs the voltage measured at the inverter being nearly 11.7 ALMOST a volt different... and within about 20-45 seconds the 300 amp china breaker would POP
When you count all the other things running on the inverter (work laptop and monitors, phone charging, personal laptop) the total wattage coming off the battery is between 1600-1900 watts! But even at 11.7 volts and 1900 watts, that should only be around 165 amps at the breaker... just over 50% of the breaker's rating... Considering just going 400 amp ANL fuse and 1 foot run 4/0 (or 2x 1/0 and double 200 amp ANL?)
2.) Considering upgrading my battery, mostly looking for more capacity... the batteries I currently have are in fantastic condition... I COULD just add 2 or 4 more of them, I have the room in the bay
OR
I could build a LIFEPO4 4s out of china 280 ah cells... my biggest concern is the cost of BMS... I would like to be able to full power the 3000 watt 12v inverter which in COULD require up to 313 amps at 12v(after accounting for the unit being less that 100% efficient)
3.) is it worth it to convert the RV to 24v? I mean BOTH of my MPPT SCC can handle a 24v battery system... I would need to run a few 24-12 DCtoDC convertors...
4.) Is it worth it to run my current 3x 200 watt panels in series? My guess that they would build a max of around 66v and would reach a usable charge voltage much sooner in the morning and continue to charge a little later in the day
5.) I see that my inverter charge has multiple smaller lines that connect to each battery I assuming this is used a balancing function?
I recently acquired an RV... 2009, 34 foot, 5th wheel, bunk house, master bedroom in the front, kids double bunk in the rear
It is already setup with solar and I have been living in it off grid on our property in rural Kansas for nearly a month now... RV is parked MOSTLY South with the panels pitched a hair to the West... might move it at some point to fix this
Currently getting between 1Kwh and 2Kwh a day... batteries are staying charged
I have several questions and have noticed several little issues
setup is as follows:
3x Hitech 200 watt solar panels, in parallel
Victron 100/50 MPPT
4x Duracell GC2 golf cart lead acid batteries, setup @ 12v
1/0 wire on the batteries to the inverter (2 foot run)
cheap china 300 amp breaker
AIMS Power 3000 watt inverter charger, etl rated with the remote control panel
additionally I have a battery display also mounted inside
Adding 2x Silfab Sil-330hl in series and a EP Ever Tracer 40 amp MPPT in the next few days
Additionally i will be building a large off grid 7500 watt, 16s 30khw, 10000 watt system, but this will be SEPERATE from the RV system, it will RUN the RV and the entire property (shop and eventually a 700 square foot cabin)
On to my questions:
1.) does the inverter NEED bigger wiring (currently 1/0, 2 foot run)? I have noticed that IF I run the microwave OR the electric tea pot, it will sometimes pop the breaker... To experiment, I had my wife fire up the tea kettle which pulls around 1200 watts on the DC side of the inverter (so maybe 1000-1100 on the AC) What I noticed was that the voltage measured at the battery was around 12.6 vs the voltage measured at the inverter being nearly 11.7 ALMOST a volt different... and within about 20-45 seconds the 300 amp china breaker would POP
When you count all the other things running on the inverter (work laptop and monitors, phone charging, personal laptop) the total wattage coming off the battery is between 1600-1900 watts! But even at 11.7 volts and 1900 watts, that should only be around 165 amps at the breaker... just over 50% of the breaker's rating... Considering just going 400 amp ANL fuse and 1 foot run 4/0 (or 2x 1/0 and double 200 amp ANL?)
2.) Considering upgrading my battery, mostly looking for more capacity... the batteries I currently have are in fantastic condition... I COULD just add 2 or 4 more of them, I have the room in the bay
OR
I could build a LIFEPO4 4s out of china 280 ah cells... my biggest concern is the cost of BMS... I would like to be able to full power the 3000 watt 12v inverter which in COULD require up to 313 amps at 12v(after accounting for the unit being less that 100% efficient)
3.) is it worth it to convert the RV to 24v? I mean BOTH of my MPPT SCC can handle a 24v battery system... I would need to run a few 24-12 DCtoDC convertors...
4.) Is it worth it to run my current 3x 200 watt panels in series? My guess that they would build a max of around 66v and would reach a usable charge voltage much sooner in the morning and continue to charge a little later in the day
5.) I see that my inverter charge has multiple smaller lines that connect to each battery I assuming this is used a balancing function?