Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
So I've talked my brother into considering letting me pimp out his older Coleman pop-up camper with solar and some LiFe loving. I'll need to keep it at 12v because of the furnace, lights, fridge (he just sprang for a 12v compressor fridge for it), water pump, etc. so no going to a 24v setup or anything.
What I'm looking at so far for parts:
600w Solar Panel Kit for the panels and wires. I don't know why they call framed panels "Flexible" but it's a good value for 2 panels.
3x NewPowah 210w Panels since the last listing was BS, 3 of these would fit the bill OR
3x Rich Solar 200w Panels since they're a little bit shorter.
Which would mean a Combiner Box to run a 3p setup to alleviate shading issues.
EPEver 50a MPPT controller. Comes with the remote display, temp probe, pretty much maxes out at 580w of panel for a 12v setup.
Lithium Battery 20a charger for the shore power input. I couldn't really find an affordable 40a or so.
Giandel 2200w Inverter since I trust Will and that should be more than overkill for what he might need.
**Some Battery System** of LiFePo4 flavor, 200Ah-300Ah range with a 200A BMS to feed that inverter under heavy load. I'd like to find something more affordable than a SOK at $1100, but I absolutely NEED the low temp cutoff and that seems to be hard to find. I'm going to be replacing his existing battery box so no real dimensional limits there other than it makes the rackmount versions a real pain to fit. Suggestions please?
Most of the loads are real light, he usually ran it with a 80Ah FLA but had no inverter involved so his 120v system was for show when he was actually using it. I'd like to rectify that.
Here are my goals:
Run all his current 12v stuff. I'm overseas until July so I can't go look at his data plates for a power audit, but his old battery would run for a long weekend just fine. I'll be adding in some 12v -> USB charging ports I'm sure. No need to be able to charge from the car while being towed. I'll re-use his existing fuse block and wiring for the 12v stuff.
Bypass the shore power input to just feed the battery charger and run all his 120v stuff through the inverter all the time.
Keep the physical footprint as small as possible. A battery in a box on the tongue is one thing, but I can't physically fit much inside the little trailer space so no huge inverters or SCC's.
Keep the system as simple as possible. No bluetooth to the phone, no wifi connection to the cloud, no fu@%ing phone app! as plug & play as possible.
The ability to run an electric coffee pot (mine is about 300w and times out after 2 hours), a 1500w induction cooker for a half hour at a time, maybe 20w worth of LED light bulbs (maybe), laptop, fan? No AirCon, they can open a window.
In a perfect world, design/fab a hinge system so he can get the panels up at an angle when parked and locked flat for transport. But that's on me.
I've got about $1,000 just in the listed parts above, I'm really hoping I can shave some cost on the batteries. I'll still need fuses and wire and such so I need to allow for that.
Suggestions? Besides the battery, what am I missing?
What I'm looking at so far for parts:
3x NewPowah 210w Panels since the last listing was BS, 3 of these would fit the bill OR
3x Rich Solar 200w Panels since they're a little bit shorter.
Which would mean a Combiner Box to run a 3p setup to alleviate shading issues.
EPEver 50a MPPT controller. Comes with the remote display, temp probe, pretty much maxes out at 580w of panel for a 12v setup.
Lithium Battery 20a charger for the shore power input. I couldn't really find an affordable 40a or so.
Giandel 2200w Inverter since I trust Will and that should be more than overkill for what he might need.
**Some Battery System** of LiFePo4 flavor, 200Ah-300Ah range with a 200A BMS to feed that inverter under heavy load. I'd like to find something more affordable than a SOK at $1100, but I absolutely NEED the low temp cutoff and that seems to be hard to find. I'm going to be replacing his existing battery box so no real dimensional limits there other than it makes the rackmount versions a real pain to fit. Suggestions please?
Most of the loads are real light, he usually ran it with a 80Ah FLA but had no inverter involved so his 120v system was for show when he was actually using it. I'd like to rectify that.
Here are my goals:
Run all his current 12v stuff. I'm overseas until July so I can't go look at his data plates for a power audit, but his old battery would run for a long weekend just fine. I'll be adding in some 12v -> USB charging ports I'm sure. No need to be able to charge from the car while being towed. I'll re-use his existing fuse block and wiring for the 12v stuff.
Bypass the shore power input to just feed the battery charger and run all his 120v stuff through the inverter all the time.
Keep the physical footprint as small as possible. A battery in a box on the tongue is one thing, but I can't physically fit much inside the little trailer space so no huge inverters or SCC's.
Keep the system as simple as possible. No bluetooth to the phone, no wifi connection to the cloud, no fu@%ing phone app! as plug & play as possible.
The ability to run an electric coffee pot (mine is about 300w and times out after 2 hours), a 1500w induction cooker for a half hour at a time, maybe 20w worth of LED light bulbs (maybe), laptop, fan? No AirCon, they can open a window.
In a perfect world, design/fab a hinge system so he can get the panels up at an angle when parked and locked flat for transport. But that's on me.
I've got about $1,000 just in the listed parts above, I'm really hoping I can shave some cost on the batteries. I'll still need fuses and wire and such so I need to allow for that.
Suggestions? Besides the battery, what am I missing?
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