rebelrider.mike
New Member
Not sure of the best way to word the title, but I'm planning to build a portable solar array for my camper. I'm also planning to install the EG4 18kPV and PowerPro battery in my house. The two will not be directly compatible, as the camper is 24V, the battery is 48V, and the house solar will be around 500V.
I'd like to use the camper's solar array as a supplement to the house solar array when we're not camping. Not sure if there is a good way to do it.
The trailer will have it's own MPPT charge controller and battery. Its Voltage would be 29.2-20V (25.6V nominal). The battery could output up to 80A, but the solar array would only output 0-40A even in cold ideal conditions. I'm thinking 20A might be reasonable as a maximum output.
My first thought was to connect the trailer battery to the house battery via a constant-voltage/constant-current regulator. The EG4 PowerPro battery can handle up to 200A, and is 58.4-44.8V (51.2V nominal). The way I figure it, that would be up to 10A into the battery.
My second thought was to run the trailer battery output into one of the unused MPPT controllers in the EG4 18kPV. I don't know what the long-term effect would be (if any) on the MPPT. I've done it before on a small MPPT solar charge controller in order to simulate solar energy output, and it seemed to work ok. The EG4's smaller MPPTs can accept up to 15A. If I'm reading the manual right, they can use 100-600V, but the MPPT only tracks above 120V. So if I boosted the trailer's output voltage to, let's say 110V, then the input would accept the power without running the tracking?
The reason I'm considering using one of the MPPT inputs is that way the 18kPV could use the power even if the battery is already full. Whereas if I connected the input directly to the battery, once the battery is full, the extra power would go unused. Does that make sense?
Either way, I could be receiving up to about 4A @ 120VAC from the trailer. Not much, but you could do a lot with 4A. Especially over several hours. I wonder though, if after all the losses in the system, it would be more efficient to just put the power into the battery and not bother with the MPPT input.
I'd like to use the camper's solar array as a supplement to the house solar array when we're not camping. Not sure if there is a good way to do it.
The trailer will have it's own MPPT charge controller and battery. Its Voltage would be 29.2-20V (25.6V nominal). The battery could output up to 80A, but the solar array would only output 0-40A even in cold ideal conditions. I'm thinking 20A might be reasonable as a maximum output.
My first thought was to connect the trailer battery to the house battery via a constant-voltage/constant-current regulator. The EG4 PowerPro battery can handle up to 200A, and is 58.4-44.8V (51.2V nominal). The way I figure it, that would be up to 10A into the battery.
My second thought was to run the trailer battery output into one of the unused MPPT controllers in the EG4 18kPV. I don't know what the long-term effect would be (if any) on the MPPT. I've done it before on a small MPPT solar charge controller in order to simulate solar energy output, and it seemed to work ok. The EG4's smaller MPPTs can accept up to 15A. If I'm reading the manual right, they can use 100-600V, but the MPPT only tracks above 120V. So if I boosted the trailer's output voltage to, let's say 110V, then the input would accept the power without running the tracking?
The reason I'm considering using one of the MPPT inputs is that way the 18kPV could use the power even if the battery is already full. Whereas if I connected the input directly to the battery, once the battery is full, the extra power would go unused. Does that make sense?
Either way, I could be receiving up to about 4A @ 120VAC from the trailer. Not much, but you could do a lot with 4A. Especially over several hours. I wonder though, if after all the losses in the system, it would be more efficient to just put the power into the battery and not bother with the MPPT input.
