I finally finished the system for our trailer, and its been in about a week and working well. That's not to say it doesn't have issues. The whole project was designed to have the trailer separated from our seasonal parks terrible power. During peak periods we would go as low as 95V at 16-18A trailer draw. Not great for all the stuff in the trailer but we love the park so I wanted a solution that gave us good power, and the aside of having us be able to run without power when the park has issues.
The system comes from the park, and I left the Hughes Autoformer on that line to boost the voltage to the charger, even though it was listed down to 90VAC input. I went with a no name 500V/60A solar controller, (3) 230W Canadian Solar panels, a Meanwell 24V charger (charges at 34A), a 24V, 305Ah battery with a JK BMS capable of 200A and 2A balancing, and a no name 4000W inverter. I put my Hughes Watchdog on the output so I could see what the trailer was drawing.
I fused it all, fuses on the solar and charger outputs, a breaker off the panels, and a 200A breaker on the battery. I used the USB ports on the inverter to run two fans which pull in through cut furnace filters and run down each side of the batteries. The units are all mounted so their internal fans vent straight up and out. I also put more holes for ventalation in the middle. The boxed is sealed up more for bug protection that anything, the completed unit is under the slide out so is not subject to direct sun or rain.
It runs great, I way oversized the batteries it looks like, but I have issues with the MeanWell right now. I have also contacted TRC to help with the issue. The problem is the charger would be what I want to get us through the nights (even though the battery can) but it has issues restarting the charge.
So under load, but idle the trailer only draws 1.5A/120VAC. When I first fired it up, the charger was topping up the batteries as they were at 95%. I set the internal temp for the trailer at 28C so the air would come on and came back two days later. I found the batteries at 39%/25.71V. The charger light was still green, it wasn't charging. I power cycled it and it took off charging. I turned off the AC. I left and came back to find the batteries at 95%. We were staying so I fired up the AC and it got down to set temp and the batteries were at 89%, again, the light was green but the charger hadn't come on. Power cycled and it came back on. Ran the rest of the day, then right before bed, we turn the AC off and just run the fan solid for the night. Battery was at 94%. In this config the trailer draws 10A/120V. I cycled the power on the charger and went to bed expecting the battery to have fully charged in about 4 hours then the same weird issue where the batteries would do the rest. But woke up to the fan still running, and batteries at 100%. The charger was finally doing what I wanted, it was basically running the trailer. As soon as I turned off the fan, trailer load goes to 1.5A. Few mins later run the microwave and toaster, big load back on and 100% of the load is being supplied by the batteries, the charger won't kick on.
Its like the charger gets fooled when the trailer draws so little at idle and the output goes to "sleep", but won't wake up on its own. Initially MeanWell said the charger will fire up as soon as it detects a load being drawn, but that seems to have limitations as its not doing it. With the fan running all night, it did what I wanted, and filled the batteries and stayed on. But the fact I can't trust it to do that when we aren't here during the week is a problem. It should have come on long before the 39%/25.71V situation I found during the week.
I don't know if voltages are problems. The MeanWell is in "mode 2" which is 2 stage charging and when the battery is full, it shuts off its output. Mode 3 would float a voltage once full, and maybe that while not what LifePo4 needs, would have it react better. But it also has a voltage it sees for a 24V battery being full, the JK BMS has a voltage that it thinks is full, and the Solar Charge controller does as well. Should I be setting those voltages a certain way?
Let me know what you think of my first bigger setup.
The system comes from the park, and I left the Hughes Autoformer on that line to boost the voltage to the charger, even though it was listed down to 90VAC input. I went with a no name 500V/60A solar controller, (3) 230W Canadian Solar panels, a Meanwell 24V charger (charges at 34A), a 24V, 305Ah battery with a JK BMS capable of 200A and 2A balancing, and a no name 4000W inverter. I put my Hughes Watchdog on the output so I could see what the trailer was drawing.
I fused it all, fuses on the solar and charger outputs, a breaker off the panels, and a 200A breaker on the battery. I used the USB ports on the inverter to run two fans which pull in through cut furnace filters and run down each side of the batteries. The units are all mounted so their internal fans vent straight up and out. I also put more holes for ventalation in the middle. The boxed is sealed up more for bug protection that anything, the completed unit is under the slide out so is not subject to direct sun or rain.
It runs great, I way oversized the batteries it looks like, but I have issues with the MeanWell right now. I have also contacted TRC to help with the issue. The problem is the charger would be what I want to get us through the nights (even though the battery can) but it has issues restarting the charge.
So under load, but idle the trailer only draws 1.5A/120VAC. When I first fired it up, the charger was topping up the batteries as they were at 95%. I set the internal temp for the trailer at 28C so the air would come on and came back two days later. I found the batteries at 39%/25.71V. The charger light was still green, it wasn't charging. I power cycled it and it took off charging. I turned off the AC. I left and came back to find the batteries at 95%. We were staying so I fired up the AC and it got down to set temp and the batteries were at 89%, again, the light was green but the charger hadn't come on. Power cycled and it came back on. Ran the rest of the day, then right before bed, we turn the AC off and just run the fan solid for the night. Battery was at 94%. In this config the trailer draws 10A/120V. I cycled the power on the charger and went to bed expecting the battery to have fully charged in about 4 hours then the same weird issue where the batteries would do the rest. But woke up to the fan still running, and batteries at 100%. The charger was finally doing what I wanted, it was basically running the trailer. As soon as I turned off the fan, trailer load goes to 1.5A. Few mins later run the microwave and toaster, big load back on and 100% of the load is being supplied by the batteries, the charger won't kick on.
Its like the charger gets fooled when the trailer draws so little at idle and the output goes to "sleep", but won't wake up on its own. Initially MeanWell said the charger will fire up as soon as it detects a load being drawn, but that seems to have limitations as its not doing it. With the fan running all night, it did what I wanted, and filled the batteries and stayed on. But the fact I can't trust it to do that when we aren't here during the week is a problem. It should have come on long before the 39%/25.71V situation I found during the week.
I don't know if voltages are problems. The MeanWell is in "mode 2" which is 2 stage charging and when the battery is full, it shuts off its output. Mode 3 would float a voltage once full, and maybe that while not what LifePo4 needs, would have it react better. But it also has a voltage it sees for a 24V battery being full, the JK BMS has a voltage that it thinks is full, and the Solar Charge controller does as well. Should I be setting those voltages a certain way?
Let me know what you think of my first bigger setup.
