Solar panel mounting on RV

[Firetodd]

I added a Victron Orion TR4812 to my system so that I can charge the house battery system from my solar battery system. I have it outputting 13.7 volts. Will that be appropriate and not boil the lead acid 12v house battery?

 

[Sillyputty]

I have it outputting 13.7 volts. Will that be appropriate and not boil the lead acid 12v house battery?

Seems so. Per powerstream.com: "The typical charging voltage [for a lead acid battery] is between 2.15 volts per cell (12.9 volts for a 12V 6 cell battery) and 2.35 volts per cell (14.1 volts for a 12V 6 cell battery)."

 

[Lt.Dan]

It will always depend on the manufacture. Refer to them for an average float voltage. Typically i see them at 13.8v.

 

[Firetodd]

I went up on the roof and found a loose MC4 connector and solved the issue! So now I was using the 6 panels on my roof! I drove to town and got my other 4 panels and mounted them on a patio next to my 5th wheel. Hello power! At 10:00 in the morning, I am generating over 2800 watts of power!

 

[HRTKD]

That's a lot of power! Nice campsite layout. It would be nice if the rest of summer weather was like it is now. Enjoy it while you can.

 

[Firetodd]

This is day 4 of my little trip to the lake, with my system powering my camper and my father in laws 5th wheel! We set the clocks on the microwave and have had power 24/7. It’s weird not listening to generators!

 

[HRTKD]

I woke up to generators a couple times last week up in Montana. I have enough juice in my trailer to power the 12v side of my brother's fifth wheel so he doesn't run his damn generator right below my window.

 

[Firetodd]

We came back up to the lake and got all set up for another week! While everything is working, the Daly BMS app won’t show me the cell voltages. The app sees the BMS unit but when I click on it, there is no information and won’t let me check parameters.

It is outputting power just fine as I was running both 15k btu AC units.

 

[Firetodd]

BMS problem solved. Bluetooth adaptor cable was loose. I pushed it back in

 

[Firetodd]

System has been working great until yesterday…. My solar panels only seem to be charging my batteries at a max of 13 amps. Nothing has changed but the LV6548 won’t take in more solar watts than 13 amps. If I turn on the air conditioner, it starts taking in more watts! Batteries are not full and settings are such that everything can charge at up to 60 watts. I’m at a loss.

 

[HRTKD]

Sounds like a problem on the battery side, not the inverter/charger/PV side.

 

[Firetodd]

After I typed that, I turned the system off and cleaned off a bunch of lint/dust off the two vents on the 6548. Don’t know if it helped or not, but now I’m charging at 20 amps? So the wattage doesn’t seem limited anymore.

 

[HRTKD]

Does the LV6548 run the Windows O/S? CTRL-ALT-DEL fixes most problems!

 

[Firetodd]

Does the LV6548 run the Windows O/S? CTRL-ALT-DEL fixes most problems!

I guess so!

 

[Lt.Dan]

I noticed after a month or so of running my first one, when i took it apart to replace the main board, there was quite a bit of dust on the inlet filters.

It might also be throttling due to overheating. See this snippet from the manual:



I have a dedicated 5000BTU A/C for a 100 cu/ft compartment with 2x LV's in it, and my inverters constantly run at 55-60*C when under 30-40% load.

 

[Firetodd]

Thank you @Lt.Dan I’ll have to help an eye on that! I’m running one AC unit now and power is good.

 

[Firetodd]

Here’s my system powering my fifth wheel and my father in laws.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Pretty awesome setup you got there!

 

[Firetodd]

Pretty awesome setup you got there!

Thanks @Lt.Dan - your system is awesome too!

 

[DIDDLYV]

I then built the supports under the struts and measured them three times and marked the hole locations with a sharpie. Now was the moment of truth! I drilled the holes and it went well. I put the plus nuts in and they secured perfectly! I will be leaving the factory mounted 50 watt panel as it fits under my panels….

What size plus nuts did you use? I am torn between 1-20 and 5/16-18. Did you use the well nuts at all. I have 4 10 foot strips of painted unistrut (figured it might be more rust resistant). My roof pitches from front to rear on one side of the divide and from rear to front on the other side. I plan to mount all my panels behind the divide so don't think water drainage will be much of an issue. I had planned to use double sided butyl tape along the whole strut channel for extra grip. with up to 6 plus nuts per strip am thinking I may not need the butly tape at all other than help sealing at the points where the plus nuts are mounted and the strut channel is bolted down but will prolly run the butyl tape whole length.