Critique my solar setup plan?

mrsa111

Observer
Had a good chat with dwh this morning, probably saved me a weeks worth of research! Think I've got a good enough idea now to get started but I'll probably be coming back for help soon.
 

mrsa111

Observer
Think 200 watts of solar panel's would be enough? I'm gonna have trouble fitting the two 180 watt grape panels to the roof, even if they were touching, side by side on my roof i'd have 5 inches of panel sticking out, (2.5" per side) I may see if i can come up with some kind of roof rack that would stick out as far and protect them.

Otherwise I was looking at 2 of these.. https://www.renogy.com/renogy-eclipse-100-watt-12-volt-monocrystalline-solar-panel/#tab_prd-specs.

The weight and size is really appealing. Just wish I could get a little closer to 300 watts, adding a 3rd thats perpendicular would be tight but might be possible, or i could stack one under another? just slide it out when camped.


Anyone know if other very space efficient panels?
 

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
Like I said on the phone, "whatever you can fit" ends up being the bottleneck with solar on vehicles.

I don't think it's going to make all that much difference up in the PNW.
 

Bbasso

Expedition Leader
I agree, get the most wattage on the roof.
I'm gonna try for a third panel this summer for a total of 300 watts.
 

mrsa111

Observer
Ok, so I had put this stuff off for awhile as i worked on other parts of the build, now i've got pretty much everything, just waiting on my panels to arrive and a couple other small things.

I'm a little stumped when it comes to charging my house battery off the engine battery/alternator. I went with a renogy 1000W inverter/charger, and a battleborn LiFePO4 battery. I got the inverter/charger for charging off of shore power, but is there any way to use the inverter/chargers charger to charge the house battery off the engine battery?

I'm a little worried with the LiFePO4 and my alternator, ive heard LiFePO4's can be hard on the alternator without using the proper charger??
i've had some alternator problems in the past (which SHOULD be fixed now) so im a little scared of overworking the alternator. If its not a problem to use the Inverter/charger to charge off the engine battery, will there be any problems with using a LiFePO4?
 

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
Nope, that will take battery power and make 120vac, or take shore power to charge batteries, but it can't do battery to battery.



I REALLY think you need to get Battle Born to look at the manual for that unit and tell you how to set it up. Looking at the manual I see a potential problem.

It does bulk/absorb/float (though they call absorb "boost"). Lithiums don't like absorb, and you apparently can't turn it off. The problem is how long it stays in absorb mode.

According to the manual, it times how long the bulk stage lasts, takes that time, times ten, and sets that for the absorb time. Geez...if bulk took two hours, then it would set absorb to twenty hours?! (Apparently the absorb time is capped at 12 hours).

Still, lithiums don't like absorb. A little is probably okay, but 12 hours can't be good. Talk to Battle Born about it. Seriously.




Don't have time to get into battery to battery right now. Gotta get to my part-time truck drver job.
 

Rando

Explorer
Deep discharge (and weight) are the primary advantages of LiFePO4 (Li-Po is a different chemistry). You can repeatedly run a LiFePO4 battery down to 5-10% SOC with no decrease in lifetime, meaning you can use the full battery capacity, not 50 - 80% of the capacity like lead acid.
 

mrsa111

Observer
Nope, that will take battery power and make 120vac, or take shore power to charge batteries, but it can't do battery to battery.



I REALLY think you need to get Battle Born to look at the manual for that unit and tell you how to set it up. Looking at the manual I see a potential problem.

It does bulk/absorb/float (though they call absorb "boost"). Lithiums don't like absorb, and you apparently can't turn it off. The problem is how long it stays in absorb mode.

According to the manual, it times how long the bulk stage lasts, takes that time, times ten, and sets that for the absorb time. Geez...if bulk took two hours, then it would set absorb to twenty hours?! (Apparently the absorb time is capped at 12 hours).

Still, lithiums don't like absorb. A little is probably okay, but 12 hours can't be good. Talk to Battle Born about it. Seriously.




Don't have time to get into battery to battery right now. Gotta get to my part-time truck drver job.


Alright just talked to someone there, they said in its #4 sealed led acid setting it should be fine, even with that long absorb stage. other than that potential harm, any other negatives to a long absorb stage?

I havent used the thing other than taken it out of its package, so i dont mind returning it and going with something like the Aims inverter charger..
 

mrsa111

Observer
Another thing i'm a little confused about as I'm running wires. I'm trying to run multiple appliances off of single wires coming from the fuse block. for example, I have 4 lights, I want a switch that turns all 4 on, but have a dimmer switch that turns two of them on off or on. and im trying to do a similar thing for outside lights.

Another example, powering my water pump and a 12V socket off one wire run. or two 12v sockets off one wire run.

To power 4 lights @ 3 amps each, and be able to turn two off/on, or dim (front or rear) two at a time, I'd run 12AWG wire splice that into 2x 14AWG, one for the front two sets of lights one for the rear, run both through a dimmer/off switch combo, then run 18AWG to the individual lights. Is that right?

for the water pump/12V socket running off one wire, how do you factor the 12v socket's amps? is it based off whats plugged into/charging off it?
 

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