Building my Ammo Box Solar, Inverter, Controller, Battery solution

[Cult Hero]

I have been running my ARB fridge off my dual batteries in my truck and haven't had too much of an issue as I have been out for less than 4 days and driving the truck, but I would like to have something I can place in my trailer, connect to solar panels and run both DC and AC off.

I have a 50 cal ammo can that I will be repurposing and a Kisae 1000W Pure Sine Wave inverter that will be in the box with the battery.

I know that 63 quart fridge at .89 amp hours will run for about two days of a 60ah battery, I just have a couple of questions about connecting other stuff.

I bought a pure sine wave inverter as I do a lot of video etc while I am out, so I will would like to be able to charge my laptop and other more sensitive electronics. I know the ARB can run DC or AC, but is there conversion loss running through the inverter. Would I be better off using the DC side to run the ARB?

I have ordered up this controller:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0191QN7OO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and this inline power meter:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ORGDQOK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I will be using the power meter to monitor the input from the solar panels (haven't decided on them yet) but is there anything else I can track with them? I assume as they are upstream of the controller, they won't see any DC or AC draw?

would there be a better place to put the meter? Or can the controller tell me what the input from the panels is and I could put the meter downstream?

In regards to batteries, I would like to get the smallest one I can as I am concerned about heat in the ammo can. I will never run it without the top being removed, but still....

Looking at this battery:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00F580...TF8&colid=2WZZPZAYQMBAN&coliid=I1YGU5EJFQAZW0

this is the inverter I have:

https://smile.amazon.com/KISAE-Tech...TF8&qid=1470630133&sr=1-2&keywords=kisae+1000

I don't forsee space being all that much of an issue in the box, but rather the heat generated by the inverter and the battery. I will punch a hole for the fan on the inverter, and run a lot of connections to the outside of the box, but am I missing anything significant?

 

[Bear in NM]

I just completed a portable system, and have the exact same dc meter. As I had to add connectors to everything, I standardized on the Anderson Power poles, and conformed to the industry "standard" for the configuration of all connections. I placed the same connectors on my DC meter (both sides), and now can place it anywhere in my system. I can check solar output, or battery input, either side of the controller, and even place on the loads, like my Arb or other devices, to check draws.

The rest of the questions are above my pay grade.......

Craig

 

[4x4junkie]

There is a huge conversion loss running a DC fridge through an inverter. What you'd actually be doing is converting 12VDC to 110VAC, then the fridge's power unit will convert the 110VAC back to 12VDC again (that's two separate conversion losses, each one being about 10-20%). Running the fridge on 12V = no conversion losses.

 

[calicamper]

I built a 50 cal power box for my trailer two seasons ago. I put all the gear in the box including the 18ah battery which just fits. No fridge to power in my set up. Also too light to power a fridge.

 

[calicamper]

Dont use an inverter unless your wife needs a curling iron or her hair dryer while camping off grid. I keep a super light weight inverter for charging our small 2way radios and powering a lap top but we rarely ever use it. Maybe once in the last 2yrs.

The ammo box contains the solar controller, fuse box, ground bar and battery. I have two 10watt Renogy panels. We might burn 7-8 amps on a heavy use night, the two 10watt panels in summer days keeps up OK. We havent needed any more juice than that.

Fridge you need a big battery parked some place and probably at least 80watts of solar panel or more.

 

[Cult Hero]

I do a lot of video and being able to recharge with clean power is a plus. The ARB can be DC or AC but I plan on running it straight off the controller for simplicity.

 

[jonyjoe101]

60 ah battery might run fridge for 1 day, you want to not drain your battery under 50 percent, which for that size battery is 30 amps.

I had a 75 ah agm battery and when i had bad weather it never ran my edgestar fp43 fridge more than 1 day. Once your battery gets under 12 volts, your under 50 percent.

This is a picture of my homebuilt power meter, it measures panel voltage and also battery voltage and how many amps the controller is providing. I prefer large leds so i can read in daylight.


The solar panel voltage isnt really that important, all the controllers i have had none told me the solar panel voltage, they usually only show the battery voltage. I only added one to my homebuilt power meter because I had an extra led meter. On my meter I can tell when the sun comes up and goes down by watching the solar panel voltage.
But the small inline power meter (dc wattmeter) you got, you can connect from the controller to battery and measure the amps your controller is putting out (the controller will be the source, and your battery the load, that way it measures amps going to your battery). Your lcd meter will do basically what my led meter is doing. But you have to get up close to read it. Highly recommend large led meters. I leave the leds running 24/7, I always like to see the condition of the battery even at night.

For charging laptops get a smaller inverter. I have a 150 watt pure sine inverter which works on all my laptops that i try. One of my larger laptops wouldnt run on a modified sine 400 watt inverter i had. The big inverters waste power even when not powering anything. If you plan to use the large inverter only with the sun is out, then its no problem, the sun will replace the wasted power.

Only other thing to consider is a fusebox and connectors. I use the xt60 connector (handles 60 amps) and below is a picture of my fusebox. And I also have a large circuit breaker on the battery itself. Anything I connect to the battery goes through my fusebox.