HI. I 'm New to the fourms. I have a popup trailer with a 230 watt solar panel and a epsolar mppt controller with it and a single battery (for now). I am wondering how do I hook the solar panel up to the convertor and battery. So sometimes I can use my 110V when the place has shore power and my solar panel when it doesn't. I have 3 lines coming out of the convertor, to run the fridge, lights, and furnace fan. And the 4th line goes to the battery. Looking forward to hearing how to install this.
Hooking up a Solar System to a popup
- Thread starter Matty74
- Start date
WOODY2
Adventurer
Really pretty simple, solar panel to controller then to battery. Finding good connectors for the panel to controller is a key part as I'm assuming the panel is not permanetly mounted/ displayed but must be deployed manually? Depending on wire/cable type either Anderson Power Poles or SAE connectors work great, just watch polarity.
I'm using MC4'a for connectors and it's manual. So put it up on top everything I stop. How do I hook up the load from the controller to the inverter to power all my stuff? And I'm running a 8gauge wire from controller to battery.don't have the converter battery charger cable hooked up yet.
What load from the controller? Its load is usually only charging the battery. Same with your converter's charger, both just go to the battery.
Which in turn powers the inverter, and other DC loads directly. Some use buss bars, or distribution panels, which may include switches and circuit protection, or may be separate.
dwh
Tail-End Charlie
The load terminals are for something like a nightlight on your electric gate. Lots of electric gates are 12v battery powered so they can work even with the power out. Then they have a battery charger to keep the battery full and/or solar.
Hence the "light bulb" icon. But the load connection on solar controllers is generally limited to 10 amps (@12v DC).
So basically, forget the load terminals - no one uses them on campers.
If you had say a 1200 watt inverter, it would put out 10 amps at 120 volts on the front side - by sucking in 100 amps at 12 volts on the back side.
You can't run an inverter from solar for a couple reasons. One is inverters usually draw more than the solar can supply, another is that power from solar is not steady and stable.
So you run your inverter (and other loads) from the battery and use the solar to put power back into the battery.
Also, just to make sure you are aware of it: inverter and converter are totally different beasts. Inverter converts low-voltage DC into high voltage AC. Converter does the opposite.
Your camper will have a "power center". One section of that power center will be a converter to power 12v loads when plugged into shore power (and maybe put a few amps into the battery at the same time, but RV converters are usually crappy at charging batteries).
But unless you ordered or added it, the camper might not have an inverter to run 120v AC loads off the battery.
Hence the "light bulb" icon. But the load connection on solar controllers is generally limited to 10 amps (@12v DC).
So basically, forget the load terminals - no one uses them on campers.
If you had say a 1200 watt inverter, it would put out 10 amps at 120 volts on the front side - by sucking in 100 amps at 12 volts on the back side.
You can't run an inverter from solar for a couple reasons. One is inverters usually draw more than the solar can supply, another is that power from solar is not steady and stable.
So you run your inverter (and other loads) from the battery and use the solar to put power back into the battery.
Also, just to make sure you are aware of it: inverter and converter are totally different beasts. Inverter converts low-voltage DC into high voltage AC. Converter does the opposite.
Your camper will have a "power center". One section of that power center will be a converter to power 12v loads when plugged into shore power (and maybe put a few amps into the battery at the same time, but RV converters are usually crappy at charging batteries).
But unless you ordered or added it, the camper might not have an inverter to run 120v AC loads off the battery.
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dwh
Tail-End Charlie
Think of it as similar to an air compressor setup. The battery is the tank, the solar is the compressor. A small compressor. You can fill a large tank with a small compressor, but you can't run air tools directly from the compressor, you have to let the pressure build up first.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
This controller is designed for off grid parking pole lamps. The controller will monitor box temp so mount it next to your battery to take advantage of its safety feature of preventing battery over heat. I did this on my pop up also. In my case the whole unit is contained in a 50 caliber ammo box mounted to the front plate of the trailer. My battery is a little 18amp hour battery the controller is a max 20 amp in or out unit. I used the output side to manage and track our burn rate. The controller will cut power to the output side if voltage hits 11.6 volts or such to prevent damage in draining the battery. You can also turn off the output side during storage periods etc. going on 4 seasons works great!!!!!!
My controller output pos cable goes to a small 6 fuse / fuse box. The neg goes to a ground bar where my various power runs are tied, with the pos run coming from the assigned fused power tap off the fuse box. All of the gear is contained in the 50cal ammo box. Then I have two 10watt panels I set out on about 15ft cables to charge. We only burn 6-8 amps a solar cycle no fridge. Just led lighting and cellphone or tablet charging etc.
This has worked fantastic for 4 seasons. I leave the panels out in a sunny spot during the off season to keep the battery fresh, all self managed by the controller. Though I do turn off the power out side during the winter via the controller setting.
It's nice being able to monitor your burn rate via the output side of the controller especially early on as you figure out how your usage stacks up against your generation etc. plus using the built in safety / my monitor aspect of the controller keeps the battery management hands off and simple. I've been really happy with mine. Cost me about $200 including my LED lighting set up and charging center for electronic stuff in the tent. It's been great and was fun to make. Wife was thrilled with the lighting on switches and the USB charging puck for gadgets. An unintended win was the power Led indicator on the USB puck working as a great nightlight source in the tent also.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Matt the inverter needs its own heavy cables coming direct from the battery ideally with a fuse rated higher than the inverter pull and lower than the power cable rating. Inverters are terrible regarding efficiency and ideally avoided as much as possible. I have one on my boat only rarely used to charge or power things like laptop, TV etc which ironically are 12volt devices with a "converter" on their power cords.
If your have shore power and used developed sites then no inverter needed. We are on our 4th yr doing long 9 day trips with our little setup haven't needed a inverter at all. Except I pack a small hand / cig lighter plug style inverter to charge my cannon camera battery and the wife's laptop if needed but so far that hasn't happened. Hair dryer? That would need inverter but so far there has been shore power someplace for the wife and hairdryer.
Fridge? 100 watt solar panel and nice group 31 wet cell battery should easily support a RV fridge. No inverter needed there.
I don't have an invertor. I have a converter. I was just wondering how to hook up all my outs front the convertor. To the load side of the controller unless. As someone said don't use the load side. Have 1 line running from the controller to the battery and another line from the battery to the convertor, to power all the stuff that's hooked up to the convertor.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
The solar system is 12volt already there should be nothing to convert.
Are you saying you want to power the solar controller with shore power 110 > converter > to solar controller to charge the battery?
Typically the set up is Shore power on a stand alone 110 AC system then a 12volt system with 12volt devices and lighting wired separately. The solar power and controller is designed as a 12volt set up. Zero reason for a "converter" from 12v > to 110 system.
A converter is a small step down device box found on power cords like laptops, small tvs etc that are actually 12volt devices with house current AC / 110 power plugs.
Are you saying you want to power the solar controller with shore power 110 > converter > to solar controller to charge the battery?
Typically the set up is Shore power on a stand alone 110 AC system then a 12volt system with 12volt devices and lighting wired separately. The solar power and controller is designed as a 12volt set up. Zero reason for a "converter" from 12v > to 110 system.
A converter is a small step down device box found on power cords like laptops, small tvs etc that are actually 12volt devices with house current AC / 110 power plugs.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Then you add a shore power charger. To the battery. This is what all rvs and boats have . When on shore power they have a battery charger designed to either charge or balance the draw off the 12volt system. Duel purpose plus the 12v things stay plugged into 12v system.
calicamper
Expedition Leader
Rvs have two seperate systems they have 110 shore power system and a 12v system. There is no intermingling them. Your 12v appliances run off the 12v system at all times and the shore power system supports 110v house house hold items.