Overkill electric

[taliv]

I’m about 80% finished and wanted to post a little update. Thanks to all who helped educate me on this stuff.

note: electricity is important to me as I “work from home” for past 18 years in the tech field. So my goal of working out of my trailer full time overlanding means I really want reliable power for 8+ hours of laptop and conference calls per day plus the usual fridge and other loads. Even so, I’ve spent kinda a ridiculous amount on this setup.

anyways, this is what my trailer came with (cheap ac charger and solar controller and 3x 102ah lead acid batteries (65lb each) of which maybe 50% was usable. Unfortunately they were cabled in such a way that I rather doubt they were all charged and discharged evenly. I’ve replaced them with 3x 100ah lifepo that have a 100% discharge capacity. So I’ve doubled my usable capacity.



And this is the after pic, minus a few cables and protective covers.

Victron mppt, Orion, and ip67 (Bluetooth versions) plus battery monitors and smartshunt on order.

my aircraft mechanic friends built a nice panel for me that contains a + and - charging bus rated at 150amp with breakers. The top main switch disconnects all chargers from the batteries.

on the horizontal bar in back you can see my + and - distribution. Basically the inverter and all loads will connect to these. Several through the red fuse box and others through a separate fuse box not pictured. Power to the loads is controlled by the lower switch on the panel.

Below is my panel for my main + and - bus which are rated at 600amp Only 2 battery connections are shown with post style fuses.




all the chargers are connected with 6awg and all other connections between batteries busses and switches are 2/0 copper.

I’m almost afraid to turn this thing on lol

Seriously months of effort has gone into designing something safe and easily maintained, and to dampening vibration and making it environmentally resistant.
I hope these batteries and pretty blue boxes live up to their reputations....

 

[rayra]

Looks tidy. Not a fan of the bus bars being on a metal substrate, take a charged wire loose and let it make accidental contact and have some fun. Also, any plan to cover or coat those bus bars as protection against accidental contact? I see that the bars are isolated from the substrate.

I've got my own complex setup, with its own deficiencies. with various cutoffs and fusings. My setup has the possibility of parts of it being hot while others not. Which isn't really an optimum situation. I'm wondering if you might have the same issue(s).

What are your power sources and major loads? what is it you are trying to service?

 

[taliv]

There was a good deal of discussion about the metal panels. I’ve got a clear lexan cover we are going to heat and shape to ensure nothing accidentally falls or contacts.

yep batteries are inches away but just out of view. And I thought the same thing but was following the victron model https://www.victronenergy.com/uploa...example-5-PIN-VE-Bus-BMS-Lithium-Orion-Tr.pdf where they have fuses on the bar instead of the battery.

 

[Joe917]

You have to fuse at the bar with two input cables . You could fuse at the battery with one cable feeding the bar the same capacity as the cables going from the bar.

 

[taliv]

felt like dr frankenstein flipping the mains on last night for the first time, but she came alive! and everything worked as intended. no fires lol. batteries got their first full charge.

at this point, i have to say the victron gear is pretty sweet. I'm very impressed with their bluetooth networking. apple should hire some of their bluetooth engineers. all devices, including battery monitors, got firmware updates quickly and without drama. The ip67 and battery monitors quickly found and joined the network. The amount of information available is interesting and way more than I'm used to.

i remain unimpressed with their support model though.

some questions for anyone who might know:
- how many battery monitors are supported? is it only 2? what if you have 3 batteries? and what happens if you add a 3rd to the network anyway? do the chargers just randomly connect to 2 of them and the 3rd is ignored?

- the ip67 doesn't seem to support an option to connect to the network. presumably this means it is not aware of other chargers and unable to read battery status from the monitors. is this intentional? or a defect?

- with the main charger switch off (batteries disconnected from positive charger bus), when i plugged the ip67 into the wall, it also powered up the MPPT solar charger, but the ip67 said it was putting out 0.0A. When i turned the main charger switch on, the ip67 immediately said 25.0A output and stayed there for hours with no variation. When I woke up this morning it said it had finished, having charged 158Ah and was again reading 0.0A output. Since I never saw any value other than 0.0A and 25.0A, my question is, does it actually measure? or is it just a nominal "on" "off" label?

 

[rayra]

Congratulations. And it's Frankensteen

 

[Alloy]

Looks tidy. Not a fan of the bus bars being on a metal substrate.

Me either. I've seen leakage through the mounting fastners to the panel.

Isolating the panel from negative works though.

 

[taliv]

Me either. I've seen leakage through the mounting fastners to the panel.

Isolating the panel from negative works though.

not sure what you mean by leakage. how would it be different than if i was mounting it all to a metal panel, or in an older vehicle?

 

[Alloy]

not sure what you mean by leakage. how would it be different than if i was mounting it all to a metal panel, or in an older vehicle?

Leakage happens when current goes where it isn't meant to. Often it is facilitated through salt/dirt/moisture/condensation.

I've seen leakage with (extension) cord ends on damp mornings, also differnt types of 12V terminals.

The chance of leakage happening is minimal but I've seen more than one thing that should never happen..........this plug was in a dry location and never been used. On Wednesday night one of the THREE smoke detectors in the trailer picked up the smoke and it was loud enough I could hear it in our house at 1:00AM.

 

[Alloy]

Do you have a way to disconnect power from the solar controller?

 

[taliv]

Do you have a way to disconnect power from the solar controller?

yep. my panels aren't connected when mounted. so the only time they're connected is when my camper is set up and i put them out and hook up the cable. I have an anderson style jack outside that comes in and runs into the PV input on the mppt.

i think my panel is 120 w but it usually only hits 75w in the sun. (it's really dirty though)

i want to buy 2 more of these

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watt-Monocrystalline-Solar-Panel/dp/B07MZKY9H5

which are same size, and then i'll have 160, 160, 120 = 440w max, wired in series. alternately, i could throw my 120 panel away, and buy 4 and make 2 pairs in parallel and then put the pairs in series, but i hesitate to convert my mount that holds 1 panel to holding 4

 

[Alloy]

The 3 in series should be a good fit for the 100/30 controller.

 

[taliv]

Wiring complete for chargers and primary loads. The Main fuse box is out of the pic behind the pump and the post fuse box is for some temporary loads like a little fan and ham radio. Just need to add the covers and I’ll be ready for the trip next week.

 

[Alloy]

If all the pos wires are on the same stud its a recipe for a problem.

If the inverter is grounded its best to have a GFI

I don't like running more than 20A through a disconnect

 

[taliv]

what kind of problem?