RV Solar Systems

[ABMax24]

Bought these yesterday, 6V 390Ah Rolls L16's, should be a nice upgrade over the 2 6V GC2's.

 

[5Lgreenback]

Those are some big ass batteries. Just for your RV?

 

[ABMax24]

Those are some big ass batteries. Just for your RV?

Yeah. 112lbs each. Should be bigger than I need now, but they should last longer not being discharged as much as the smaller ones I had.

 

[firstdoo]

Yeah. 112lbs each. Should be bigger than I need now, but they should last longer not being discharged as much as the smaller ones I had.

ABMax, mind if I ask how much you paid and where you picked them up from?

 

[ABMax24]

ABMax, mind if I ask how much you paid and where you picked them up from?

I got these at Battery World in GP. They were scratch and dent units, so no warranty, but only paid $280 each.

They also had 440ah L16 with warranty, but they were $445.

 

[mxzguy]

I got a Noma 100 watt with small/cheep controller from crappy tire last year seemed to work ok went out for a week and didn’t have to run the generator once but that being said it was sunny most days and I had new dual 6V batteries and furnace didn’t run much. Just used the stand on the panel and keep it in sun but I have only used it a couple of times will have to see how it works if the weather is not as good might get a second panel and a better controller see how it goes not sure if would mount on the roof or just move the panels with the sun.

 

[adamg]

[Renogy] 100Ah 12 Volt Smart Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery w/ Self-Heating $616 - $702 (all-in, no taxes) - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

Renogy's sale is back, just in time for camping season (as of April 29th): Renogy again has a very good sale on their 100Ah 12 Volt Smart Lithium

forums.redflagdeals.com

This might be a useful product and good sale pricing for you guys.

 

[BILTIT]

This a decent deal? Looking for something on my camper eventually too, 400w should be enough i think.

Trina 400w Mono Solar Panels — Black Sheep Solar

Trina Solar 400W 144 Split cell monocrystalline solar panel. Buy online from Black Sheep Solar. Shipping anywhere in Canada. Off-grid or on-grid use. Reliable and renewable solar energy.

www.blacksheepsolar.ca

 

[ABMax24]

This a decent deal? Looking for something on my camper eventually too, 400w should be enough i think.

Trina 400w Mono Solar Panels — Black Sheep Solar

Trina Solar 400W 144 Split cell monocrystalline solar panel. Buy online from Black Sheep Solar. Shipping anywhere in Canada. Off-grid or on-grid use. Reliable and renewable solar energy.

www.blacksheepsolar.ca

As a consumer that's pretty reasonable. Unless you are a contractor with an account at one of the big solar warehouses in Edmonton you're not going to do much better for pricing. Especially if buying just one panel.

 

[jhurkot]

Would be sweet to build a camping/off grid set up with these. 5kWh batteries for about $1800 USD.

 

[mclean]

I need a solar set for my house. My power usage has doubled from 4xx kwh to just under 1000 kwh a month some how

 

[jhurkot]

I need a solar set for my house. My power usage has doubled from 4xx kwh to just under 1000 kwh a month some how

Probably riding your onewheel too much. If you want a way to track things on your end try this...

Solar Battery Storage Generac Power Systems

With a PWRcell® Solar + Battery System, you’ll use clean energy to help save on utility bills and provide your own backup power in case of an outage.

www.generac.com

 

[ABMax24]

Probably riding your onewheel too much. If you want a way to track things on your end try this...

Solar Battery Storage Generac Power Systems

With a PWRcell® Solar + Battery System, you’ll use clean energy to help save on utility bills and provide your own backup power in case of an outage.

www.generac.com

Ive got one of those, works pretty good, gives you data like this:

 

[ABMax24]

Would be sweet to build a camping/off grid set up with these. 5kWh batteries for about $1800 USD.

I've looked at those, and seem like a good option. Only issue is they are 48volt, you're going to need a large 48volt to 12 volt converter to run the RV with, especially power jacks and slides. And then of course need a good 48 volt charger.

 

[jhurkot]

I've looked at those, and seem like a good option. Only issue is they are 48volt, you're going to need a large 48volt to 12 volt converter to run the RV with, especially power jacks and slides. And then of course need a good 48 volt charger.

Couldn't you just plug your trailer into the inverter and use the 120v to run the trailer and charge the 12v stuff with the trailers built in batteries?
The inverter in the video even has a battery less mode...

• ★ Batteryless support: the inverter can power the loads from PV array / ac grid without battery connected

 

[ABMax24]

Couldn't you just plug your trailer into the inverter and use the 120v to run the trailer and charge the 12v stuff with the trailers built in batteries?
The inverter in the video even has a battery less mode...

• ★ Batteryless support: the inverter can power the loads from PV array / ac grid without battery connected

You could, but you loose about 25% stepping up to 120ac to step back down to 12dc. DC to DC converter should be less than that.

Batteryless inverters only work as long as you have lots of surplus solar generation, if solar output drops below that of the load for just a split second the inverter kicks off.

 

[arff]

Well after lots of research.
I have no time
Gords RV in Lacombe is installing all a system for me. 2 - 200 watt panels and a BT controller

Be just to keep batterys up for propane fridge and some outside led lights, charge phones and keep cell booster on.

 

[ABMax24]

Bought these yesterday, 6V 390Ah Rolls L16's, should be a nice upgrade over the 2 6V GC2's.

View attachment 254895

Got to try these out in the trailer a few weeks ago, work awesome. Even with the inverter running the bottle warmer, using the furnace at night, all the lights in the trailer most of the day, and even watching a movie on the TV one night, the batteries never dropped below 65% charge over the 3 days. The solar panel could put a good amount of energy back into the batteries everyday, but never did get them 100% full. For my use I don't think I'll need the generator over a 4 day trip, except maybe in late fall when the solar panel doesn't see much sun.

Now in hindsight I wish I would have put a 30 amp solar charge controller and a 450 watt 72 cell solar panel on, instead of my 20 amp controller and 330 watt 60 cell panel. That combination would have matched these batteries better, but I'm not going to change it now.

One day I'd like to go Lithium, but for my use these work well, and are less than half the price of a Lithium that could match these for capacity. Of course the downsides are the weight, and some maintenance checking water levels every few months while in use.

 

[bjd68]

When doing solar I would say the first thing to do is upgrade your battery bank to lithium if u can, expensive and will be the next thing I will do on my 2016 grand design momentum m348, I just recently finished installing a solar setup for my 40 ft rig.
3 440 watt panels wired in series for a total of 1320 watts
Victron 250/100 charge controller, yes its big but I plan to add another 440 watt panel.
dc 100 amp breaker between victron charge controller and Shunt
dc 15 amp breaker between panels and victron charge controller
4 6 volt trojan batteries wired in series/parallal
2000 watt samlax inverter powering through a subpanel and automatic transfer switch for the 18 cu fridge, microwave, fireplace and multiple plugs.

Wanted to be able to run my fridge off inverter when travelling which after my first trip last week was no problem at all as long as there was some sunshine. fridge draws 600-700 watts

When drawing my batteries down to about 60 % overnight and using the toaster and coffee maker in the morning my batteries would be recharged to 100 percent by around 1 pm when I had full sunlight. And would power my fridge all day on the inverter, generally I would switch my fridge back to propane when the sun went down just so I could run everything I wanted in the morning before the sun comes up.

A/C if I ever use I just would fire up the onboard generator but needs to be 35 plus degrees out to do that.

Overall very happy with setup but will be upgrading to lithium batteries next year and adding one panel , One thing about solar is when its cloudy u will only see about 20 % or so of your total wattage so I would say always overdo the amount of solar panels, plus panels were the cheapest part of the whole setup.

 

[firstdoo]

Here’s my solar setup (plus 2x265W panels not shown)

EP Solar 40a MPPT charge controller
2000w xantrex inverter
Xantrex auto transfer switch
63a/15a breakers in midnight solar box
Stock rv converter/battery charger.
2x6volt 226Amp hour batteries
Remote inverter switch
EP solar monitor