Battery Monitoring

[Cypressloser]

We do have six 6 Volt AGM's at 220 AH each in series/parallel and I believe with our solar setup it is a nice setup especially since we have a residential fridge on a dedicated inverter.
We're planning to install another true sine wave inverter to power the microwave oven and wall outlets, we'll see if the solar can keep up then.

[camaraderie]

Cypress...sounds good! How much solar wattage do you have?
Here's a thought... is your fridge capable of running off a MSW inverter likr the Samsungs? If so you might want to consider dedicating the sine wave inverter to the microwave & plugs...and then buying a MSW sized for the fridge. Aside from initial cost considerations...pure sines wave converters on idle use more standby current than msw units so having one less pure sine IF the fridge can handle it...may save you some amp hours daily. Not a big deal...but if it will save you bucks up front and down the road...it is worth looking at.

EDIT: Duh...just read your tag line and see you have 480watts of solar. Do you have to tilt them all the way up there in Alberta!

[Cypressloser]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Cypress...sounds good! How much solar wattage do you have?
Here's a thought... is your fridge capable of running off a MSW inverter likr the Samsungs? If so you might want to consider dedicating the sine wave inverter to the microwave & plugs...and then buying a MSW sized for the fridge. Aside from initial cost considerations...pure sines wave converters on idle use more standby current than msw units so having one less pure sine IF the fridge can handle it...may save you some amp hours daily. Not a big deal...but if it will save you bucks up front and down the road...it is worth looking at.

We ordered our trailer with the Frigidaire res. refrigerator (~120W after startup) and Dynamax also installed the Xantrex Pro XM1800 msw inverter (not our choice). I asked for a psw inverter but they didn't want to bite.
The fridge, 50" Samsung LED 3d tv and blue ray player run just fine on msw.. In our previous 5th wheel we had a Freedom 458 which gave us lots of issues, like GFI receptacles and microwave bussing sounds (I read msw inverters and GFI is a no no).
Our plan is to install a psw inverter for the convection microwave and receptacles and only turn it on when needed, maybe with extra remote in bedroom.
I'm not a big fan of one size fits all either, why run a big psw 80% of the time for the fridge alone.

The only mishap at the dealership was that they were supposed to transfer the solar system and batteries from our old trailer to the new one, but somehow sold it without taking our stuff off first. They supplied us with new (bigger) batteries and larger panels in return which we gladly accepted, the only thing we changed was the solar charge regulator which was kinda useless -are we spoiled.
We had AGM batteries before and I always appreciated that they didn't need to be babied and never gave us any corrosion related troubles. I realize there are more economical choices but a clean and corrosion free battery compartment is worth a lot to me and I believe solar and AGM is a good combo.

Oh, we also upgraded the wiring from the charge regulator to the batteries to reduce line loss.

[camaraderie]

Sounds like you have thought it through and have a great handle on things!

[Cypressloser]

Naa, we're just lucky it worked out, but we do like the setup.
We probably should have saved the money we paid for the generator and bought a portable but it is what it is.