Advice on solar panel kit, drilling roof and other questions

[E-man]

Hello All,

I'm thinking about adding a solar kit to our Georgetown. I see very expensive kits like Go power and others that are reasonable like WindyNation and Renogy.

I'm not great at electrical stuff, but I watched a lot of how to videos over the past few month and got more confident that they made it easier than I thought and if I run into trouble I can ask my neighbor who is very good and can help. Honestly I think he will most likely do most of the work!!!

I will have 4 deep cycle trojan batteries about 480 watt hours and I'm thinking about a 400 w solar kit.

Questions:

1- If you added solar to your RV how effective was it? Did you run your generator a lot, a little or not at all when dry camping?

2- Was it hard to install if you did it yourself? If you paid someone was it expensive?

3- What type of roof do we have in our RV(for drilling the panels)?

4- What type of the adhesive/sealant did you use to cover the holes to prevent leaks? (I can probably find that out if I find out the type of roof)

5- Has anyone gotten an inverter that has a 30 amp plug and plugged in the house shore line back into the inverter to power the entire coach? I saw a video on that and I thought what a great idea, but not sure of the consequences so lots more research needed.

Anyway thanks for as much info as you can give.

[Skyliner]

Originally Posted by E-man

Hello All,

I'm thinking about adding a solar kit to our Georgetown. I see very expensive kits like Go power and others that are reasonable like WindyNation and Renogy.

I'm not great at electrical stuff, but I watched a lot of how to videos over the past few month and got more confident that they made it easier than I thought and if I run into trouble I can ask my neighbor who is very good and can help. Honestly I think he will most likely do most of the work!!!

I will have 4 deep cycle trojan batteries about 480 watt hours and I'm thinking about a 400 w solar kit.

Questions:

1- If you added solar to your RV how effective was it? Did you run your generator a lot, a little or not at all when dry camping?

Depends on time of year and weather conditions. We had 460 amp-hours of battery capacity with 400 watts of solar. It provided enough juice so we didn't have to run the generator at all except for occasional/rare use of air conditioner. I did not like that it took till about 3-4pm for batteries to fully recharge from evening and overnight use. This year, we have 690 amp hours of batteries (3 banks of paired golf cart batteries) and 600 watts of solar. Our batteries are recharged by noon which means we don't worry about morning microwave or hair dryer use and the afternon is used to thaw out frozen foods in the microwave with plenty of time/sun to ensure batteries are back to 100% at sunset.



2- Was it hard to install if you did it yourself? If you paid someone was it expensive?

It was not hard to install but time consuming. I would never pay someone to do an install because I don't trust anyone else to do it right. I have less than 2% voltage loss in my system and that required short runs of wire, thicker guage wires, and moving everything close together.

3- What type of roof do we have in our RV(for drilling the panels)? Not sure what you have on your rig.

4- What type of the adhesive/sealant did you use to cover the holes to prevent leaks? (I can probably find that out if I find out the type of roof)

I use butyl tape under the solar panel mount pads and then put dicor over the screws and when the dicor sealant cured, I put eternabond tape over the area....triple sealed.

5- Has anyone gotten an inverter that has a 30 amp plug and plugged in the house shore line back into the inverter to power the entire coach? I saw a video on that and I thought what a great idea, but not sure of the consequences so lots more research needed.

Buy an inverter that output requires "hardwire" romex wire. I ran romex from my inverter and tied it into my entire camper's power panel via an auto transfer switch that disconnected inverter power to the converter, fridge, and water heater.

Anyway thanks for as much info as you can give.

I do solar installs on the side and a 600 watt system with a 2000 watt inverter hard wired into the camper with a new converter moved next to the batteries. 3 battery banks each individually switched, battery monitoring system with 500 amp shunt, remote inverter on/off switch, each battery bank fuzed, and many other little extras is about $6000. My labor is about $1500-$2000 depending on quality of components used. I am not for hire to do install and am not advertising my services here.

[FirstTracks]

I can only answer #5 because I have yet to do the solar thing, although I'm considering the 400W WindyNation kit myself. When I bought the TT I installed a 2500W inverter in the ceiling of the basement, and ran 6' 0AWG wires through the front rock guard to the batteries. I plugged a 20A male to 30A RV female adapter into the inverter, and plug the shore power cord into that. Works like a charm, although it does deplete my two cheap Group 24 12V batteries rather quickly.

[Flybob]

Originally Posted by E-man

Hello All,

I
5- Has anyone gotten an inverter that has a 30 amp plug and plugged in the house shore line back into the inverter to power the entire coach?

The answer to this is really yes and no. You can connect the inverter and it will provide power to the stuff in the coach, BUT it will have two major issues.
1. The inverter will provide power to the coach which unless the on-board converter is turned off will try to charge the same batteries that is powering the inverter. You will basically create power depleting loop.

2. Although everything in the coach will be connected to power, powering the entire coach will not work well. If the coach is drawing 30A from the inverter, you will be drawing over 300A from your battery bank. A 480 AHr battery bank will provide about 250AHr of power before needing recharging. That means you will have less than an hour on battery without help from the solar.

[clintbonnie73]

Prior TT had the solar panel on the roof.. did not like.. seems we were always camping under a tree.. Present TT, I just used an extension wire (about 25'), set the panel on the ground with an angle wood brace and it works out Great ! Just move the panel periodically to following the sun. And much easier to install.. However you do need to figure out where to store it..usually not a problem.. Another suggestion, when your 12v batteries go bad, get (2) 6volt golf cart batteries.. they will out perform stock batteries.

[FirstTracks]

Originally Posted by Flybob

1. The inverter will provide power to the coach which unless the on-board converter is turned off will try to charge the same batteries that is powering the inverter. You will basically create power depleting loop.

Yes, forgot to mention that I flip the converter breaker off before plugging into the inverter.

Originally Posted by Flybob

2. Although everything in the coach will be connected to power, powering the entire coach will not work well. If the coach is drawing 30A from the inverter, you will be drawing over 300A from your battery bank. A 480 AHr battery bank will provide about 250AHr of power before needing recharging. That means you will have less than an hour on battery without help from the solar.

Very true, although when using the inverter I'm only drawing from a couple of small items like maybe the TV and sat receiver for an hour before going to sleep, nowhere near the trailer's 30A capacity. Thus my battery draw is significantly less.

[RB19RR]

three 140 watt panels, two Group 31 AGM batteries....Haven't used the generator in two years!
Use a Kurig coffee maker, electric toster, two TVs, three computers, Cellular booster, stereo, over range exhaust fan, vent fans, cool breeze fan.........No generator.

And I don't really watch my electric use. Sometimes fall asleep with TV, antenna booster and AppleTv on all night.

Always full batteries by 3PM following day even in clouds. On a sunny day I'm 100% by noon.....Love my solar!

(PS..I do not power whole trailer from inverter. I have one outlet on kitchen cabinet for coffee and toaster and one in bedroom for hair blower. Buy hotel grade, under 750 watt, appliances and the 1000 watt Xantec inverter works great)

[jimmoore13]

Originally Posted by E-man

Hello All,

<<SNIP>> replies embedded.

Questions:

1- If you added solar to your RV how effective was it? Did you run your generator a lot, a little or not at all when dry camping?

WE are in different leagues. I have a HW PUP. I have a group 24 12-volt battery. I'm in Colorado where the sun is very powerful. All that said, I installed a 100 watt Windy Nation kit with a "better" quality charge controller (with an LCD readout and 400 total watts capacity - 4 panels), an my battery is full in about 4 to 5 hours of direct sun.

2- Was it hard to install if you did it yourself? If you paid someone was it expensive?

On installation. I'm a DIY-er. I don't know your skills and desire to DIY. But I can advise you to call the manufacturer (I presume Forest River) and find out how they run wires in the ceiling. Also get a description of the roof structure. My PUP roof is fragile....plastic roofing, VERY thin plywood, very light framing, thin plywood inside, interior ceiling finish. In short, it's made of tissue paper. It will not hold a screw.

That's different than a roof with 3/8" plywood etc, that's walkable. BUT...I chose (and advise) stainless steel bolts with an unthreaded shank about 1/16" to 1/8" shorter than the entire combined thickness of the brackets, roof, washers, etc. (use more washers to take up the slack if needed.) I used nylock nuts inside along with plastic fender washers to spread the load. I carefully used a hand nut driver to torque the nylock nut snugly against the unthreaded bolt shank. This ever so slightly compressed the roof sandwich. I then used a dremel cutoff wheel to trim the bolts flush with the nuts and round off and smooth the end of the bolts. (be sure to have a bucket or can to catch the flaming hot chunk of bolt you cut off, or it will melt through upholstery, counter tops, and so on!!) It's a neat looking job, and the white nylon fender washers kind of match the ceiling. You could always paint everything visible inside using an artist's brush dipped into a matching Rustoleum.

3- What type of roof do we have in our RV(for drilling the panels)?

Your manufacturer will eagerly help you understand your roof structure, thickness, and any materials issues (e.g. types of caulk, etc. that are the best match with the roof membrane).

4- What type of the adhesive/sealant did you use to cover the holes to prevent leaks? (I can probably find that out if I find out the type of roof)

I used clear GE 7-year silicone. Down the drilled holes. On the roof surface, on the bottom of the solar panel brackets, on the tops of the bolt heads. Kind of messy, but I used my finger to smooth it in and remove excess. No leaks during several downpours. As time goes on, the exposed silicone may need to be refreshed or dabbed over with lap sealer or similar. Caulk is not forever if exposed, but the stuff under the brackets should last forever.

5- Has anyone gotten an inverter that has a 30 amp plug and plugged in the house shore line back into the inverter to power the entire coach? I saw a video on that and I thought what a great idea, but not sure of the consequences so lots more research needed.

Out of my league. But I installed a 400 watt inverter to run my electric blankets (360 watts) to warm the bed. Then we turn it off.

But...THIS is what you need to know about how much 120 Volt power you can pull from your batteries. A true solar install on a home uses a huge battery bank, because it takes a huge amount of amp-hours to power a house. The bigger your RV and the more power you use, the bigger battery bank and solar array you'll need. Weather means a lot, too. In sunny Colorado, solar is easy. In typically overcast areas, not so much. Furthermore, if you drive on dirt roads...guess what? You collect dirt on the panels. Either you clean them, or they perform less well. With my PUP, I wash the panel before I raise the roof.

Use this site to do the math to calculate your theoretical needs: Voltage current resistance and electric power general basic electrical formulas mathematical calculations calculator formula for power calculating energy work equation power law watts understandimg general electrical pie chart electricity calculation

So, let's say you run a microwave oven that's 1500 watts for 10 minutes. That's 12.5 amps per hour. But you ran it 10 minutes or 1/6 of an hour. So you pulled about 2 amp hours out of the battery. The answer on how much you can power your camper and for how long is a factor of the batteries' REAL WORLD capacity to deliver amp-hours, your solar array's ability to recharge the batteries, and your draw. If you have a fridge that runs on propane, you're golden. If you're frugal, it will probably work to feed your rig with something like a 1500 or 2000 watt inverter so that you can have the rough equivalent of a Honda 2000 watt generator. But if you have a big "residential" fridge (one that may not run on propane), you'll need one hell of a lot of amp-hour capacity in those batteries, because a residential fridge is likely to draw about 1000 watts and run a lot. Let's assume 8 amps and a 1/3 duty cycle (on 1/3 of the time) and you'll use 64 amp-hours/day to run the fridge. Then there's your wife and daughter both using the hair dryer, and, and, and.

Of course, if you use lots of power in the morning on a sunny day, the panels will probably recharge the batteries. But if you are a power hog during the evening, recharge won't come until tomorrow.

If you double the inverter size to be able to deliver 30 amps to run the AC, etc., you can see where this is going. But the calculator will enable you to size everything.

Anyway thanks for as much info as you can give.

Some other details. I contacted Windy Nation in the online sales Q&A, and asked about the difference between monocrystaline and polycrystaline panels. They report that, while at one time, mono was superior to poly, today there is essentially no difference--except price.
I also noticed that all "brands" of panels appear to be the same panel. Renology and Windy Nation, along with MANY others, sell one 100-watt panel that's probably made by one Chinese manufacturer. But there IS a significant difference in charge controllers. I bought this kit, and I'd say the charge controller rises to the level of "acceptable." I like it. It works well. It relays a lot of info. And I think it will be reliable. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...c=1&pldnSite=1 Again, it will handle 4 panels.

But if you want to pull 30 amps from an inverter, as they said in "Jaws", you're gonna need a bigger boat!

The "kit" from Windy Nation included #12 AWG stiff wire. If I had it to do over, I would have purchased a #10 AWG extension cord to connect the panel to the charge controller. The supplied wire was three solid copper strands in a jacket as a single wire, and then two separate wires - one for + and one for -. In short, a pain in the ass. If I get fed up enough, I'll buy the heavier extension cord in a single jacket, cut off the socket and plug, "tin" the ends of the stranded wire, and make the connection with a nice, soft, flexible wire. In your case, with more panels comes thicker wire. You may need #6 AWG or #8AWG to connect 4 panels. And you may run the wires inside. Since I have a PUP, my wire needs to collapse with the tent each time I fold the camper, so I ran the wire outside where I can keep an eye on it so it doesn't get pinched between the roof and the tub.

Efficiency: EVERYTHING, but everything, has inefficiencies. You'll note that all inverters, even my little 400 watter, have cooling fans and big heat sinks. Heat is inefficiency...lost energy. And the cooling fan on an inverter capable of 30 amps is going to be loud. So, the upshot is
a) Allow for the inefficiency. If you do the math on your loads and batteries, assume about 10% for various inefficiencies. That may be high, but a bit of margin is important for sizing your batteries, solar array, and, wait for it, BUDGET!
b) You'll need a home for that inverter--perhaps somewhere you don't have to "listen" to it. It must be dry and well ventilated...remember the heat? If your RV has a cubby for a genset, like an Onan, that MIGHT be a good home, but then again, if the generator is running, it will be hot in there. It could still work, because one assumes you'd run the genset OR the inverter...not both. You could also put a box something like this on into your pass-through and then ventilate it with an air intake coming from below the camper and exhaust going out the pass-through door. (The pass-through is not likely to be ventilated, so it could be very hot in there...a recipe for ruining the inverter when it's working hard.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This box is far too small, but it gives the idea. You could also wire the inverter output to an external 30 amp female socket on the pass-through door or the side of the RV to make it convenient to plug the RV into itself. (be ready for LOTS of questions when people see you're plugged into "yourself".)

Finally, done correctly, as in sending the solar charge controller output straight to the battery, you can be plugged into shore power and charging the battery with solar, too. No problems other than not overcharging the batteries with shore power -- or getting a smart charger for your converter.
But it gets tricky when you mix inverter output with genset output. If you have a built-in genset, double/triple check that there is a properly functioning "transfer switch" that will DISCONNECT you from shore power when the genset fires up. Otherwise, the day will come that you forget to unplug the shore power cord from your solar-powered 30 amp inverter, and all hell's gonna break loose. The good news is that your Onan SHOULD have a proper transfer switch so that you don't attempt to back-feed the electric grid with your generator. But sending power up to the electric grid with your genset is one thing. Sending power "backwards" through your 30 amp inverter could be a very expensive mistake.

If you've gotta have it all, do the math and go for the full 30 AMP setup. Be sure to figure the weight of all those batteries into your GVWR.
If sticker shock makes you rethink and consider "making do" with just 15 AMPS capacity, you'll save a ton of money, and you may get away with your current (no pun intended...well maybe a little one) batteries and a solar array adequate for your climate. If you're camping in Syracuse, NY or the Pacific Northwest, you need more panels. In Colorado, I get all I need from a single panel and one group 24 12-volt battery and being stingy with our power use. The "generic" panels sold by Windy Nation et. al. are very good, and if you have a big RV, you have plenty of real estate up there to install as many as you wish. Just pick a decent charge controller suitable for the number of panels. I have room on the roof of my PUP for 4 of them! You probably have room for 8 to 10 panels...just so long as your wallet does, too.

[RB19RR]

#12 wire???? Wire size is everything when dealing with a solar installation. Might want to read a bunch of Handy Bob....

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/

[jimmoore13]

P.S. If you put a forest of solar panels on your roof, think about replacing or renewing the roof surface, If you must work on the roof in the near future, you'll need to remove all those solar panels, mark the bolt holes and...well you get the picture.

Also, I'd recommend against any idea of "hard wiring" the inverter to the power pigtail, or making a "Y" connector to simplify connecting to either shore power or the inverter. That's a recipe for disaster in many ways:
1) a "Y" connector will leave exposed "male" plug ends exposed...an electrocution hazard.
2) hard-wiring will do the same...AND significantly increase the risk of being connected to both the inverter and shore power. That could leave your electrical system a smoking hulk...at best.

Connect the "hard way" - either the shore power stantion or your inverter. That's why i suggested adding an exterior "outlet" from the inverter to the outside wall of the RV...perhaps on the pass-through or genset door. That will keep things easy and convenient...and reduce the temptations to do something that's electrically bad news.

If you really want something fool-proof, you could connect the inverter through a transfer switch...just as with a generator transfer switch. But that might be big money all by itself.

[Tom48]

Originally Posted by E-man

Hello All,

I'm thinking about adding a solar kit to our Georgetown. I see very expensive kits like Go power and others that are reasonable like WindyNation and Renogy.

I'm not great at electrical stuff, but I watched a lot of how to videos over the past few month and got more confident that they made it easier than I thought and if I run into trouble I can ask my neighbor who is very good and can help. Honestly I think he will most likely do most of the work!!!

I will have 4 deep cycle trojan batteries about 480 watt hours and I'm thinking about a 400 w solar kit.

Questions:

1- If you added solar to your RV how effective was it? Did you run your generator a lot, a little or not at all when dry camping?

2- Was it hard to install if you did it yourself? If you paid someone was it expensive?

3- What type of roof do we have in our RV(for drilling the panels)?

4- What type of the adhesive/sealant did you use to cover the holes to prevent leaks? (I can probably find that out if I find out the type of roof)

5- Has anyone gotten an inverter that has a 30 amp plug and plugged in the house shore line back into the inverter to power the entire coach? I saw a video on that and I thought what a great idea, but not sure of the consequences so lots more research needed.

Anyway thanks for as much info as you can give.

I have done pretty much all of that. Depends on where you are, sunlight wise but out West 100 watts per battery is a pretty good rule of thumb for starters.

In our old coach we had a rubber roof and three Gr 24 batteries. About 210 amps. We park in direct sun at home, leave Batteries on all the time and never thought about batteries except to service water twice a year.

I spec'ed out all systems and found Windy Nation.com the most cost effective bet. We have helped friends install the same three times. No problems. Suggest you upgrade to the "Smiley face" PWM controller which will handle four hundred watts or to a slightly larger MPPT controller for a little bit better charging and maybe sized to handle 200 watts more when you go crazy over solar like we have. I bought new with 200 watt Go Power from the factory and can't say it is any better than the WN systems I still recommend as best diy starter system..

We have 2000 watt Samlex pure sine wave inverter and a remote on off switch. I plug the whole house on to it. You have to remember to unplug or turn breaker off for Converter so it doesn't try to charge the batteries off the Batteries (inverter). We only run generator for the AC or long term use of microwave. If you do not have residential frig 400 watts in the WN RV kit will make you very happy

[jimmoore13]

Originally Posted by RB19RR

#12 wire???? Wire size is everything when dealing with a solar installation. Might want to read a bunch of Handy Bob....

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/

One 100 watt panel. Windy Nation supplied the #12 wire with the kit. 100 watts at 12 volts is 8.3 amps. Well within the capacity of #12 AWG wire. Household #12 wire is safely rated for a 20 amp circuit. Resistance in the solar-panel circuit is 1.44 ohms...essentially nonexistent.

Ohm's Law is a handy tool. Voltage current resistance and electric power general basic electrical formulas mathematical calculations calculator formula for power calculating energy work equation power law watts understandimg general electrical pie chart electricity calculation

[nodrawers]

I have installed 200W on roof and have 200W portable that plugs in and parallels for 400W or that out put you need when in the shade or the sun never hitting your roof mount panels in the winter. Controller and monitor essential. Bogart eng SC2030 series works great and is programmable. Wire size is critical. Inverter as close to battery as possible. Inverter to external 30amp plug offers the least wiring and safety. Can not be plugged into inverter and shore power at same time. Just only turn breakers in tt on that you want to use. I run microwave, toaster, TV coffeepot and fans with no trouble. Only have 2 6v Interstate and the only time I have hooked up the portable panels is in the winter, in the shade or when I'm providing power to my brothers motorhome also. Handy Bob is good source of information. 2 years and a lot of dry camping (almost all) and have only ran the WH2000 very occasionally and only for the air conditioner. I installed it all by myself and it is not difficult to do the physical part, the difficulty is getting the correct components with wiring that will handle your needs plus about 20 percent. Love my solar, hope you enjoy yours. DONT skimp on wiring!!

[Myron625]

I bought the WindyNation 100 watt kit for my new Flagstaff Classic 625D popup. I had to buy a few extras to complete the kit.

1. Zamp adapter to plug into the port built into the camper
2. Fuse adapters - you need a fuse on each positive connection
3. Wire - at the very least you need wire from controller to battery or Zamp port. I bought waterproof solar wire to go to the panel and used the included wire to go to the Zamp port.
4. Connectors to splice everything together. The ones I bought are waterproof (or will be when I heat them up)

Questions:

1- If you added solar to your RV how effective was it? Did you run your generator a lot, a little or not at all when dry camping?

For my camper I have found 100 watts to easily keep up. All lights are LED. I don’t have AC. We do charge multiple iPhones and iPads and use the radio a lot. I don’t need a generator with this setup.

2- Was it hard to install if you did it yourself? If you paid someone was it expensive?

The install was pretty simple, just strip wires and crimp connectors. Our camper has a detachable cable but still has an opening a non-detachable cable so I simply used that opening to route the wires. I only had to drill a small hole through the interior wall to locate the controller.

3, 4 - I didn’t attach to the roof, I left mine portable so I can park under trees when available.

[E-man]

Thank you all for great feedback. It sounds like windynation is a good kit is the way to go, I will be looking much closer to the 400w or possibly the 200w system. I have a 38 footer so I will have plenty of room on the roof. We live and camp in southern California so sun is not an issue. I don't like the non-portable part of it because I usually end up near some tree and it's bad enough with the satellite dish, but I'll figure it out I guess.

I'll call ForrestRiver to ask about the type of roof and advise on type of screws and how to protect the roof after drilling.

https://www.amazon.com/WindyNation-C...tion+solar+kit

I talked with my handy neighbor and he has some time off coming so we may be tackling it shortly. We are adding another set of 2 hours batteries this weekend to get me to about 480 watt hours battery bank which should last us 7-10 hours judging from previous use.

The fridge runs on propane so I'm good there. The only issue is to run the AC we may have to run the generator for a little bit to keep us cool if we need it.

I forgot to mention I already have a 2500 inverter that has a remote start and a special outlet. So I can use it with a power strip to power what I need as connecting to the shore plug sounds like it may not be a great idea if I have to remember to pull the converter fuse.
I may also run a second plug out from the inverter to connect my TV and Satellite as they are about 10 feet away. The only problem is finding the plug of the Microwave but that should not be too hard.

With the help of a few good focus that already replied I think I can swing it. It should be fun.

Thank you all

[E-man]

Thank you all for great feedback. It sounds like windynation is a good kit is the way to go, I will be looking much closer to the 400w or possibly the 200w system. I have a 38 footer so I will have plenty of room on the roof. We live and camp in southern California so sun is not an issue. I don't like the non-portable part of it because I usually end up near some tree and it's bad enough with the satellite dish, but I'll figure it out I guess.

I'll call ForrestRiver to ask about the type of roof and advise on type of screws and how to protect the roof after drilling.

https://www.amazon.com/WindyNation-C...tion+solar+kit

I talked with my handy neighbor and he has some time off coming so we may be tackling it shortly. We are adding another set of 2 hours batteries this weekend to get me to about 480 watt hours battery bank which should last us 7-10 hours judging from previous use.

The fridge runs on propane so I'm good there. The only issue is to run the AC we may have to run the generator for a little bit to keep us cool if we need it.

I forgot to mention I already have a 2500 inverter that has a remote start and a special outlet. So I can use it with a power strip to power what I need as connecting to the shore plug sounds like it may not be a great idea if I have to remember to pull the converter fuse.
I may also run a second plug out from the inverter to connect my TV and Satellite as they are about 10 feet away. The only problem is finding the plug of the Microwave but that should not be too hard.

With the help of a few good focus that already replied I think I can swing it. It should be fun.

Thank you all

[Lawrosa]

Heres what I did if you did not see it already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD5cpclHjqA

[SDShocker]

Originally Posted by Lawrosa

Heres what I did if you did not see it already.

Wished you could build my set up. That was a great video and high quality install.

[AB_SP295BHS]

A few comments, have a look at my thread on my install:

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ts-137979.html

1. If you have full sun, all is merry and great, while it sounds a bit obvious don't underestimate the effect. Partial sun is a very poor generator of power, the addition of diodes to help how a panel harvests energy at lower sun level helps but it doesn't solve it. Be realistic about where you'll park and account for it with adequate panels.

2. In my opinion an inverter is a bit of a pain without an auto-transfer switch. They can be purchased separately or integrated, I wouldn't bother going the inverter route without one. This will allow a reasonably factory like behavior when plugging into shore power.

3. It is difficult to use the factory charger and not have compromises in usability. As others have stated, the converter needs to be disabled when in inverter mode, mine is disabled and I have a charger integrated into my inverter. Otherwise you need to flip the converter off when your inverter is on.

4. Most RV solar systems are a bit battery light and panel heavy compared with a 'cabin' type system. I did this with 945W panels and 4 GC2 batteries and believe it is the correct compromise. I forego some storage and leave some generated energy on the table, but who can carry more than four batteries in a towable trailer? You can always top up with a generator to maintain battery health when low sun inevitably occurs.

5. I hoped the auto-sensing setting that detects a draw and turns the inverter on would be useful, it is not. The inverter drones through an amperage sensing cycle which is noisy and still consumes power. You will need to turn the inverter on and off depending on how your balance is working out, I turn mine off at night and let my outside kitchen fridge warm up a bit...because I won't need cold beer till the afternoon anyway.

6. The microwave hates the auto-sensing type routine and kicks on at the higher amperage cycle of the auto-detect and shuts off at the low end. That means a beep every 3-5 seconds. It is turned on and off at the breaker when auto-sense is on...and therefore, auto-sense is never on.

7. Skip the monitor on the inverter and buy something like this: Victron BMV-700 Battery Monitor | Fast Priority Shipping! | eBay
If you add a Bluetooth or Ethernet converter (if you have Wi-Fi available) you can actively see amperage draw levels on your phone or in the cloud. I check mine a dozen times a day, some of that is interest, some of it necessary. It allows you to see how your batteries are behaving and helps you maintain their health by showing you the cumulative Amp-hours that have been drawn and a more realistic estimate of the battery's state of charge. It also gets around 'drift' in voltage with continuous draw or charge showing you voltages that aren't indicative of the state of charge. Once you've seen how large this affect is you will realize how useless battery voltage is in a system that is being utilized vs at rest. With solar pushing power in, the system is never at rest. Night-time draws have the same affect and make things look worse than they are.

Figuring out how much your AC draws are pulling is simple with it, difficult without it. Best thing I did. This is what part of the android app shows:


8. You can have more panel than your controller is spec'd for, this is not intuitive. The charger will just not utilize a portion of the solar energy, if you're getting good solar input you probably won't be having a shortage of charge, more panel will help in times of lower input.

9. Install a battery disconnect, it will make life easier. Just do it.

10. Installation stuff is expensive, buying and making connections, sourcing heavy gauge wire, breakers for solar, fuse holders, cable restraints, solar mounts all add up to way more than you'll expect. Buying a kit would help...if designed well.

11. Be stubborn on the panel mounts, virtually all of the mounts I've seen require you to unbolt the panels from the roof to clean and maintain the roof. This is a disaster, you should be using Dicor lap sealant, getting the panels off will not be easy, cleaning the roof for reinstallation is more of a pain than you imagine. I purchased some angle type aluminum and built my own mounts that include a home-made hinges on one side (nylon bushings, washers and bolts through two pieces of angle aluminum) and pins to release the the pieces on the other side. I don't have any decent pics, but plan for roof maintenance.

[HangDiver]

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