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Old 04-22-2022, 10:45 PM   #1
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First Time Solar putting the pieces together

A couple months ago purchased a 2004 Coachmen Spirit of America 249QB. Upgraded from a dry/dark 1986 Starcraft pop up.

Have been putting together and purchasing items to take advantage of solar. Rig came with nothing solar or any associated equipment.

Purchased a Harbor Freight Magnum 100W solar setup. The one with the 4 25W panels. No plan currently to hard mount the panels. We almost exclusively camp inside NY state and almost exclusively at DEC campgrounds (no shore power or water available).

Decided on a 50ah 12v LiFePO4 battery with a built in BMS also put a disconnect on Neg side on the battery. Picked up a Renogy solar charge controller. 30a Adventure model as the controller that came with the HF solar kit was not suitable for Li batteries. Have a spot picked out to mount it inside behind the front cap in the "master bedroom" area.

Have the necessary cabling to go from the panels to the controller and from the controller back to the batteries without having to cut anything up.

Rig had a parallax converter from factory but was changed out for a WFCO 8953 (no fuses or breakers labeled.. GRR) at some point.

Is there anything I am missing or should be adding to the buy list?

The AC was taken off by a previous owner. Camping will be in NY summer weather. Planning on using Ryobi One Plus powered fans for air movement in evening to cool off camper. Have a new vent and fan to install in bathroom.

CGs we go to tend do be decently shaded

(Gonna miss being able to zip open all the "windows" in the pop-up to cool it down)

Thanking the assembled masses in advance.
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Old 04-23-2022, 07:01 AM   #2
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Not being critical, but 100 watts of panel and 50 AH of battery is a pretty modest system. I'm betting you will have to manage your power consumption very closely.
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Old 04-23-2022, 08:09 AM   #3
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Do an energy audit, see what power needs are.
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Old 04-23-2022, 09:46 AM   #4
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Not being critical, but 100 watts of panel and 50 AH of battery is a pretty modest system. I'm betting you will have to manage your power consumption very closely.
No criticism taken. We honestly don't live in our camper. We are coming from 20 plus yrs of NO electric anything in a camper. The Starcraft was on shore power 3x in 20 plus yrs... Lights only. We are looking at whatever 12v the 2 way fridge uses overnight. A light here or there. The water pump. The vent fan in the bathroom. Charge some cell phones. That's literally it.
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Old 04-23-2022, 12:55 PM   #5
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You will need a breaker or shutoff between the panels and the solar controller. You Don't want to touch any part of the setup while you have power coming in from the panels. You will also want an inline fuse between your controller and battery.
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Old 04-23-2022, 05:42 PM   #6
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You will need a breaker or shutoff between the panels and the solar controller. You Don't want to touch any part of the setup while you have power coming in from the panels. You will also want an inline fuse between your controller and battery.
Assume that's to mitigate the "backflow" thru the panels at night? Wouldn't unplugging the panels from the system at sundown do the same?
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Old 04-23-2022, 07:20 PM   #7
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Assume that's to mitigate the "backflow" thru the panels at night? Wouldn't unplugging the panels from the system at sundown do the same?
The controller will prevent backflow through the panels at night.

It's a good idea to have a switch to isolate the solar panels whenever you need to disconnect the battery for whatever reason.

Many systems need the switch if panels are wired in series where voltages can rise to "shocking levels". Only other way to render system safe for maintenance/repairs would be to cover the exposed panels with a rug, tarp, or cardboard.

Switch is far easier.
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Old 04-23-2022, 07:49 PM   #8
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I would take the kit back. The panels are not permanent mount and will not last being left out. Buy the 100 watt Thunderbolt panels and use the new controller you bought. Or I would wait until you know what you really need. I spent a year reading and planning before I did mine. I still don't know everything but I do have degree in electronics and residential electric. But again I would not use that kit for permanent mount it's more fore emergency backup or sporadic use.
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Old 04-23-2022, 08:18 PM   #9
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I would take the kit back. The panels are not permanent mount and will not last being left out. Buy the 100 watt Thunderbolt panels and use the new controller you bought. Or I would wait until you know what you really need. I spent a year reading and planning before I did mine. I still don't know everything but I do have degree in electronics and residential electric. But again I would not use that kit for permanent mount it's more fore emergency backup or sporadic use.
Didn't plan on mounting the panels to the camper. The kit is the Thunderbolt Magnum kit. Heading out camping for 2 wks in July. The setup just needs to be safe as I know this won't be it's final configuration.
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Old 04-23-2022, 09:05 PM   #10
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Ok then your on the right track. Before you mount everything I would bench test it all so you undesirable how it works even if you use the controller that came with it. You could hook it up to your truck battery. The sae connectors this kit uses makes it easy to reverse the polarity on the wires. So make sure the polarity is right before you hook it to your controller. There is a lot of videos on YouTube for these panels.
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Old 04-24-2022, 12:18 AM   #11
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Keep in mind that the panels will loose a lot of their efficiency be in shaded areas. Make sure you have proper sized wire to move the panels though out the day to recharge the battery.
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Old 04-25-2022, 06:07 AM   #12
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Be aware that you need to have the controller connected to the battery before hooking up the solar. A battery monitor with a shunt will help with battery management because it tells you exactly how many watts are going into and out of your battery.

Assuming you don't have a 12v fridge, the heater will be your biggest power hog. We sleep in sleeping bags, and leave the noisy heater off at night. You will have to manage your electricity use with that small system, but for lights, water pump, and a bit of heater use, it may be enough.

We have twice the solar and twice the battery storage, and still have to manage our use. I'm guessing you'll want to add more of both eventually.
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Old 04-25-2022, 08:33 AM   #13
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{snip}...A battery monitor with a shunt will help with battery management because it tells you exactly how many watts are going into and out of your battery.
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Do an energy audit, see what power needs are.
STOP. Before you purchase any more stuff, please take the above and following words of general advice.

As the very next step, installing a shunt-based battery monitor will allow you to determine the draw of each 12V device in your TT by isolating the device and recording its Ah draw; set up a spreadsheet for the data. I have developed a spreadsheet that will forecast my 12V needs per day based on each device's draw and its duty cycle. In addition, the monitor will easily tell you the total Ah draw for a day/weekend/week of camping. This is your energy audit and provides you with real-world 12V power requirements.

Determine your average duration of camping days per trip when dry-camping/boondocking. You already mentioned that you encounter mostly shaded sites, so it seems like a "solar suitcase" design may be a configuration you might consider.

You can then match the battery type and capacity to your anticipated real-world daily Ah needs. Once you've identified your battery needs, you can configure the specs for the controller and panels. Remember to give yourself some battery/panel "headroom" for northern latitudes and cloudy days.

ONLY THEN - continue to purchase/replace components that are spec'd to support your new real-world needs!

Unfortunately, IMHO, what you have already configured will turn out to be woefully inadequate for a shady dry-camping experience in NY.
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Old 07-13-2022, 10:56 PM   #14
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So as an update and thanks to all. We are 5 days into our 2 week annual. The system is working well.
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Old 07-14-2022, 02:35 PM   #15
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So as an update and thanks to all. We are 5 days into our 2 week annual. The system is working well.
Any chance you can document what you've added to the system from the original post? i.e. what else did you need to buy to make a safe & functioning system?
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Old 07-14-2022, 03:15 PM   #16
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Battery is a 50ah 12v LiFePO4 battery with a built in BMS also put a disconnect on Neg side on the battery.

Picked up a Renogy solar charge controller. 30a Adventurer model as the controller that came with the HF solar kit was not suitable for Li batteries. Have a spot picked out to mount it inside behind the front cap in the "master bedroom" area.

In addition put a mini breaker inside the camper on the solar leads. Upgraded all wiring from the panels to the controller to 10AWG. Put a breaker on the output side in the camper as well. All wiring out to the batteries is 10AWG. All connectors are MC4s.

Turns out the newest HF panels charge in light. It doesn't have to be sunny. I didn't get the Dometic fridge working before the trip

So the system is only running some lights, the water pump on demand and charging 4 cell phones. The system is working and the battery is staying charged.

Thanks to all who took the time to give advice and direction. Not trying to jinx myself but the outbound trip was a bit over 100mi and everything that was expected to work is doing so.
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