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Old 07-14-2021, 06:55 AM   #1
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Solar & battery upgrade questions

Currently with my 1 x 190 watt Gopower panel and 2 x 100 ah batteries on a cloudy travel day my batteries are sometimes as low 12.2 to 12.4 volts when we stop for the day. The residential fridge sux power. With campground sites sometimes harder to find on short notice I would like to be able to boondock overnight for 1 maybe 2 nights at a time without killing my batteries. I'm a total newbie to this solar power stuff. I am adding 2x 190 watt Gopower panels to my factory 190 watt system for a total of 570 watts and replacing the 2 12 volt x100 ah FLA batteries with either 2 of the 6 volt 224ah AGM or 4 of them if needed. My fridge specs claim 3.3 ah or 379 watts. I was also thinking off getting a separate 500 or 1000 watt inverter that I could just clip onto the batteries if we wanted to watch a couple of hours on the 50 inch led tv and power a 1.1 amp fan. Does that sound doable with my additions or am I going about this wrong? I'm not interested in lithium batteries at this time. Advice appreciated.
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Old 07-14-2021, 07:26 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by Teamster4life View Post
Currently with my 1 x 190 watt Gopower panel and 2 x 100 ah batteries on a cloudy travel day my batteries are sometimes as low 12.2 to 12.4 volts when we stop for the day. The residential fridge sux power. With campground sites sometimes harder to find on short notice I would like to be able to boondock overnight for 1 maybe 2 nights at a time without killing my batteries. I'm a total newbie to this solar power stuff. I am adding 2x 190 watt Gopower panels to my factory 190 watt system for a total of 570 watts and replacing the 2 12 volt x100 ah FLA batteries with either 2 of the 6 volt 224ah AGM or 4 of them if needed. My fridge specs claim 3.3 ah or 379 watts. I was also thinking off getting a separate 500 or 1000 watt inverter that I could just clip onto the batteries if we wanted to watch a couple of hours on the 50 inch led tv and power a 1.1 amp fan. Does that sound doable with my additions or am I going about this wrong? I'm not interested in lithium batteries at this time. Advice appreciated.
Looks good to me.
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Old 07-14-2021, 09:27 AM   #3
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Are you planning to use the factory wiring or run all new and larger AWG wiring?

On our Coachman Spirit it has 10awg wiring between the 100w roof panel and controller as well as from the controller to the batteries. I’m planning to increase the wattage on the roof, emailing with Forest River they confirmed it’s 10awg wire and can take up to 300w before needing larger.
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Old 07-14-2021, 01:23 PM   #4
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Are you planning to use the factory wiring or run all new and larger AWG wiring?

On our Coachman Spirit it has 10awg wiring between the 100w roof panel and controller as well as from the controller to the batteries. I’m planning to increase the wattage on the roof, emailing with Forest River they confirmed it’s 10awg wire and can take up to 300w before needing larger.
According to Gopower adding 2 more 190 watt panels are easy plug and play with the 1 panel factory setup.
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Old 07-14-2021, 01:36 PM   #5
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Yes, it should be pretty easy. Check your controller, the photo in my photo is the PMW controller that came on ours, the max wattage I found out is like 160 so pretty limiting.
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Old 07-15-2021, 06:23 AM   #6
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Yes, it should be pretty easy. Check your controller, the photo in my photo is the PMW controller that came on ours, the max wattage I found out is like 160 so pretty limiting.
There are design formulas to determine the relationship between the controller and the wattage of the panels. You can estimate that every 100 watts of panels on a excellent day will produce about 5.7 amps of power.

Every controller has different specs on what the maximum voltage and amperage can be. If you exceed these limits, you risk "frying" your controller.

10 gauge wire is good for 30 amps up to a length of 50 feet. However, many of these manufacturers put fuses in the wire that are more limiting than that.

With any upgrade, make sure you change to a good MPPT charge controller. PWMs are very inefficient when compared to a MPPT.
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Old 07-15-2021, 08:49 AM   #7
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Thanks Phil, my plan is to change the controller to a MPPT unit, just working our the details so I know the size. With a small TT, the roof has limitations on the anoint to put up their, some places we camp has part shade and overcast days so pondering to supplement the roof array with a portable unit, all connected to the controller.

The PMW specs I took from the AM Solar site. They are 40 miles from where we live and have some good info on their site. I used them for most of the components on our previous rig.
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Old 07-15-2021, 01:27 PM   #8
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One side note on the fridge. You have the amps, but have you estimated the duty cycle? The fridge should not run all the time.

For grins, assume 3.3 amps for 24 hours = 79.2 AH.
But if the fridge only runs half the time, that's only 40 AH...still a huge power suck, but when calculating capacity, you need to include estimated run time into the equation.

Also remember (I think you already know this), that pretty much any battery that is NOT a LiFePo4 can give you half of its rated capacity. Your plan - "...2 of the 6 volt 224ah AGM..." will give you about 112 usable AH. Doubling up will yield 224 AH.

But, if you have 4 x 6 volt batteries that can deliver 224 AH per day, you may need to recalculate your solar capacity to ensure your solar array can top off those batteries if you consume that much. A decent rule of thumb for solar output is somewhere between 5 and 7 amps per 100 watts. 570 watts means roughly 30 amps per hour or so at full tilt boogie...the golden time between about 11 am and 1 pm or so. The rest of the day, it's less. As a crude estimate, assume roughly 12 solar hours per day, and during those hours your array might average about 3 amps or less. In round numbers, 600 watts at 3 amps average for 12 hours equals about 216 AH on a nice, sunny day with good, unobstructed exposure. That's almost enough to fill 4 batteries.
Of course, your mileage will vary depending on weather, shade, and so on. All are factors to consider. Bebee, AZ should have pretty good solar gain much of the time. OTOH, in AZ, I expect you'll be seeking shade if you are not on the grid to run the air conditioner(s). Suddenly, all that sun is blocked to some degree.

Now, you mention loads. That inverter running a 50" TV and some fan or other? Just do the math. Ask this calculator any question, but ALWAYS use 12 volts for the voltage, because your ultimate power source is the battery bank. I don't care that the TV is 120 volts. That inverter is connected to the battery. Calculator: https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/ele...alculator.html Plug in 12 volts, and then either watts or amps, and you have your answer. As an illustration, if your 50", 120 volt TV pulls 200 watts, that's 16.7 amps/hour for every hour you run it. Add in about 10% inefficiency for the inverter for good measure, and that rounds off to more than 18 amps. How are you feeding signal to that TV? Antenna signal is free. Dish Network equipment? Not so much. The numbers for your TV should be on a data plate or in the owner's manual. If you are using a satellite system, it, too, has it's own power needs. So does a blue-ray or DVD player. There's no free lunch anywhere along the line.

Now remember the fridge, all the regular 12 volt loads like the pump, ignition for the hot water heater, lights, roof fans, and so on, then throw in the parasitic loads. Be thorough. Does your range have a hood with a power vent? Do you run the awning and/or stair lights? How about running that awning in and out? Then there's the slide(s)--looks like 3 in your case. Recovering from running those in and out will take some solar time. You get the picture.

You are considering a rather robust system, but then again there's that 12 volt fridge.

Have fun with your planning.

PS How much do 4 x 6 volt golf cart batteries weigh? (Answer, about 90 pounds each...then there's all that heavy copper wiring, etc., boxes or frameworks to hold them, and so on.) Can your rig handle that weight - about 400 pounds? Do you have room for them? Judging by your rig, I presume you can handle 4, but it's a valid question...especially for folks with puny rigs like mine. I make do with 400 watts and two GC2s, but my fridge runs on propane.
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Old 07-15-2021, 02:46 PM   #9
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Money wise, adding a built in generator to the front area might be the cheapest way out.

Is the fridge rated at 3.3 amps ac? I suspect you will need a lot of battery and solar. That is 33 amps dc per hour. 379 watts is a ton.

Typically an inverter when on consumes 1-2 dc amps per hour. Converting with an inverter from dc to ac is normally 80% efficient. Thus sort of 40 dc amps per hour to run the fridge alone.

Folks report that a 100 watt panel produces about 25 dc AH per day. Thus 600 watts is roughly 150 dc ah a day on perfect days. Likely not enough to run the fridge plus other stuff in the summer. In the midwest we have trees in all the parks and the sun does not shine every day.

Friend of mine has a DW that is insisting on a residential fridge. Similar rv. They are getting a 190 watt solar panel to keep the battery's charged over the winter. Four GC2 6 volt batteries. I suggested two lithium batteries And a built in onan generator. To allow overnights with Harvest Hosts. And a good battery monitor.
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Old 07-15-2021, 05:25 PM   #10
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So for easy math...you'll have about 550 watts of solar which translates into 140 amp hours or so on an average daily basis. This will let you replace that much ...or 50% of a 280 amp bank of batteries. It does no good to buy a bigger bank if you have no way to get more charge into it daily. If you go with With an MPPT controller you might get a little more so I think you would be BEST served with 3, 100amp 12V batteries (group 27 TRUE deep cycle...wet or AGM will WORK and last equally well BUT you may have some special needs that make AGM better for you. If not, save your money and buy a quality deep cycle wet cell.

Hope this fills in some gaps for ya.
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