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Old 08-20-2018, 01:17 PM   #41
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fwiw, i have seen cpap’s in 12v, 19v, and 24 v
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Old 08-21-2018, 02:31 PM   #42
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My water heater can be run off my inverter. My inverter can run anything on my trailer except for the AC. I don't do that but could if I wanted too if I wanted to use excess power.


As far as the rest of your off topic post, most people, including myself, aren't doing solar to save money. It's to not have to run a generator. I rarely spend much time at my trailer when I am camping. We are out enjoying the area by hiking and biking. We aren't even around during generator hours. We boondock 90% of the time.

Thinking people are putting in solar to save money is the equivalent to people going camping to save money on hotel rooms.

BTW...the topic of the post was solar panel oversizing in case you forgot!
To Babcock & Formerfr,
While I certainly can appreciate the fact that off-topic dialog can be distracting... I am very interested in this subject and have enjoyed the snot out of ALL the entries. VERY informative, even if provocative- ( simply meaning differing opinions).
My sincere thanks to all of you for your input.
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Old 08-21-2018, 03:42 PM   #43
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thanks, that's the joy of this type of forum... we all have different ideas, talents, experience, and thoughts about subjects that interest us! : )

I'll not linger on my former solar comments, but will only admit that, yes, agreed, everyone who considers solar is not doing it simply for a financial gain or offset, or many are not simply doing it just because everyone else seems to be, but there is a lot of 'talk' about solar within the RVing community, and many may be led to believe that they are somehow 'missing the boat' without it.
Factories are certainly starting to add solar, at least pre-wiring or small panels, to many of their coaches - and probably more and more in the future, as the public seems to demand it as an additional benefit, or even a more 'standard' feature moving forward.

Some of us will have the same back-and-forth discussions about using our generators. Some will tend to back away from it as much as possible, for various reasons that make sense to them - such as the 'noise'(a discussion unto itself), the maintenance, the fuel costs, etc. Many will have experience with, and knowledge of, their generator, and will run it as often as needed, whether 'just' to recharge the batteries, or to run the air conditioners, or anything else. Some others will laugh at our even considering this discussion as they run their generators 24/7, because, as they say, that's what it's there for.

We all differ in how we rv, how we want to rv, and how we think others should be doing it.

travel, enjoy....that's what it's for!
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Old 08-21-2018, 03:56 PM   #44
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thanks, that's the joy of this type of forum... we all have different ideas, talents, experience, and thoughts about subjects that interest us! : )

I'll not linger on my former solar comments, but will only admit that, yes, agreed, everyone who considers solar is not doing it simply for a financial gain or offset, or many are not simply doing it just because everyone else seems to be, but there is a lot of 'talk' about solar within the RVing community, and many may be led to believe that they are somehow 'missing the boat' without it.
Factories are certainly starting to add solar, at least pre-wiring or small panels, to many of their coaches - and probably more and more in the future, as the public seems to demand it as an additional benefit, or even a more 'standard' feature moving forward.

Some of us will have the same back-and-forth discussions about using our generators. Some will tend to back away from it as much as possible, for various reasons that make sense to them - such as the 'noise'(a discussion unto itself), the maintenance, the fuel costs, etc. Many will have experience with, and knowledge of, their generator, and will run it as often as needed, whether 'just' to recharge the batteries, or to run the air conditioners, or anything else. Some others will laugh at our even considering this discussion as they run their generators 24/7, because, as they say, that's what it's there for.

We all differ in how we rv, how we want to rv, and how we think others should be doing it.

travel, enjoy....that's what it's for!
Thanks formerFR.
Sorry I got the capitalization of the letters on the last post![emoji13]
Keep on posting!
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Old 08-21-2018, 04:08 PM   #45
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Old 08-21-2018, 09:10 PM   #46
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Starting March 2018, Victron Added support for VE.Smart Networking to its bluetooth products.

Victron VE.Smart Networking

Victron VE.Smart Networking is described starting at 1:18.


It helps the charge controller to know the State of Charge of your battery bank & the voltage of the battery bank.

"The battery voltage data is used to compensate for voltage-drop over the battery cables. This ensures that the battery is charged with the exact voltage as configured in the charger - instead of a lower voltage due to resistance in the wiring."
My victron bmv-700 with Bluetooth dongle doesn't have the ve networking in the settings. Any ideas? It's listed as compatible.

Wish I waited for the 712 to come out. Rrrg. That said, the solar controller I spec'd didn't have Bluetooth. Took me a while to get it, and in the meantime the Bluetooth one came out.
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Old 08-21-2018, 10:35 PM   #47
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My victron bmv-700 with Bluetooth dongle doesn't have the ve networking in the settings. Any ideas? It's listed as compatible.

Wish I waited for the 712 to come out. Rrrg. That said, the solar controller I spec'd didn't have Bluetooth. Took me a while to get it, and in the meantime the Bluetooth one came out.
To me, it seems somewhat pointless. If you have the VictronConnect app you can see all your devices provided you have the dongle. That's pretty much all you need.

I guess it may do some voltage compensation with the BMV and the solar controller but I have huge cables going to the battery so I have minimal loss.

The biggest advantage of the BMV-712 besides the built in bluetooth is the lower current draw. It's a lot less than the 700


EDIT: The more I am reading about this...wasn't really up to speed before...I can see the value for most people pairing an MPPT controler with their BMV solar controller. I always wondered why Victron didn't do remote sensing but this totally makes up for it. I enabled mine tonight after doing more investigation.

Aeblank...As far as your bluetooth dongle is concerned, you have to have the correct dongle. It needs to be the smart bluetooth dongle. Is that what you have?
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Old 08-21-2018, 11:07 PM   #48
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formerFR, Nicely said!
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and Mason the always dirty dog! R.I.P, 2/19
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Old 08-22-2018, 06:04 AM   #49
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Aeblank...As far as your bluetooth dongle is concerned, you have to have the correct dongle. It needs to be the smart bluetooth dongle. Is that what you have?
I suppose it's a self-answering question. It must *not* be a smart dongle. Well that's annoying. Got my monitor too early, I guess.
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Old 08-22-2018, 10:29 AM   #50
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I suppose it's a self-answering question. It must *not* be a smart dongle. Well that's annoying. Got my monitor too early, I guess.
Sell it on eBay and buy the smart dongle. I do stuff like this all the time.
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Old 09-05-2018, 05:51 PM   #51
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Manual reads: "PV voltage must exceed Vbat + 5V for the controller to start.
Thereafter minimum PV voltage is Vbat + 1V."
I have my Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 installed.
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1>Early Morning Sun.
2>Mid-day Sun for Alaska.

I am still running six 100 watt solar panels in parallel. I will wait until after winterization to install more solar panel.
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Parallel is the best for me. The Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 is rated at 700 watts. I plan to over size by 10-30% with eight to ten panels. I will split the load with two pairs of 10 AWG cables to reduce the voltage drop.
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