Over the weekend we completed our solar system in the trailer. This was actually quite a long process for us. I started talking to installers in August, after we ordered our trailer. Eventually I settled on who I wanted to use but his prices were pretty high so we did a lot of back and forth tweaking the design and labor to settle at a place we were both happy with.
Our system was really tailored around our setup. We own a piece of secluded property in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The trailer is stationary and we are completely surrounded by tall trees. Our window to capture a lot of sunlight is limited so we focused more on the battery bank and using our 30amp inverter to charge the batteries.
We added five 170-watt solar panels with room to add more. So far I’m getting 700-watts peak / 3.4 kWh yield with the panels still needing to be dialed in. I’ll set them to the summer solstice in a few weeks.
I only took a few pics of the install. Here’s the main panel under the bedroom closet pulled out and the back side. The drain pipe comes down a false wall between the closet and washer and dryer hookup on the other side. In hindsight we could have probably popped up through the false wall, which would have been only a few inches away and concealed the wiring coming down. Either way the install is clean.
The wiring is coming down through the cabinet above. The Victron MPPT 150/85 is mounted on the top with a shut-off switch. I also had him install an outlet in the closet for the cell phone booster (pictured) and a Starlink modem..whenever our number comes up.
The next shelf has the MultiPlus-II 12/3000/120-50, SmartShunt 500A/50mV, fuse block and shut-off.
On the bottom shelf are four BattleBorn 2GC batteries (400amps total)..with room for one more. The floor below the batteries was reinforced for the weight. He put a piece of plastic over it so no one touches the battery terminals. Next to the batteries is the Main and the DC shut-off.
We were only able to spend a day in a half up there after the install. But things seemed to work fine. Basically I could turn on anything in the trailer and it worked. I’m looking forward to putting the system through its paces over the next few months.
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