2 Year DIY Solar System RV: Mistakes Revealed
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2024
- I thought it was massive when I built it. How does it work still?
We're at Quartzsite in our Insty Connect booth, join me while we have some downtime between customers as I explain what I like, and might do differently with our Solar setup!
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Hey, Nick here! This channel started with us traveling across the southern United States during winter of 2018, and has evolved into a new adventure in and of itself.
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Great update on the system after 2 years!
Nice system! I'm glad you like your Growatt system. Five years ago, we retired, sold everything and went FT. It was the best decision we ever made. We discovered we love boondocking and quickly learned the advantages of solar. We decided to build our solar/battery system in 2 phases, a 12v system for our basic 12v DC needs and a 48v system for our 120v AC needs. We started by designing and building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome. We lift it to the optimal angle to boost its output 25-30% vs flat mounted panels, especially in the winter. It makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean, standing safely on the ground.
We finished the 12v part of our build about a year ago, with the addition of a LiFePo-4 battery that we built with 8, 280ah prismatic cells. We use a Heltec 330amp (1,200a surge) BMS with a 5a active balancer to keep the cells synched up. We chose these cells rather than a pre-built battery, because they fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of GC-2 golf cart batteries used to reside. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a 1" hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging if they get too cold - or their life reduced from getting too hot. We use an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1,000w Renogy inverter, an Epever 50a MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor. This entire 12v system cost us under $3,500 to build and takes care of all of our basic off-grid needs except for air conditioning and microwave use.
We're wintering over in Yuma right now, moochdocking with friends while we install the second phase of our solar system, which is almost done. By mounting the solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550w solar panels (4,400 watts) down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, vents, etc. This huge array covers our entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, further increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too. We use a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger. We chose this model because of the low 20-25w idle power consumption and its ability to operate without batteries at all. Our 48v battery uses 16, 320ah prismatic cells and a 200amp Heltec 16s BMS to keep it safe and happy. Together with our 560ah 12v bank, we have a total of 23.5 kwh of batteries onboard - kept charged by over 5,000 watts of solar. We removed the 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic A/C we had in the bedroom and replaced it with an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome. We just installed both inner and outer mini-split units yesterday but haven't wired it up yet. This second phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning, supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our rooftop mounted, soft-start equipped Furrion A/C in the front of our MH during peak afternoon hours. We now have a total of 6,000 watts of 120v AC off-grid power giving us electrical independence for around $11,500 for everything, including the high-efficiency heat pump. This allows us to keep our generator in reserve, for back-up use only. Take care, we hope to see you down the road!
Nice to see these systems in good shape with 2 years under their belt. There might be a secret advantage to using only one of the AC outputs, that being the idle power consumption will be lower.
A solution for external charging is to just bypass the Growatt entirely, freeing it up for its original purpose. Mount a charger that is directly connected to the battery bank. Victron has a bunch of options from little to big. And they can be ganged together. Like e.g. the BlueSmart IP22 Charger (24V, 8, 12, or 16A version). (Controlled by Victron's bluetooth app)
Similar picture with solar. One can always throw on a few discrete charge controllers connected to the battery bank and add more solar. The Victron SmartSolar 100/20's and 150/35's are really cost effective units. (Also controlled by Victron's bluetooth app).
I'm sure you knew all that already. That compartment is so clean, I was trying to think of small form factor solutions that could slowly be added without creating a wire mess in the compartment.
Light buzz with wet fingers on 24V. Light buzz with dry fingers on 48V. Don't wet your fingers on 48V or let the electricity run across your chest though. Generally speaking you don't have to worry about it too much. Shorts / arcing are always the bigger safety concern.
You could do a 5K Sol-Ark. As a hybrid AIO unit you can have line in, batteries, solar, and generator all connected at the same time.
After watching your video I installed something similar on my RV and made a video. Thank you. One thing that you have over the Victorian is yours is more powerful and can run your entire rv. The vitron multiplus 3000 only has enough power to run 2400w continuous which is basically one large appliance. Where you have the power to run 2 large appliances per inverter.... which is basically everything I imagine. One thing you could get is a chargeverter that they sell from signature solar. You can connect it directly to your batteries and then You can plug Shore power or any dirty generator power into it and it will charge your batteries and then you can have your full inverter power to run your entire rv. How that makes sense.
I also removed my lead acid 12 volt battery and put a 48 volt to 12 volt buck converter in place(40 amp) to run my 12 volt loads. That way I don't need to run my converter box which is constant draw on your 48 volt battery. Especially if you are running your furnace throughout the night and your 12 volt fan is constantly running.
Nick, I have dual Victron Quattro inverters now with 4100 watts of panels and 20kW of lithium batteries. My last RV was dual Multiplus inverters so I am very familiar with Victron hardware and the apps. If you go Victron, most people do this with dual Multiplus 2 inverters on an RV these days and it handles 50amp with the boosting you need. However, there are some hassles with the management tools and Victron likes to modularize everything into separate components rather than an all-in-one solution. If I did mine over again, I would seriously look at EG4. Either the 18kPV all-in-one inverter for a large install or the EG4 6000XP. My EG4 48v batteries work great and they are designed to integrate into the EG4 inverters. Their installation is much less complicated than Victron and the interface looks much easier from what I've seen. My Victron setup works well but there are some quirks with the large 50amp split phase settings and you have to buy separate components for your inverters, charge controllers, Cerbo, 48v to 12v converter, and even add on bluetooth adapters. It's so much better to have an all-in-one solution in my opinion, especially if the mobile app is simple and controls everything. With Victron I find myself using the app, direct connect, a VRM console, and the touch display to do different things. I have to upload configurations for things that should be built into the mobile app. They can't seem to get it all in one place. That's probably because they have so many varied uses with the modular design but for an RV it shouldn't be that complicated.
I almost bought the Growatt system but I wanted the ease of victron and not have to worry about changing settings!
BTW love the new POE modem and router of the Insty connect!
I like to make up short battery cables to connect cell to cell in my battery construction. If the cells swell the cables will flex with the movement. With the bussbars you are using the terminals are fixed in place stressed when the cells swell.
Thanks Nick - I hope Quartzite went well! - Cheers!
Also say you are at a location that your responsible for your metered power expense the Victron can be set up to run off Battery/Solar and only draw grid if batteries drop to your set point to tap grid. That way you can plug in and not burn grid power and dormant your solar but use the expense you already invested in.
We have almost the same setup as you do with the twin growatts. When using just 20 amp shore power, I set parameter 11 to 15 amps on the growatt, and that charges the battery. All my solar runs thru one growatt, ( we have no solar on the other). We did not pair our growatts to produce 240 volts, we have separate l1 an l2 circuits in the class A, ( they can either run on 120 or 240 volts), nothing in our motorhome uses 240 volts, ( ie… electric cooktop, etc). Our built in Onan generator also outputs 2 120 volt streams, ( not 240 volts). We did it this way so we can plug into 30 amp campground pedestals if needed.
Alternately if needed I have a 24 volt 20 amp lithium manual charger, that I could plug into the 20 amp ac power from a pedestal as well if needed, then charge the batteries directly. We made no changes at all to the electric system on the motorhome, we just plug into the 50 amp rv plug on the side of the motorhome with the growatts via an rv plug, and left the motorhome stock, ( with it’s lead acid batteries).
Btw we bought usb extension cords for our growatt wifi dongles and lay them on top of the growatts, ( better reception to our wifi).
The spf5000 and spf6000 you can do what you wanted. From what I think you meant
Fly back transformer, Ouch!
If you had a 24v 50amp charger to plug the 20amp connection into that would work.
The roof wiring is a mess.
Don't do it! 😮
The worst part of this video is it ends so soon.