Designing a Solar Power System for Your RV, Skoolie or Van (A Guide)
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- In this video, Garret Towne of AM Solar, will walk you through the process for how to design the solar power system for your RV, skoolie or van based on the amount of solar and inverter wattage and battery capacity you need. Garret provides a comprehensive list of the power needs for everything from cell phones and laptops to TVs and stereos to refrigerators and air conditioning to help you determine the right system for your needs.
AM Solar is a leader in providing energy management and independent power solutions for RVs, vans, skoolies and other off-grid applications like boats and tiny homes. AM Solar offers RV solar panels and other equipment, including lithium batteries, inverter/chargers and battery monitors in complete do-it-yourself solar kits.
![Demo on Victron BMV-712 Battery Monitor for Your RV, Skoolie or Van [A Guide]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tV055vmZgvY/mqdefault.jpg)
Dude...... your videos are GREAT! Easy to understand and fun to watch as well. Thanks for posting!
Mate, you are a legend, thank you for sharing these informations
Good way of visualizing the needs for a solar setup thanks
The few who are able to use AC off solar are using 600+ah of lithium supported by 1000+ watts of solar, often on a Class C or Skoolie or big flatbed camper overlanding truck. They are all using mini split systems. I've managed to fit 1000 watts on my Ford van and have 900ah of lithium down where the spare tire used to be, and I'm mounting a mini split to a swingarm rear bumper. Hope it goes well! It's not cheap to build a system like this, but your ride becomes a portable generator that could support most of a house (minus HVAC and clothes dryers) in a grid down scenario.
Excellent video, super informative! Thanks for the clear info!
love your video, very informative :) Thanks
thanks > I been burning up stuff for years learning solar systems. And yet I know nothing and hAVE learned so much through you and your companies willingness to share your/their knowledge.I have just r3cently purchased a economical mppt 100/15 charger and have been impressed with a lot of its functions, enough to purchase a 100/30 controller to help charge my banks.the software on the win10pc seems to be laggy but i have lots of boxes i could downgrade to support the controller. anyhow thanks great products especially the education im recieving due to a small purchase
Wrong.. Wrong...Wrong... You are so right ( the first Wrong was the best )....... more great info
Really enjoy the info
I do have one question how can I recharge a 48v 11amp lithium e-bike battery with solar I have a (Victron Energy BlueSolar 12-24v 75/15 MPPT Solar Charge ) any advantage building a 24v system Do I need a large battery or can It be charged from my 12v car alternator
and run a Portable Fridge Freezer 34.5L
Rated input current (AC) 0.86 A
Rated input current (DC) 7 A
Input voltage (DC) 12/24 V
Thanks from Aussie
I'm in the process of building a system for use in an RV for fulltime living and I already have a couple of Victron Blue Solar MPPT 150/35 solar charge controllers and a Victron Venus GX to be used with a 450 amp-hour LiFePO4 battery bank made up of 48 - 150 amp-hour 3.2 volt cells in a 16S3P configuration, providing 23,040 watt-hours of capacity at a nominal 51.2 volts DC. The battery bank and the Victron equipment is contained in a Weigman 36x30x12 14 gauge steel industrial electrical enclosure, along with other components, like DC-DC converters to provide 60 amps at 13.8 volts DC for standard RV 12 volt devices, the required contactors and, of course, the BMS system from REC BMS. I've been looking at the Victron BMV-712, but I don't have a desire to wire and mount the display. So, I've been intrigued by the Victron Smartshunt. But, I have a question that you might be able to answer:
Since the Victron Smartshunt would be installed inside the 14 gauge enclosure to replace the simple 200 amp 50mv shunt specified by the BMS manufacturer, the Bluetoooth connectivity is going to be unusable, except between the solar charge controllers and the Venus GX that are mounted inside the enclosure. So, can the Victron Smartshunt be accessed through a standard wired LAN using the Victron app on my smartphone connected wirelessly to the LAN? I have a panel mount ethernet connector to connect the Venus GX to the LAN.
I watched the Victron video for the Smartshunt, but comments were turned off on that video. So, I hoped you might be able to provide some insight on this issue. Thanks!
I share your concerns about Bluetooth signal strength in the setup you described. Unfortunately, the SmartShunt only has a VE.Direct port which can communicate with your Venus. I hope this helps.
It's nice to see a clear expert on UA-cam now and then :-). Great video. The video does seem to confuse "solar is for charging batteries only" with "solar powers loads" just a little bit. Might be interesting to discuss that a bit.... that everything essential flows through the batteries..
I write out most of what I plan to say and have my crew give it a final sanity check. Then, once I get on camera I may loose a little precision. To be clear, solar just charges a battery. Solar can “offset” the consumption of some loads. If a load is drawing the same amount of power or less than what solar is putting into a battery bank, you could say that solar is powering the load, since electrons are fungible, but you’re going to have a hard time making an off-grid energy system without a battery bank.
"...Wrong!" :D :D
Looks like i need a 5 million amp battery judging by this
actual lol at that!
and a solar panel array the size of a small state ;-)
Wrong
300 w of solar for a fridge, would you recommend any brand? how are dometic fridges?
300W for a non-residential refrigerator... We aren't experts on refrigerators but the people at Dometic have been very responsive when we ask questions. I hear good things about Dometic.
I like your style, why limit yourself to mobile application.?
Thank you. We feel like we’re drinking out of a firehose handling the amount of business we get with just mobile applications. Mobile is nice because there is hardly any competition or bureaucratic red tape. It’s also nice that our customers are able to come to us, rather than us having to go to them.
Good morning. Can you help me plz. Ive got n 12/1200av phoenix inverter. What size solar and mppt is needed . Im using 2xwillard deepcycle batterys 70ah each. Just want to use for camping in my van. Thanx for your great videos.
The solar charging system and inverter system are totally separate, so the size of your charge controller has nothing to do with the size of your inverter or the size of your battery. The solar charger is sized based on the wattage of your solar array. A common solar array for a van is 200-300W. If you go with that size, a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 will work. If you go over 300W, get a 100/30.
I am looking at a 6000 btu window AC that used 4.5 AMP and 490 Watts. (Still need to sort out how to mount in RV window). I have a 170Ah LiFe battery, 480 watts of solar and 3000 watt inverter. I figure it can run all the time the sun is shining and for a few hours at night but not sure what percent of time compressor runs so not sure total hours of AC. The AC unit I am looking at is very quiet, unlike RV AC.
Rough estimates: Your solar panels may produce 480W x 3 = 1440Wh of energy per day, which is about 2.9h of run time per day assuming no other loads or charging sources. If you can use 100% of your lithium battery, it has 170Ah x 12.8V = 2,176Wh of energy. This works out to 2,176Wh / 490W = 4.4h of runtime per charge assuming no other loads or charging sources.
Garret Towne so we won’t be able to replace the energy used with solar only...
This is all so confusing to me. I was gonna try to do this myself but I might just have to get some help 🤦🏾♀️
Monetxo Send us a message. We’ll help. AMsolar.com
I dont know were you are getting some of your figures.Most laptops use about 40 watts not 150.even gaming laptops when gaming only use about a max of 120 watts.I use a 110 amp leisure battery.that cost me £90 with a 4 year guarantee.i have used this all weekend charging my phone and laptop with small inverter at least 5 times each.and the battery is still showing green when i return home.I have had this battery for nearly 3 years now. i have a small portable cooker cost me £10 and the can cost £1 that lasts me more than any weekend.To many people are talked into buying products that they do not need at a great expense.Go back 30 years and look at boats that sailed the globe .at very little cost.
We try to be conservative in our power consumption estimation because a customer saying “I have more power than I need” is a lot easier to deal with than a customer that complains “It doesn’t work.” We are very careful to not lead our customers into systems that they don’t need and we design systems that are incrementally expandable. I frequently tell customers “You don’t need that many panels” and “You don’t need that many batteries.” Our ability to maintain long-term positive relationships with our customers is one of the reasons for our continued success.
I need help
Good job. Must I use 24v inverter on a 24 battery system?
Yes, the inverter input voltage needs to match the voltage of your battery bank. Technically, you can get around this if you connected a 12V inverter to half the battery bank, but then you would only be using half your batteries which would make a terribly inefficient/imbalanced system.
If you max out your charge controller's capacity... can you still add more solar panels by just putting them through a 2nd charge controller and then having that charge controller connected to a different battery within the same battery bank (But different entry point in the same battery bank)? Or is this increasing risk?
You can certainly have multiple charge controllers if a single unit doesn’t give you the capacity you need. We do this all the time. There is no need to have a different connection point, as long as your conductors can handle the current. Does this answer your question?
@@GarretTowneAMS thank you.
New to the Victron world. Trying to up my 1999 RV Class A from only 100w solar.
Looking for a new SOLAR CHARGER...
ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON SETUP? Solor Charger MODEL, use x2 panels parallel and x2 series???
I am looking ar a Victron 150/85 controller 2S2P????
I pickup four:
Solar Panels manufacturer: Trinasolar model: TSM-365DE06X.05 (II)
Panel Voltage (45.0 Voc)
Panel Short Circuit Current (10.35 Isc)
Solar Panel Wattage (365 W)
Max Series Fuse Rating (20 amp)
Today my (12v) Battery Bank Voltage 400-AMPs, I will increase to sound 800-AMPs
Thank you
If I understand your correctly, I would put all the panels in parallel. Their higher voltage will work very well in that configuration. With four panels, use a 150/100 controller. Use 2ga Duplex cable after you parallel the cables on the roof. If you need more details, or a place to buy the stuff, send me an email: garret@amsolar.com
Is there a disadvantage of going a little bigger on the inverter even though you may not need all that capacity?- like getting a 2000 instead of a 1000 for example?
You may have a higher no load draw with a larger inverter, but I always recommend 2000W over a 1000W. It gives you room for expansion and loads like microwaves, blenders, etc. typically all need more than 1000W. Get the 2000W and you won't regret it.
Victron 3000w inverters are close to the same price as 2000w inverters, but they are much larger.
If i have more solar panels that would also charge my bank faster if im under standing this right? I trying ti figure out my needs for off grid living in a schooly, and from im getting out of this x3 - 4 200w panels, with about a 400ah bank to start with with about 2k inverter should do fine for running a energy efficent wynter fridg, a lap top daily for work or at least charging and running a wifi hotspot booster.with the ability to run an electriv 1500w convenction oven every once in a while
More solar panels make for a faster charge. Not to try to sell you on anything, but if you can go to AMsolar.com and fill out a quote request I’ll be able to give you a lot more detailed information. I think your basic idea is sound, 600W of solar, 400Ah of batteries, and a 2000W inverter.
11:04
You had me right until here.
I know that you CAN run AC on JUST SOLAR and still have power left over to Charge your batteries. Eric from N Fanatic is doing just that. His 1280 watts is putting out 90 Amps and his AC is only using 55amps. So that means that 30-35 (EXTRA) amps are going right INTO his batteries...
By "Just solar" I was implying "No battery bank". Of course a large solar array can create more power than the air conditioner uses. But, with any array that fits on an RV roof, you will need a battery bank as an energy buffer.
i do have a fue questions about wiring,3 victron things,,i have a 250/100 charge controller and a 48volt/100amp cutoff,and just got a bmv something,,the questions are ,how close to the battery does the bmv thing need to to be to the batts?,,,i just need a scmatic for what i have,
I would need some more details on what you have. Battery type, BMS, etc.
@@garrettowne thanks for your help,, no bms,,the batts are chevy volt 48volt modules i have 6 of them ,,,one qustion i have is how far away i can mount the shunt from the batterys?
Why should these systems be custom designed for every van?
So you don’t pay for things you don’t need.
@@GarretTowneAMS Then every car should be custom designed to save money too, NOT. Henry Ford is rolling in his grave.
@@GOLDVIOLINbowofdeath start your own business and let us know how it goes. I’m sure people will be beating down your doors.
@@GarretTowneAMS I am starting my own business but not interested in doing everything inside the van , just the structural parts. Filing patent application soon. I’m sure there are companies out there that want to specialize in the electrical or water modules.
@@GOLDVIOLINbowofdeath Good luck. Let us know if you need any power system help.
So can I use a 500W inverter that says it's for car use on my solar setup?
Vagitarian Sure, if it works with your loads. It doesn’t matter if solar charges the battery or not.
@@GarretTowneAMS Hi wow thanks! Yes I've got a deep cycle with 90 amp hours and a 150W panel with 8.5 amp charge controller and want to attach the 500W inverter just to get the hang of this. Maybe charge phone and laptops!
@@PouchMaster That should work.
What about a Stove??
With an induction cooktop, I would recommend a minimum of a 2000VA inverter, ideally 3000VA. You'll want at least 300Ah of AGM or 200Ah of lithium.
Garret Towne oh ok, thanks
I have a victron 100/20 mppt with a lensun 105w roof solar panel charging two agm yellow top opitma D35 batteries. Would this system be sufficient to run my arb 12v refrigerator? The specs on the side of the refrigerator reads dc12/24 2.5/1.3a
It will be cutting pretty close. I would feel better with you having two or three of those panels.
@@GarretTowneAMS what would be the damaged caused? Could it cause a fire or just eventually ruin the batteries?
@@GarretTowneAMS an would I just add the new solar panel wiring directly into the solar charger in the same ports as the first panel or do I have to daisy chain the panels? Thanks for your help!
@@raynaeyaert Nothing will be damaged. The refrigerator will just deplete your batteries faster than the solar panel will charge them.
@@raynaeyaert Both options will work, but I prefer to use the same ports and make it a parallel connection.
is everyone in the van and RV world keeping their lithium batteries topped up @ 100% all the time???? from what I can tell, it seems like it. I'm from the electric vehicle world and it's known that it's best to keep lithium batteries @ 80% to avoid dendrite build up, this can double the life cycle of the battery. If stored for long term 6+ months, 40-60% SOC is recommended. This is all well documented in research papers.
It’s totally unnecessary to top of lithium’s. Customers demand it, and it’s hard to convince them to think differently.
@@GarretTowneAMS yeah, I noticed that when checking out Van life, RV video's etc. It's REALLY stupid actually cause you're basically just killing the battery internals by created lithium dendrites, that's $$$ out the window. Alot of people just aren't educated on lithium and think they require full charge like SLA...
Please fix that squeeky door!
Laptop using 150W..... - totally wrong!!
D3M0ify I have seen much lower energy consumption on laptops, but I did measure 150W on one and we like to be conservative.
@@GarretTowneAMS I can hit 150 watts playing Just Cause 4 lol(with graphics at max)
@@kirbyman1kanden7pf Make sure the speakers are turned all the way up.
@@GarretTowneAMS good point lol
This is all entirely wrong
David Mason Sure is.
@@GarretTowneAMS it's just Ludacris
I may not agree with absolutely everything in the video but it doesnt mean it's all wrong, if you have a valid complaint then use your adult words and explain what you believe is wrong. Then those specific items can be adressed...