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fly2low

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For those who asked, the major components are:

Victron MultiPlus 12/3000/120-50 inverter/charger

Victron MPPT 150/70 solar charge controller

Victron BMV-700 battery monitor

Victron Digital Multi control 200

Color control monitor

solar panels

Lithium batteries, in 200ah units

shunt

enough fuses and cut-off switches to choke a horse

Rich and Carol

2007 Dynamax DQ 340 XL

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Nothing wrong at all with having more storage than your panels can support in a single charge session. Your battery bank should be sized based on your energy requirements and shouldn't be limited by your panel wattage based on available real estate. If it's only supplementary that's still free energy and your bank can always be filled by other shore sources. If the two balance out.. great! If not.. battery bank size has priority.

 

I DO agree with Jack in that if you ARE going solar then it is in your best interest to maximize your real estate. It really is the cheapest part of your whole system and you can never have too much wattage.

 

Your array will perform the best if mounted at the same time, with the same make, spec'd and aged panels.

 

IMHO.. AMSolar is probably "the" premier installer in the U.S. I'm sure you'll be quite happy with the results. They are certainly not the cheapest.. and getting a bay scheduled can be out 3-4 months at times, but their pricing is fair and offer the "cleanest" installs with the best after installation support.

 

Good on ya!

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AM Solar and Starlight Solar are the two installers I'd recommend if you are interested in Lithium banks.

 

As mentioned above - for a higher-end system I'd always maximize the panels. Put on as many as the roof will hold.Even if your bank is normally full by noon you will be happy you have excess generation capacity on cloudy days, and on days where you choose to use some of that excess power in the afternoon, when it is "free".

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
2016 smart Passion, piggyback on the truck
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
www.jackdanmayer.com
Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

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Fixed Rack Install by Starlight Solar to maximize real estate. It does cover Heat Pump #3 currently. Adds 1.5 inches to height of RV.

Rack makes it quieter when it rains in the rear bedroom.

 

Will be adding two more panels late this year in Yuma. Components already sized and wired for the two added panels.

 

Good Luck with your install. It is an interesting list of components you have.

post-28863-0-28103800-1473946580_thumb.jpg

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I did max out my roof

That is the most I could get up there. 35' class C with 2 AC units and 4 roof vents does not leave much room

I am assuming I will run the generator an hour a day for breakfast/coffee, then let the panels do there thing. It will be a learning experience.

Hers is a picture of my roof with six large residential panels and three A/C units and three fantastic fans plus DirecTV dish. NOTE how the two panels in the center are BESIDE the AC unit and hang out about 4 inches beyond the roof edge on the curb side but no farther than the large awning roller. Also by raising the panels off the roof I minimized shading. Think out of the box. First try at posting a picture. Hope it works..

 

MDFITZ6l.jpg

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Hers is a picture of my roof with six large residential panels and three A/C units and three fantastic fans plus DirecTV dish. NOTE how the two panels in the center are BESIDE the AC unit and hang out about 4 inches beyond the roof edge on the curb side but no farther than the large awning roller. Also by raising the panels off the roof I minimized shading. Think out of the box. First try at posting a picture. Hope it works..

 

MDFITZ6l.jpg

Nice setup. You even left enough room to walk around on the roof to inspect everything as well as being able to clean the panels.

 

Are all the panels in parallel, or parallel/series so if some panels are in the shade, the ones in the sun will still provide power?

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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Al, Panels are 29v 3 strings of series/parallel feeding 58v down to the MidNight Solar Classic 150 MPPT controller. About 1400 watts for 8- Lifeline AGMs. I had 4 of the panels on my prior coach for about a year then added two more and moved the four to the new coach about 30 months ago. Never had issues with the tall standoffs I made.

 

2014 Newmar Ventana 43 ft ISL 400HP

2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland

SMI Air Force One brake controller

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The rule of thumb I have lived by for wet cell batteries, for best longevity, it is best to discharge from 20 - 50%. For LiFePO4 battery discharge is 50 - 80%,

When I had 520 ah of wet cells, I had 104 to 260 ah usable power. With 800 ah I have 400 to 640 ah.

And you don't have to store them fully charged, and there is virtually no self-discharge. The watering system I had is heading east, no more maintenance,

There are issues when charging them in cold weather, but my bay is heated.

Rich and Carol

2007 Dynamax DQ 340 XL

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Here is what the roof looks like. I suspect I will have shading issues, even with tilting. I like the raised panel idea from Starlight Solar, and may have to talk to them. AM Solar does not have that option. I asked

Some of your shading issues depends on how the panels are connected. Any panels wired in a series string will loose almost all out put just by shading ONE of the solar chips in ONE panel. In other words if you have 4 panels wired in series and any part of one panel is shaded by the AC then you loose the power from all 4 panels.

 

On the other hand if your panels are wired 2 panels to a series string you only loose the power from those two panels for the time the AC is shading. That probably is not going to cause you a problem as the shading would be when the sun is low in the sky and you are not getting that much power anyways.

 

Before you raise the panels, be sure you know which are in series so you know exactly what shading will do to your output and which you need to raise.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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I'm exploring these batteries myself. I'm using 640ah of AGMs, but the guy I'm emailing suggested I could replace that with just 400ah of Li's. Does that seem ok?

 

If that's true, 800ah of Li's is a monster setup.

That sounds right. With your 640ah of AGM, your usable AH is between 160AH & 320AH (25% to 50% discharge). For longest life use the 160AH figure.

 

With 400AH of Lithium you have about 300AH capacity (75% discharge). However with Lithium you don't have to charge it to 100% like you do with the lead acid. With lead acid, go too long, to many times between charging to 100%, and you loose usable capacity.

 

However because of the expense of Lithium you wouldn't want to replace usable AGM's with lithium.

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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Fixed Rack Install by Starlight Solar to maximize real estate. It does cover Heat Pump #3 currently. Adds 1.5 inches to height of RV.

Rack makes it quieter when it rains in the rear bedroom.

 

Will be adding two more panels late this year in Yuma. Components already sized and wired for the two added panels.

 

Good Luck with your install. It is an interesting list of components you have.

David,

 

Do you have any larger pictures of your rack? And could I use them in my presentations on solar? Racking often comes up, and your installation is a good example of what can be done - and brings up some interesting discussion points.....

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
2016 smart Passion, piggyback on the truck
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
www.jackdanmayer.com
Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

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