DIY Solar… need advice!

[Megzryd01]

Hi! I’m planning to install solar on my 1973 Sovereign and not totally sure how/where to start.

Currently, the lights and fans are hooked up to solar, and were set up this way when I bought it. So now I want to get all of the outlets running on it as well. How would I do this? Would prefer doing it myself. Only have the budget for materials!

Thank you!!!

[richard5933]

Sounds like you already have solar panels on your trailer, correct? The question here is how to power your 120v outlets from solar?

If that's what you're after, then you will need to install an inverter.

The solar system will supply DC power which is used to recharge your 12v battery bank. It will not directly supply power to your 120v AC outlets. For that you need an inverter.

The inverter has supply leads which bring 12v DC power from the batteries. With that 12v DC input it will supply 120v AC power. The more simple inverters have a pair of 120v AC outlets on them which you plug into directly. If you want to go beyond that, you need to do some 120v AC wiring to hardwire the output side of the inverter to your outlets & circuits. This can be done by either installing a few dedicated inverter outlets or by moving a circuit from your current breaker panel to be fed from the inverter.

If your goal is to get all the outlets running off of the inverter, then you're looking at installing a transfer switch so that you can go from shore power to inverter power. Not an easy project.

When you say 'all the outlets' are you talking about the outlets where things like the microwave are plugged in? Or just the outlets for little things like lights and phone chargers?

To run all the circuits from an inverter and include everything you'll need a suitably sized inverter, and this would require a suitably sized battery bank, and this would require a suitably sized solar array to recharge the batteries. What I'm getting at here is that you're going to have to calculate just what you plan to run from the inverter and then size everything downstream from it correctly.

It would help if you could be more specific on what you're trying to accomplish here.

[Megzryd01]

Thank you, Richard! I’m a total newbie, and do appreciate your patience and insight.

So, currently the fans and lights are running on solar. That all works great. The outlets do not run on solar, and I would like to see what all is involved in setting up solar for the outlets to run on. And I do mean all of the outlets!

Ideally I’d be doing the work myself, but if it’s something that involves removing the skins, etc, perhaps it’s better that I just wait until another time?

Thanks!

[richard5933]

I think that it would help to understand that in most installations nothing directly "runs from solar".

All circuits in your rig are powered either by the 12v house batteries or the 120v AC circuits after shore power is connected.

Solar will not directly power your outlets. It will recharge your house batteries, which can be used to power an Inverter. This Inverter then can power your outlets.

To have all your outlets powered by the inverter would typically require an inverter large enough to handle the loads plugged in. The typical battery bank in a trailer is not large enough to run an inverter like this for long, which is why typically the inverter won't be connected to power all the outlets. At the least, you'll need an appropriately sized inverter and a transfer switch to be able to switch your outlets between shore power and the inverter.

If you're talking about upgrading your entire electrical system with something like a Victron Multiplus II you could do what you want, but that's a fairly involved process. No offense intended at all, but it sounds like you've got lots of research to do before taking on a project like this. A good place to start is to read through the many threads where others have detailed their installations of inverters.

How I've handled this was more simple for now. I installed an inverter up front near the batteries and have a power strip plugged into it. The cables between the inverter and the batteries need to be as short as possible, which is why it's up front.

Eventually I will add a small sub panel in the back by the 120v breaker panel and move over to circuits with the outlets I want to run from the inverter, and then I'll use a manual transfer switch to switch that subpanel from being powered by the inverter or shore power. I won't even think about powering all the outlets until I upgrade the battery bank and get ready to install a Victron Multiplus, but to be honest I'm not sure it will be worth the effort for us.