Looking for Electrical System Feedback - Solar, Victron, LiPO4 battery, SmartPlug

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by pdavitt

Bob,
You ought to come to the desert southwest during July (The start of our rainy season in the Davis Mountains). You will get to witness the largest evaporative (swamp) cooler in action; a thunderstorm. I was sitting on the front porch one day and it was sunny and about 98F. Humidity was about 10%. A thunderstorm passed close by and the temperature dropped to the low 70s in about 15 minutes. It's amazing what happens when you introduce that much moisture into very dry air.


Pat

Hi

I've been there with tents, just not with the AS. I've also stood there watching the rain come down, hit my head and notice that none if it was making it to the ground ( = still bone dry "way down there") .... very weird ....

Bob

[jdeegan]

Originally Posted by Kyacker

Hi All!
I'm looking for some feedback or any blindspots that the great members of this forum can identify that I'm missing in our electrical system. We're bringing a 1959 Ambassador LandYacht back to life and have elected to do a substantial upgrade to all electrical for boondocking and general fun for me.

We have detailed it in a post on our website here: https://www.wallytheairstream.com/bu...ctrical-system but the schematic is below.

We're using:
- 4 Renogy eclipse 100W panels in series/parallel
- Victron 100/30 MPPT
- Lithionics 450Ah LiPO4 battery
- Victron 3000/50 Multiplus
- SmartPlug 50Amp shore power input

Would love to hear anything I'm missing, etc.
Thanks for all the help!

I notice you've selected a SmartPlug 50 amp configuration, which I fully agree with. I suggest you reconsider your AC power distribution. Because 50 amp uses a common neutral for both legs, the AC loads should be distributed as evenly as possibly across both legs to minimize current in the neutral. For example, put the Air Conditioner load (+/- 12 amps) on one leg, and the electric hot water heater (+/- 11 amps) on the other leg. Similarly, converter on one leg, refrigerator on the other leg.

Hope this helps!

[daleyocum]

Originally Posted by jdeegan

I notice you've selected a SmartPlug 50 amp configuration, which I fully agree with. I suggest you reconsider your AC power distribution. Because 50 amp uses a common neutral for both legs, the AC loads should be distributed as evenly as possibly across both legs to minimize current in the neutral. For example, put the Air Conditioner load (+/- 12 amps) on one leg, and the electric hot water heater (+/- 11 amps) on the other leg. Similarly, converter on one leg, refrigerator on the other leg.

Hope this helps!

Except in this case he has a spiffy Victron Multiplus inverter which mixes shore current with battery and solar. You’d want everything on the leg, going through the Multiplus, that wants to ever run on battery. The other leg would just be things that only run on the shore (like the electric feed for the fridge and hot water heater. Dual AC trailers would have the second AC there as well.

The OP will also need some external 50A to 30A adapter for those cases where 50A isn’t available.

[Kyacker]

Originally Posted by daleyocum

Except in this case he has a spiffy Victron Multiplus inverter which mixes shore current with battery and solar. You’d want everything on the leg, going through the Multiplus, that wants to ever run on battery. The other leg would just be things that only run on the shore (like the electric feed for the fridge and hot water heater. Dual AC trailers would have the second AC there as well.

The OP will also need some external 50A to 30A adapter for those cases where 50A isn’t available.

Sorry, I've been away getting all my parts arranged. Dale you're pretty close. The 110V leg of the inverter will go to all outlets, the 110V controls of things, as well as the AC. I'm going to save the second leg from the 50A for the electric side of the hot water heater and the electric side of the refrigerator. So when we're into shore power, we'll have everything off of leg 2 or the inverter. When not on shore power, the AC and all outlets will run on the inverter, the rest will run on propane (water heater and refrigerator) and/or 12V. We are using the multiplus 3000/50 so I'm a bit worried about running the high drain electricals (electric hot water and electric refrigerator) through the inverter as it would be entirely possible to have the AC, refrigerator, and the hot water heater running simultaneously which would exceed 3000W.

I've updated our component index at our website. We now own all of the components. I'll do a video soon to show all the pieces. It's nice to have that all out of the way. I sure do appreciate everyone's help!

https://www.wallytheairstream.com/pa...ex-and-diagram

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by Kyacker

Sorry, I've been away getting all my parts arranged. Dale you're pretty close. The 110V leg of the inverter will go to all outlets, the 110V controls of things, as well as the AC. I'm going to save the second leg from the 50A for the electric side of the hot water heater and the electric side of the refrigerator. So when we're into shore power, we'll have everything off of leg 2 or the inverter. When not on shore power, the AC and all outlets will run on the inverter, the rest will run on propane (water heater and refrigerator) and/or 12V. We are using the multiplus 3000/50 so I'm a bit worried about running the high drain electricals (electric hot water and electric refrigerator) through the inverter as it would be entirely possible to have the AC, refrigerator, and the hot water heater running simultaneously which would exceed 3000W.

I've updated our component index at our website. We now own all of the components. I'll do a video soon to show all the pieces. It's nice to have that all out of the way. I sure do appreciate everyone's help!

https://www.wallytheairstream.com/pa...ex-and-diagram

Hi

As noted elsewhere ... doing it that way will result in a significant imbalance going into the neutral on the 50A. That's not a good idea.

Bob

[Kyacker]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

Well, going north in the summer does help some. I've certainly had to run both AC's to get the trailer cool in PA, NJ, DE, IN, and OH in the summer (not to mention points further south). I suspect there is some point in Canada that might not be true ....

Bob

Bob, yes you’re right. I’m sorry, I didn’t post what I meant. There’s a 2nd leg off of the multiplus that’s hot when we’re on shore power. Those are going to come off of that leg.

[Kyacker]

Anyone have the relay (set to alarm at default) set to autostart a generator? I've not looked into this yet but it seems that that the Honda/Champion/Predator generators with electric start could possibly be configured to kick on at a certain voltage level?