Southwest My Solar Boondocking Upgrade Journey - Part 1

[dmbecke]

Thanks for sharing, fantastic work
Question for the experts: will any of this equipment generate enough heat under the seats to create an issue for the equipment?
Is a cooling fan needed?

[Troutboy]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Beautiful work and documentation. Thank you!

In the top photo in Post #57, does that flex heat duct remain in the battery space, and is there any concern about heat buildup on a cold winter outing perhaps?

Thanks again for an informative thread, as we are considering a solar upgrade including batteries.

Peter

Peter,

There are actually TWO ducts that go over the batteries from the furnace. I was worried about the heat transfer to the batteries as well.

I had designed two fixes for this potential issue 1.) attaching the duct work to the furniture which would create a 1 inch air gap, or 2.) attaching insulation around the duct or over the batteries.

However, I ran a test to see how hot they would get. Temps would fall into the mid to high twenties at night. I set the inside temp at 68, let the furnace run all night and measured temp before and after leaving furnace on.

Temp of batteries before was 65-70 over a few days depending on our side temp. Temp after a full night of heating cycles to keep trailer at peaked at 86, well below the operating range (I recall 120).

So I decided to leave it alone.

I do have those two fans and left those on. I will try a test without the fans. I can't hear it when both fans are on and amp draw is 0.3A. The solar system covers that and then some...

Thanks

[Troutboy]

Originally Posted by dmbecke

Thanks for sharing, fantastic work
Question for the experts: will any of this equipment generate enough heat under the seats to create an issue for the equipment?
Is a cooling fan needed?

Haven't run in hot summer temps yet, but there are essentially 4 fans fro cooling.

1. The inverter has its own fan
2. The D.C./DC fan has a fan
3. The inlet vent fan that draws fresh air in
4. The outlet vent fan that pushes air out

The inlet and outlet vent fans can be left on continuously if needed and draw air from the front cabinet across the lounge and out by the television/fridge wall.

When I have been testing the unit in 70 weather, the inverter fan has kicked on for shirt burst (heavy loads). Now that fan can be heard for sure.

Got me thinking about swapping that fan out for a quieter one, but probably not needed at night when sleeping and not inverting power.....

[wulfraat]

Are you using one of the victon control panels to monitor your charger/inverter?

[Troutboy]

Wulf, yes I did. Check out Post #14. The last picture shows the remote for the Victron inverter. I placed it in the spot where the old inverter on off switch was. The wires were right there.

[Troutboy]

Here are some shots of the finished install, fan locations and looking into the corner dining seat access holes. I didn't show any of the access hole in the lounge, just ducts that you have to move around to get to the fuses on the BMS and the solar breaker.

First the inverter hole, with the Orion DC/DC converter.




This is the access to the factory bus bar, use/store solenoid, etc. I feel good with these access ports to change fuses etc if needed.




The pic below shows the inlet fan, where it's mounted etc. this fan draws air into the electronics space.



The following pictures show the control panel area under the lounge. It turned out well and it's easy to access these switches. Note the fan location, I bought a cheap cover to protect the blades. This is the fan that pushes the air out, creating a nice flow from the front fan.





Well that's the complete install. I can't wait to boondock with it. Playing around and testing I the driveway it's awesome. Recharges great, can run everything, and the monitoring of the solar charger and battery using your phone is awesome. Also, the sea level battery monitor also works to measure battery volts.

I did have one more thing to deal with, the battery box, and old cables that went to the box on the a-frame. In the next post I'll show you some cool things I did with those wires....

[fran&frank]

Very nice, neat install Rich. You definitely had to do more modifications that I did to get things to fit. I'm not very familiar with the layout of your model trailer; the backboard that the switches are installed on, is that inside a cabinet or furniture piece?--Frank

[fran&frank]

OK your new post answered my quesiton, Again, very nice install!--Frank

[fran&frank]

I use my old battery box to store leveling blocks and wheel chocks, works great.

[Troutboy]

Okay, last post on this project, unless to answer questions.

So I had two sets of heavier gage wire running from the bus bars to the old battery. There was a 6 gage set that was power from the battery to the bus bars and factory systems. Then there was a 4 gage pair that ran from the old inverter to the batteries in the a frame box.

As I stated in a much earlier post and in the planning, I wanted to have the ability to use a portable set of panels to move around if I was camping in the shade. So I spliced into the 4 gage wires, connected them to the solar selector switch, and then put on a quick connect and attached to the a-frame.



I had about 25 feet of wire left over from the solar panel install that amsolar sent, so I connected the other quick connect to that wire, and can then attach that to portable panels if and when I get them.

With the other wire in the box, the 6 gage pair I decided to create an external set of terminals that I could use to power an air compressor, a flojet macerator pump, or any other DC load. This remote terminal set is shown below





It works well and doesn't take up much room in the box for storage. Frank, I plan to do the same with blocks and leveler.

I also removed the zamp solar plug and wires, and I also had to run a new wire inside the trailer to the positive bus bar for the tongue jack power.

Everything works well. What I also really like about this new set up is the battery disconnect. With the tongue jack connected in the way I have, when the trailer is in storage, I turn the disconnect to off, no power drains from the battery and the tongue jack won't work as well.

That's a wrap in this project. Thanks again to everyone that helped and for reading about my adventure. Thanks for the kind words. It's always fun to see what others are doing and maybe help some along the way.

[youngpeck]

Very nice. Thanks so much for the pictures and commentary. Question: Where did you get your lighted "vent fan" on-off switch, as shown in your post #66? I need one or two just like it.

Thanks much

Youngpeck

[Troutboy]

Originally Posted by youngpeck

Very nice. Thanks so much for the pictures and commentary. Question: Where did you get your lighted "vent fan" on-off switch, as shown in your post #66? I need one or two just like it.

Thanks much

Youngpeck

I got both the switch and cover plate on amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Both worked great. Easy to wire and install.

[greghoro]

Great job and nicely done. Glad I found this thread.

You indicated that you would provide picture or descriptions of tools used but I did not find any.

Would be very helpful, especially if you indicate whether they worked out well or if you would have preferred something else.


Greg

[Troutboy]

Greg,

Thanks for the reminder. So unused basic tools for most of the install, but when it came to the big wire and crimping of any wiring it took some special tools to make sure that the crimps worked well.

Others may use a hammer crimp or standard crumpet wire cutters.

I opted for the Ancor crimp tools shown below.

They worked great and passed every pill test. They are not cheap and I'm not sure how much use the big ones will get, but the little ones will be used in other projects around the houss, cars, and trailer.

[Kodie]

Install looks nice.

I have a question on the solar controller which appears to be an MPPT vs a PWM controller. While I understand the differences between the two types it appears from your photos the solar panels are wired in parallel.

1. If you are wiring the panels in parallel with a MPPT controller wouldn't that make it act more like a PWM controller? What is the benefit of MPPT if wired this way vs in series?

2. If your BMS shuts your battery bank down from low voltage how is the system started back up if it kills power to the solar controller? Do you need to jump the battery bank to bring the voltage up so everything starts again or is there an automatic way this happens? (I am new to Lithium so learning from others that have installed)

3. You mentioned having to install another circuit for the fridge, was that factory wired on a shared circuit with something else?

Thank you for the nice write up.

[Troutboy]

Kodie, I'm not an expert on the MPPT vs PWM. I was actually going to go with a PWM, but some of those with better knowledge convinced me to go with the MPPT because even in the parallel setup, it will optimize the power profile. It is constantly sampling really fast to get the most out of the panels. Here are a few write ups explaining the differences etc.

https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2...r-pwm-or-mppt/

http://www.siliconsolar.com/what-is-...ge-controller/

The only downside was the cost difference, and I had the money so I went with it. If cost is a big issue, I think PWM for my size was the right choice.

The BMS controls the battery, not the charge controller. If any sun is out the charge controller is powered by the solar panels. I guess you could set it up so that the charge controller is also powered off the batter, but again if there is solar sun power, the controller works off of that and would charge the battery.

One of the factory circuits had a wire going from the distribution panel to the fridge outlet, another wire was connected to the fridge outlet and that fed a few more outlets in bath etc.

I took these wires out of the fridge outlet and spliced them together, so this circuit now bypassed the fridge completely and fed the other downstream outlets only.

I then ran a new separate wire/circuit from the distribution panel to the fridge outlet, so this only powered the fridge now.

Thanks

[explore more]

Excelent writeup. Reminds me a lot of my first solar install. I appreciate all the photos and extremely detailed explanation.

[explore more]

Do you have 500w or 600w of pv on the roof? Have you noticed any stress on your bracket mounts since the bracket isn't supporting the corners of the pv frame?

[Troutboy]

Originally Posted by explore more

Do you have 500w or 600w of pv on the roof? Have you noticed any stress on your bracket mounts since the bracket isn't supporting the corners of the pv frame?

I have 500. Could easily fit one more in back for 600.

Only two panels required the mod to move the bracket. The two in either side of the AC unit. The rest all used the corner.

After 8 trips and a bunch of mikes non adverse stress. Everything working great and PV all seem structurally sound.

CAUTION. When drilling into frame, if you do that, be careful I almost drilled through the glass panel. I had a piece of sheet aluminum as a guard, was being cautious and when I pushed slightly to Beth through the frame, it cut into the sheet aluminum. I'm sure if it wasn't there I would have drilled through the glass.

[Brav]

Hi Troutboy, have been referring to this thread in planning my own system. How is it performing? Anything you would do different? Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together.