Had Solar power installed (1 Viewer)

[Lorryman100]

It has been a busy week going from place to place in the MoHo to get odds and ends added. First port of call was Brownhills to get a new windscreen blind fitted under warranty as the blind had a slight tear in it when we collected it. They also did the ignition recall and fitted the bin to the door that was spec'd in the original purchase but had not arrived prior to us collecting the van. Next was a visit to Rob at Auto-Mate near Lincoln to fit the solar panels. I decided to get Rob to fit the panels as he did a very professional install on the Oyster Cytrac system and instead saved me the time and hassle of doing it myself which would have taken a lot longer than 5 hours!!
I went for 2 x 100w slimline panels which are made from carbon fibre which makes them very light and thin. I left Rob to do the fitting and retired to the MoHo to watch Spectre and have some lunch whilst deciding where to spend the night.
Apologies for the pic quality as I used my phone camera,

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I opted to be able to charge the engine as well as the habitation batteries and can choose the percentage which for now is 90 - 10 in favour of the habitation batteries but I will probably opt for 50/50 when it is back into storage. I also got him to install the Victron energy battery bank monitor so that I can see what the battery power draw is from both banks. I had to ask Rob where he routed the cabling from the solar panels to the regulator as I could see no evidence of extra cabling in the garage? Turned out the cable was routed down pre installed trunking to under the rear where it followed more trunking into the bottom of where the fuse box/ battery charger is located. He was going to mount the regulator next to the battery charger out of view but for ease of maintenance etc I got him to mount it where it is located.
After looking at the pic of the roof I had better give it a wash as well as the van as it is minging.

 

[Stealaway]

I'm pleased to see they use the same solar controller/amp meter that I fitted to my new 250W system.

 

[RidersofRohan]

Are the solar panels Lensun?

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[DAVWOD]

Looks like a very proffesional installation can l ask ( only that's something l would look to have on my next MH) the cost ... Thanks

 

[Lorryman100]

Are the solar panels Lensun?

Not sure as I never asked. I will drop Rob an email and find out if you require the details.

@DAVWOD All in the total for everything was £950.00.


I also just received an addon I ordered for the victron battery monitor, a bluetooth dongle. Victron have an app for Ios and android to monitor the battery bank monitor and their range of MPPT regulators. I specifically requested that all the instruments were fitted in the garage as I did not want the monitors located inside the habitation area, all those new holes and extra cable run, as I knew I could monitor the whole solar set up remotely via my iphone and ipad.

The company I bought it from which is about £80 cheaper than the one I was going to order on ebay : Broken Link Removed

 

[Lorryman100]

I am also thinking of installing a remote link to monitor the states of charge in both battery banks as the MoHo is in storage most of the time unless we are away in it. Has anyone got a Victron Global Remote 2 fitted to their MoHo? If so what feedback can you give me.

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[nomadic]

We always set ours at 80% leisure 20% drive, when left in storage, never had a problem.

 

[Lorryman100]

I currently have it set at 60/40 but may change it to 50/50, going away next weekend so will check to see how the panels have performed bearing in mind that the west coast of Scotland isn't known for its abundance of sunshine or dry days.

How do you know its summer time in Scotland???? The rains warm!!!!!!!

 

[Lorryman100]

Fitted the bluetooth dongle to the Victron battery monitor today. I used double sided tape to hold it high up in the garage and fed the cable down to the back of the battery monitor using the trunking for the extra sockets in the Hab area. Took 2 minutes to update the firmware via bluetooth using the Ios app and all the info is now displayed on the iphone or ipad. Appears to be a handy app and it will get tested tomorrow night as we need to wild camp. In the settings menu you can set up the battery bank Ah and set voltage and amps alarms for low and high.

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[Diesel]

Interesting like the idea of an app to monitor, looks like you have opted for a PWM charger though?

 

[Lorryman100]

Yes took the advice of the installer. Easy enough to swap it over to a MPPT if the need arises.

 

[Diesel]

I take it the solar charge control;ler is an EP solar one in order to use the MT50? display?

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[Lorryman100]

Yes it is.