Solar panels

[davejmobile]

Hi can anyone help I have a 2011 auto trail Dakota it has the standard solar that came with the van and I can only assume it runs through the sergeant unit
I have two 110 leisure batteries, want to beef everything up a bit so we have a bit more power ant advise most welcome

 

[tonka]

I will assume you have the EC500 unit. That can only handle 120w of solar. If your planning to add more solar then you will need to look into a separate regulator.

 

[Al n Val]

hi Dave

I've a Comanche which came with the standard 100w panel through the Sargent unit, i've since added another 140watt panel via a Victron MPPT smart controller and kept both setups entirely separate.

I've then replaced both 95ah banner batteries with 100ah Leoch Pure lead Carbon batteries and added a 3kw pure sinewave inverter and I cannot fault the setup at all, it provides me all my power all day and every day, 2 tv's, all the lights, charges all my usb devices, it runs the wife's hair dryer, toaster, 1kw kettle (a lot), microwave and a toaster when needed.

As a backup i've also fitted a Victron DC to DC charger which is bloody well awesome, it charges both batteries whilst i'm driving along and there's an automatic changeover relay which supplies all the 240v socket & appliances when no EHU.

I think i've done all I need to short of blowing another £2k on Lithium batteries which i'm not sure i'd get any benefit from, and the original solar setup wouldn't cope with it anyway.

Hope that helps

Al

Edit: the lowest i've ever seen the battery monitor after an heavy day tv viewing because of the rain has been 84%

 

[autorouter]

Ideally you want enough solar to generate enough power to replace any power you use over a 24-hour period. The power you use is obviously very lifestyle-dependent, so you'd need to estimate how much you use in your circumstances. Even that will vary with the weather and the seasons.

If for example your two 110Ah batteries normally last you 24 hours with no problem, draining down to 50%, you can say that your power requirement is about 100Ah per day. To generate that amount of solar power on an average day will need about 300W of solar panels, and a solar controller that can handle that power. That's perfectly feasible, lots of people do it.

It would be best to take the solar controller output directly to the leisure batteries, and ignore the inbuilt Sargent solar controller.

 

[davejmobile]

Thank this sounds like the road I must travel with the solar thank you must start digging round now too find some prices

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[Al n Val]

Thank this sounds like the road I must travel with the solar thank you must start digging round now too find some prices

Don't go cheap Dave

buy cheap buy twice

 

[davejmobile]

Any advise on best place to buy going to buy a 360watt panel Victron mtpp controller 30amp and a victrton dc to dc charger does this make sense and a 3kw sine wave inverter

 

[autorouter]

Any advise on best place to buy going to buy a 360watt panel Victron mtpp controller 30amp and a victrton dc to dc charger does this make sense and a 3kw sine wave inverter

Yes, all made good sense. Until you got to the 3kW inverter bit . 3kW is 250 amps at 12V, and the batteries won't like that at all. The standard rule of thumb for max amps from a leisure battery is C/5, where C is the Ah Capacity. So 220Ah would have a max amps of 220/5 = 44 amps. That translates to 44 x 12 = 528 watts inverter size. You could push your luck and double that, but 3000W is definitely over the top.

You could reconsider if you went for lithium batteries. Some of them are good for C/2 or even C. With 300Ah of the right kind of lithium battery, a 3kW inverter is possible.

 

[Tombola]

this has a max discharge current of full capacity

LiFePO4 battery Bluetooth Novel Series 12V 200Ah

Description Specification Downloads Novel Series smart lithium battery LiFePO4 with Bluetooth communication function, through Android and IOS APP, users can easily monitor one or more batteries working status on a smart phone. Main Applications are for RV, Motorhome, Marine, Boat, classic & 2nd...

www.qualitysource.co.uk

I run my inverter from it, not cheap but ???