Very cool. We just picked up a 2007 Itasca Navion and I have intentions of doing something like this in it. This is going to sound crazy but I'm thinking about using a trailer hitch cargo carrier to build out a removable battery and inverter box that could be installed on several different rigs depending on the needs of the particular mission for that vehicle. There's just so little space in these tiny Class C's that it's hard to justify giving up any amount of storage for the electrical equipment. Well done on this installation, as always!
@@sotasolar It'd be something like that but with a small generator as the primary recharge source and the vehicle alternator as a secondary source. We stay at enough Harvest Host sites that don't allow overnight generators that this type of solution could make sense for our usage scenario. I'd love to do it on solar entirely, but these tiny units don't have enough roof area to reliably run an A/C unit overnight in my opinion. I already have 16x 306aH EVE LFP cells ready to go, as well as a 3kW charger/inverter. This should give me over 15kWh of capacity for running the A/C and other loads during quiet hours overnight. Also I just installed a Micro-Air Soft Start so start inrush current won't be a problem with either the inverter or a suitcase generator. If you couldn't tell, I absolutely detest trying to sleep when it's hot and muggy.
Some say the Victron controllers wont charge the battery till its over 5 volts above the battery. So if I'm getting 16 volts and 18 amps it still isn't charging? That's 288 watts. If this is the case what should I do to raise the voltage? You can charge a battery with 1 amp.
If the controller says it's charging, it's charging. Higher PV volts lets the charger work more efficiently to create more amps into the battery, which is ultimately what you want. If you have 2x 100w panels, put them in series and see how it goes. There are some instances where keeping them in parallel makes sense. Those scenarios are usually around consistent partial shade conditions or varying angles of panels. If you can get 2 panels in series and they won't be shaded or at different angles, go for it.
Very cool. We just picked up a 2007 Itasca Navion and I have intentions of doing something like this in it. This is going to sound crazy but I'm thinking about using a trailer hitch cargo carrier to build out a removable battery and inverter box that could be installed on several different rigs depending on the needs of the particular mission for that vehicle. There's just so little space in these tiny Class C's that it's hard to justify giving up any amount of storage for the electrical equipment. Well done on this installation, as always!
We do something like that for food trucks that we work on we call it just a solar generator
@@sotasolar It'd be something like that but with a small generator as the primary recharge source and the vehicle alternator as a secondary source. We stay at enough Harvest Host sites that don't allow overnight generators that this type of solution could make sense for our usage scenario. I'd love to do it on solar entirely, but these tiny units don't have enough roof area to reliably run an A/C unit overnight in my opinion. I already have 16x 306aH EVE LFP cells ready to go, as well as a 3kW charger/inverter. This should give me over 15kWh of capacity for running the A/C and other loads during quiet hours overnight. Also I just installed a Micro-Air Soft Start so start inrush current won't be a problem with either the inverter or a suitcase generator. If you couldn't tell, I absolutely detest trying to sleep when it's hot and muggy.
More BEAR please
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ last few weeks been getting comments “less talk and dogs, more project. “
Some say the Victron controllers wont charge the battery till its over 5 volts above the battery. So if I'm getting 16 volts and 18 amps it still isn't charging? That's 288 watts. If this is the case what should I do to raise the voltage? You can charge a battery with 1 amp.
If the controller says it's charging, it's charging. Higher PV volts lets the charger work more efficiently to create more amps into the battery, which is ultimately what you want. If you have 2x 100w panels, put them in series and see how it goes. There are some instances where keeping them in parallel makes sense. Those scenarios are usually around consistent partial shade conditions or varying angles of panels. If you can get 2 panels in series and they won't be shaded or at different angles, go for it.