So glad I bought your book RV solar....first author to ever carry on a conversation with! Can't wait to power up my motorhome a 27 footer Windjammer by the Establishment!
I can confirm that SLA charges faster than FLA. I just replaced two FLA with two UB121000 AGM and the charge rate improvement from my solar system was immediately noticeable.
I wired up my whole solar system in my old RV with help from your videos. I appreciate solar videos a lot! Also I am now thinking of tesla or battleborn/equivalent lithium for my battery banks. Out with the days of FLA/SLA ... Absolutely heavy pieces of crap (cheap out the gate, but not in the long run!)
Is there anything else to consider going from lead acid to lithium. Watched your videos on solar controllers but that was kinda before you were loving the lithium. Can the same controllers etc be used.
Temperature and voltage regulation is key. Keep battery not cold or hot, and keep soc in healthy range and you are good. Don't discharge or charge too fast either
I live in Pittsburgh ,PA we had 18 inches over normal for the year ,and no wind at all,all summer, the last two days some wind came and my 900 watt wind turbine started to work but not for long the wind died,we have the most cloudy days in all the USA. I am going to charge my batteries with 50 AMP charger till they are topped off ,I hope they are not ruined sitting at 12.76 for so long
I am using 40w solar panel and 50AH deep cycle flooded battery. Why does the battery record up to 13.8V when it is sunny but falls to 12.2V immediately at sunset without loads? Why doe it discharges too quickly when I am using a laptop? NB: I use 300W inverter when working with my laptop.
A nice video you could do would be on Solar controllers, 2 years ago when I bought 2 200 amp vmax I was considering lithiums but they talked me out of it because they said the solar control wasnt capable of charging it. I was using a Renogy Tracer, even Renogy said it wasnt compatible. Well those vmax were the worst purchase and waste I ever made. So this year I decided to go for the lithiums, contacted the same place and now they say just about anything will charge them ok but maybe not to the best capacity. 180* turnaround. So providing some info would be a great benefit for a lot of people. Keep up the good work! PS, I purchased a Renogy rover for my 600 watt array and decided to use some 75 watt panels as a second array and use the Tracer in gel setting so it wouldnt attempt equalization. So I use the tracer to pull from the 300watt array to assist charging the batteries. Boost voltage on the Tracer is just 2 volts lower but the float is the same as required for my Lithiums at 13.8
I love your videos. I watched many of them. Thank you so much for teaching ... I am still learning about all this... I bought a cooler (14.5V 6A) for my dry camping, so I decided to install a 160watt flexible solar panel for my minivan. Besides the panel, I bought a MPPT charge controller (40A 150V), 12v 100Amp Battle Born deep cycle battery, 500watt MightMax inverter. I have a question about fuse breakers: What size of the AWG wire and circuit-breaker-reset-fuse I need for between the battery and the inverter? P.S. I bought an ASDOMO 12V 40A circuit-breaker-reset-fuse between the charge controller and the battery. Am I right? Thank you in advance.
I’m thinking of going lithium, Do I need a special solar controller for lithium batteries or can I use the one that I’m already using to charge my wet cell batteries ?
Yeah exactly. Also, discharge temp range of lithium is lower than charge temp range. If you have lead acid, you can go to lower temperatures easier, but battery resistance increases and capacity decreases.
You videos have been very useful, super appreciate all the information! You speak highly of lithium batteries, and I would consider purchasing one, however I am concerned about their resilience to freezing temps. If you are ever inclined, I would love to see some tests in different temperature ranges for batteries. As an example, I have an off grid cabin which I visit sporadically. This means it is neither cooled nor heated consistently. Where I live temperatures range from over 30C in summer, to -30C in winter. I need batteries that can withstand fluctuations all over and in between these ranges. Thanks again for posting great learning videos, you've helped me a lot in setting up my small system, and understanding how it works.
ugh. SO much to understand. I am learning but it feels like there is WAY too much information out there! That said, keep them coming Will. I am sticking with your advice.
Aww thanks! Yeah there is. You can start with an electrical engineering textbook of some form. Or check out my website! Pre-calculated solar packages. No thinking involved :D
I'm in the upper midwest and I would like to copy your Telsa setup for my semi. I park my truck for a month at a time during the winter. We have below zero F days for weeks at a time. There is no good way to keep the battery warm. If it freezes it's toast, right? Or does it only get damaged if I attempt to charge it when it's that cold???
Yeah you need the heating pad. I will make my own for winter and will show a video. If it's thermostatically controlled to come on at 36 degrees Fahrenheit, you should be good to go.
@@WillProwse will it damage the battery if it freezes? I don't have enough solar to keep a heating pad running, if the truck is parked for a month. Is it the freezing that hurts the battery or discharge/charge when frozen? I suppose if it freezes it will discharge to 0 and that will hurt it.
My understanding is that a fully charged lithium battery will over volt if it's cooled substantially. So you can't fully charge a warm battery and then let it cool to 36 degrees without letting some charge escape to lower it's voltage, or it will be subject to damage.
Well my battery location is cold. So lithium won’t work. I need $50-$60 dollars worth of batteries for the system. If I have to replace once a year it’s o big deal. Anything over a year I am happy. This is a 24v well pump.
For an RV mobile off grid situation it sounds like you don't wanna charge with your alternator with a lithium batteries. So how do you charge your batteries when the Sun doesn't shine for 3 days and you don't have solar?
Great question Terry. And with this size battery, I only use 10-20% of it a day. So I could last quite a while without sunshine. I plan to always park in places with sure shine though. But I could fire up my generator and hook up some chargers are anytime. Might do that this winter
Hi, thank you all the information and dumbing it down for me. Here’s my question... I am not sure why, when building a solar system I always hear everyone uses a couple (at least) 6 volt batteries to make a 12v system. Why not just use 1 12 v battery? What is the rational please? ✌️
@Brian Woodrow no u dont want to replace one 6 volt battery in a series string. you usually have to replace the whole string when one goes bad. need to replace whole bank usually. and yeah sure, so just buy a larger 12 volt battery, or 24 volt battery. problem solved.
As long as you are not paying for the power going into your battery, and you have a good margin of redundancy, Faraday efficiency is really not that important.
Solar battery efficiency, now that’s a topic that doesn’t get enough attention, until today! Thank you so much, Adonis faced man
Some guy in his late twenty's soldered a resistor to his stove, he wanted to have an ohm on the range. Will, thanks for the great video.
Lol. And sure thing
Love the humor in the morning!
Thank you. I'm still learning and I can't wait to take my first step into solar.
So glad I bought your book RV solar....first author to ever carry on a conversation with! Can't wait to power up my motorhome a 27 footer Windjammer by the Establishment!
Will, you are on a stream of conscience tear with all these solar videos you’re like Einstein in his 1905 miracle year! Go for it!
The explanation of topping off batteries was brilliant I can't think of a better way to describe it
I can confirm that SLA charges faster than FLA. I just replaced two FLA with two UB121000 AGM and the charge rate improvement from my solar system was immediately noticeable.
Sweet! And it could be because the internal resistance of battery was lower. Depends on the batteries.
@@WillProwse agreed!
your explanations are awesome and so helpful for me. Thank you
I wired up my whole solar system in my old RV with help from your videos. I appreciate solar videos a lot! Also I am now thinking of tesla or battleborn/equivalent lithium for my battery banks. Out with the days of FLA/SLA ... Absolutely heavy pieces of crap (cheap out the gate, but not in the long run!)
Absolutely agree
And very cool!! You will love it
You would have made a great Science teacher...Faradaic efficiency in 9:03 minutes. I should have done so well and I tried for over 20 years. ;)
Is there anything else to consider going from lead acid to lithium. Watched your videos on solar controllers but that was kinda before you were loving the lithium. Can the same controllers etc be used.
Temperature and voltage regulation is key. Keep battery not cold or hot, and keep soc in healthy range and you are good. Don't discharge or charge too fast either
Stadium effect- nice
It's a GrubHub hat I got on. Not a MAGA hat. Following Will
I live in Pittsburgh ,PA we had 18 inches over normal for the year ,and no wind at all,all summer, the last two days some wind came and my 900 watt wind turbine started to work but not for long the wind died,we have the most cloudy days in all the USA. I am going to charge my batteries with 50 AMP charger till they are topped off ,I hope they are not ruined sitting at 12.76 for so long
Smart idea to always have some kind of charger on those
I am using 40w solar panel and 50AH deep cycle flooded battery. Why does the battery record up to 13.8V when it is sunny but falls to 12.2V immediately at sunset without loads? Why doe it discharges too quickly when I am using a laptop? NB: I use 300W inverter when working with my laptop.
Another great vid, thanks Will
Great information, thanks Will!
Where is the best place to buy connectors, wires, crimpers, and what types should i buy.
A nice video you could do would be on Solar controllers, 2 years ago when I bought 2 200 amp vmax I was considering lithiums but they talked me out of it because they said the solar control wasnt capable of charging it. I was using a Renogy Tracer, even Renogy said it wasnt compatible. Well those vmax were the worst purchase and waste I ever made. So this year I decided to go for the lithiums, contacted the same place and now they say just about anything will charge them ok but maybe not to the best capacity. 180* turnaround. So providing some info would be a great benefit for a lot of people. Keep up the good work!
PS, I purchased a Renogy rover for my 600 watt array and decided to use some 75 watt panels as a second array and use the Tracer in gel setting so it wouldnt attempt equalization. So I use the tracer to pull from the 300watt array to assist charging the batteries.
Boost voltage on the Tracer is just 2 volts lower but the float is the same as required for my Lithiums at 13.8
What is the efficiency of discharging a Lead Acid flooded battery...if it is fully charged then will it give me the full capacity ?
I love your videos. I watched many of them. Thank you so much for teaching ... I am still learning about all this...
I bought a cooler (14.5V 6A) for my dry camping, so I decided to install a 160watt flexible solar panel for my minivan. Besides the panel, I bought a MPPT charge controller (40A 150V), 12v 100Amp Battle Born deep cycle battery, 500watt MightMax inverter.
I have a question about fuse breakers: What size of the AWG wire and circuit-breaker-reset-fuse I need for between the battery and the inverter?
P.S. I bought an ASDOMO 12V 40A circuit-breaker-reset-fuse between the charge controller and the battery. Am I right?
Thank you in advance.
Great video and website! Thanks
I’m thinking of going lithium, Do I need a special solar controller for lithium batteries or can I use the one that I’m already using to charge my wet cell batteries ?
Thank you so much
Lot's of useful information here.
How about cold climate areas??
Yeah exactly. Also, discharge temp range of lithium is lower than charge temp range. If you have lead acid, you can go to lower temperatures easier, but battery resistance increases and capacity decreases.
You videos have been very useful, super appreciate all the information!
You speak highly of lithium batteries, and I would consider purchasing one, however I am concerned about their resilience to freezing temps.
If you are ever inclined, I would love to see some tests in different temperature ranges for batteries. As an example, I have an off grid cabin which I visit sporadically. This means it is neither cooled nor heated consistently.
Where I live temperatures range from over 30C in summer, to -30C in winter. I need batteries that can withstand fluctuations all over and in between these ranges.
Thanks again for posting great learning videos, you've helped me a lot in setting up my small system, and understanding how it works.
I wonder if it would be worth the time to store your battery In a cellar?
If I had a cellar that may be one option. Until then they will be subject to the mean temperature unless I am at the cabin.
Hi? I won't to run my fridge! direct .... Off solar panels... How would you set it up? Thanks
And any suggestions such as the size of the inverter...? Thank you so much.
I learnt summat today.
ugh. SO much to understand. I am learning but it feels like there is WAY too much information out there! That said, keep them coming Will. I am sticking with your advice.
Aww thanks! Yeah there is. You can start with an electrical engineering textbook of some form. Or check out my website! Pre-calculated solar packages. No thinking involved :D
@@WillProwse OMG your solar packages are genius! WOW!!
I'm in the upper midwest and I would like to copy your Telsa setup for my semi. I park my truck for a month at a time during the winter. We have below zero F days for weeks at a time. There is no good way to keep the battery warm. If it freezes it's toast, right? Or does it only get damaged if I attempt to charge it when it's that cold???
You need a heating pad run off your battery it will regulate the temp ,no problem watch his earlier videos he shows you how that works
Yeah you need the heating pad. I will make my own for winter and will show a video. If it's thermostatically controlled to come on at 36 degrees Fahrenheit, you should be good to go.
@@WillProwse will it damage the battery if it freezes? I don't have enough solar to keep a heating pad running, if the truck is parked for a month. Is it the freezing that hurts the battery or discharge/charge when frozen? I suppose if it freezes it will discharge to 0 and that will hurt it.
@@usdpaulp its bad for them if they charge when that cold. but just sitting that cold should be fine as long as you dont charge it while that cold
My understanding is that a fully charged lithium battery will over volt if it's cooled substantially.
So you can't fully charge a warm battery and then let it cool to 36 degrees without letting some charge escape to lower it's voltage,
or it will be subject to damage.
can you make a video about tubular plate batteries?
Well my battery location is cold. So lithium won’t work. I need $50-$60 dollars worth of batteries for the system. If I have to replace once a year it’s o big deal. Anything over a year I am happy. This is a 24v well pump.
Hey Will Just curious, why did you get rid of your air conditioner? I was so impressed by that solution.
Not hot enough in my area and the one I bought was leaking at the drain hose
For an RV mobile off grid situation it sounds like you don't wanna charge with your alternator with a lithium batteries. So how do you charge your batteries when the Sun doesn't shine for 3 days and you don't have solar?
Great question Terry. And with this size battery, I only use 10-20% of it a day. So I could last quite a while without sunshine. I plan to always park in places with sure shine though. But I could fire up my generator and hook up some chargers are anytime. Might do that this winter
@@WillProwse So can you charge your lithium batteries with a normal portable battery charger, or is a special lithium battery charger required?
Take me to your leader.
Hahaha
Hi, thank you all the information and dumbing it down for me. Here’s my question... I am not sure why, when building a solar system I always hear everyone uses a couple (at least) 6 volt batteries to make a 12v system. Why not just use 1 12 v battery? What is the rational please? ✌️
Because 6v batteries are mass produced for golf carts so they are dirt cheap. 12 batteries are better
Wow, thank you for getting back to me with your answer. This info helps me tremendously. 💥
@Brian Woodrow no u dont want to replace one 6 volt battery in a series string. you usually have to replace the whole string when one goes bad. need to replace whole bank usually. and yeah sure, so just buy a larger 12 volt battery, or 24 volt battery. problem solved.
are lifepo4 better than lithium? or the same but safer.?
Lifepo4 is a lithium ion chemistry battery
Im starting to get i got lithium good lead acid bad
So it seems that never cycling batteries lower than 80% will increase the number of lifetime cycles but reduce the battery lifetime efficiency.
I don't think the average "NPC" like person can comprehend this conversation.
tokwise jwalker exactly ... Im so confused
@@evlainzizme4831 It was just a political joke.
😒 Wah I just need to learn how to hook up my portable solar suitcase and what battery ughhh lol
lol npc
😁✌🖖👌👍 😎
As long as you are not paying for the power going into your battery, and you have a good margin of redundancy, Faraday efficiency is really not that important.
It is when you have a finite roof space for solar panels, or you are going through an entire charge cycle everyday. It can make a HUGE difference
@@WillProwse ok sure if you are using that much power.
Time for a new topic. The solar videos are getting stale.
Like what?
We like them. Just don't watch.
Great video
Solar battery efficiency, now that’s a topic that doesn’t get enough attention, until today! Thank you so much, Adonis faced man
Happy to help!
Will Prowse RV Living and Off-grid Solar We’re very fortunate to have you doing what you do.