Hello from Grandview TN

J

JamesRich

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Joined
Sep 24, 2023
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5
Hi guys, I've always been interested in solar but never built anything. I'm a mobile heavy equipment mechanic and do all my own repairs on my vehicles and home. I've been running a Renogy 2000w inverter in my service truck and it runs everything I need on the truck including a microwave so I can have a hot lunch when I'm out on job sites. I've decided to build a system in my open range fifth wheel camper first. It came with the generator prep so it has a large compartment in the front where a generator would go and a transfer switch already wired in. I've started with a Renogy 3000w inverter wired to the transfer switch running off of two deep cycle batteries and it's working great. I've ordered 4 LiTime 100 amp hour batteries to replace the deep cycles. That's as far as I've gotten. Could use some advice on the rest of the system. What charge controller and battery monitor would be good for my setup? I'm planing on Renogy flexible panels for the roof.
James
 
Hey, welcome to the forum. Got yourself a pretty decent conversion going on there.

Generally speaking because the batteries have built in BMSs, you probably won't need anything major here, unless you want external monitoring. But then, that only gets you a 4 cell resolution. Each battery has 4 cells internally, so it'd be nice to monitor each of those cells as well. But I didn't see any mention of Bluetooth connectivity with the battery bms to get those details.

Considering you're buying 4 batteries, is the inverter 48V?? Doing a quick search results in 12V models, tho there's sometimes sub-modes of the same base unit. If you go with 48V, you will save yourself on wiring costs and inverter inefficiency losses. 12V DC->AC is less efficient than 48V DC->AC. There's also less voltage to work with throughout the charge (11.1V - 13.8V vs 45 - 57V). Tho that's not saying Lithium Iron is not good either way.


I'd recommend posting a more detailed set up of what you do have, and what you'd like to accomplish in the Solar Panels, Charge Controllers, and Inverters section as you will most likely get more eyes on it there. This is really just the introduction section and not everyone reads this area ;)
 
Thanks! This is pretty exciting stuff! Biggest problem is not wanting to buy everything I want at once. I just want to have it ready for this coming spring.
James
 
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