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Old 04-20-2020, 09:49 PM   #14
willoco
New Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Black Hawk
Posts: 6
M.O.C. #25987
I suppose I'll toss out some details...

Mine is getting 1200 watts of panels which will be wired in sets of three or four serials and 3-4 groups of cells in parallel. I'm still deciding how, but leaning toward 4 groups of three.

That'll be running to a Victron 150/45 (150v 45a) controller. This is sized to accomodate the voltage boost that happens on cold days. (I'm in Colorado).

This is all sized to use the 10awg wiring in the camper, but I can't help but wish for some heavier wiring.

That'll be feeding a 24v 5kw battery bank, which'll be monitored by a victron BMV-712 (which uses a shunt to monitor current flow in and out), a victron battery sense (voltage/temp sensor), combined with an open source battery management system that uses dedicated in/out shunts all paired with a custom monitoring system that I'm going to roll from a raspberry pi, sensors and data uplink.

Oh there's also a 40a 24v to 12v converter in there to run the DC stuff in the camper and I'm adding some extra solenoids to provide additional cutoff insurance.

The battery pack gets a dedicated 350a cutoff solenoid and the inverter is getting a 200a latching solenoid.

For the moment I'm going to try out a relatively cheap 3Kw inverter with it, and will likely pick up a Victron unit for that role whenever I feel like spending another $1k.

I will say this. You can get a nice little inverter and run it to 12v batteries in the camper with no real worries. You can use AGMs or Lead acid all day long with minimal maintenance. I'm adding a bunch of power density and I respect it enough to add multiple safety systems.

In the interest of the solar discussion - it turns out that running higher voltage battery banks is usually better. A controller that can handle a 500w system at 12v can usually handle 1000w at 24v for example.
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