ckent323
Senior Member
I am adding solar to our 2007 FWC Keystone.
Our camper has the IOTA DLS-30 Power Converter/Battery Charger with optional IQ-4 Smart Charge Controller for the DLS as well as the IOTA IDP-30 120VAC/12DC Distribution Panel.
Last year I purchased two Grape Solar 100W solar panels for addition to the camper.
After reading the details of Vic Harder’s, ESUS’ (as well as others) solar panel installations I arrived at the following decisions:
1) The camper was pre-wired for solar but the wires were not connected to anything on either end and simply coiled up in the roof with the other end coiled up near the water pump. I obtained the location of the wires from FWC (thanks Terry Budd for responding to my several emails in a timely and very helpful manner).
2) My calculated daily power consumption is around 50 Ah (+/- 5 or 6 Ah)
3) Initially I will only have the two 100W, 5.41A panels connected in parallel
4) I have replaced the 8 year old 6v deep cycle flooded lead acid (FLA) house batteries connected in series with Lifeline GPL-4CT 6v 220 Ah AGM batteries connected in series.
5) I have selected the Victron 75/15 solar charge controller along with the Victron BVM-702 battery monitor with optional temperature sensor to monitor the batteries.
6) I will connect the battery monitor to measure the midpoint current of the two batteries with the current shunt that comes with the battery monitor.
7) I want to be able to disconnect either or both batteries from the solar charge controller so I also have a Blue Sea m-series battery selector
8) I will be using a Go Power GP-CEP-1 Cable Entry Plate With Red & Black 7" MC4 Cables ending in bare wires
9) A 4"x4" plastic junction box will be used above the headliner and the Cable Entry plate will be screwed through the roof into it and then the entire perimeter of the cable entry plate as well as the screws sealed with 3M 4200 marine sealant.
10) I will leave an option for adding additional solar panel(s) as required (along with another charge controller or perhaps a larger replacement charge controller switched through another blue sea battery selector). I purchased a Zamp roof/sidewall SAE plug to put in the floor pack sidewall so I can make any additional panels “deplyoble”.
11) I do not presently plan to connect the camper to my truck, however, should I decide or need to do that I will likely use a Blue Sea Automatic Charge Relay and large gauge wires. This is not presently in my plan so no additional details have been worked out.
12) The panels will be mounted to 1”x1-1/2” rectangular Aluminum tubing. The tubing will be attached directly to the factory installed Yakima racks on our camper.
13) The front panel will be mounted immediately aft of the forward un-powered vent where it will cover the roof mounted GO Power entry gland. The rear panel will either be mounted in front of the rear fantastic fan or between the fantastic fan and the rear edge of the camper. (there is room to place the front panel in front of the front vent but I worry about it being exposed to tree branches and etc while travelling off-pavement before my brain kicks in to pay attention).
14) The camper has internal front and rear lift assist struts and we also have a crank up speaker stand (occasionally we carry our kayaks on top) so I am not worried about the extra 45 pounds on the roof. Each panel weighs 22 or so pounds.
15) A Blue Sea 2314 MiniBus 5 x #8-32, 2 x #10-32 Common Bus Bar with Cover is used for connecting grounds.
Edit 1: I accidentally left the Victron bluetooth dongle off the list:
16) I bought the Victron VE.Direct bluetooth dongle so I can access the battery data from my cell phone via the Victron ap.
I made up a wiring diagram in powerpoint and saved it as a pdf file (attached).
Edit 2: I need to correct the wiring diagram to show the proper grounding (see the following comment #2 from Rando). I still need to decide if I want temperature or mid-point monitoring. I will likely go with Rando's suggestion in comment #4 but need to think about it and read a bit more on this choice first.
Edit 3: I tried to attach an updated wiring diagram for temperature monitoring instead of mid-point monitoring. I also added a switch for future connection of a suitcase type deployable panel having its own charge controller. - but the combination now exceeds the 500k file limit so the updated diagram didn't upload.
Is there a way to paste images into replies? I have not figured out how to do that. I could add the new pdf or jpeg to a reply if that is possible (I do not have any cloud or online image accounts)..
I am not certain I have the wiring diagram correct so I would appreciate any informed comments.
Regards,
Craig
Our camper has the IOTA DLS-30 Power Converter/Battery Charger with optional IQ-4 Smart Charge Controller for the DLS as well as the IOTA IDP-30 120VAC/12DC Distribution Panel.
Last year I purchased two Grape Solar 100W solar panels for addition to the camper.
After reading the details of Vic Harder’s, ESUS’ (as well as others) solar panel installations I arrived at the following decisions:
1) The camper was pre-wired for solar but the wires were not connected to anything on either end and simply coiled up in the roof with the other end coiled up near the water pump. I obtained the location of the wires from FWC (thanks Terry Budd for responding to my several emails in a timely and very helpful manner).
2) My calculated daily power consumption is around 50 Ah (+/- 5 or 6 Ah)
3) Initially I will only have the two 100W, 5.41A panels connected in parallel
4) I have replaced the 8 year old 6v deep cycle flooded lead acid (FLA) house batteries connected in series with Lifeline GPL-4CT 6v 220 Ah AGM batteries connected in series.
5) I have selected the Victron 75/15 solar charge controller along with the Victron BVM-702 battery monitor with optional temperature sensor to monitor the batteries.
6) I will connect the battery monitor to measure the midpoint current of the two batteries with the current shunt that comes with the battery monitor.
7) I want to be able to disconnect either or both batteries from the solar charge controller so I also have a Blue Sea m-series battery selector
8) I will be using a Go Power GP-CEP-1 Cable Entry Plate With Red & Black 7" MC4 Cables ending in bare wires
9) A 4"x4" plastic junction box will be used above the headliner and the Cable Entry plate will be screwed through the roof into it and then the entire perimeter of the cable entry plate as well as the screws sealed with 3M 4200 marine sealant.
10) I will leave an option for adding additional solar panel(s) as required (along with another charge controller or perhaps a larger replacement charge controller switched through another blue sea battery selector). I purchased a Zamp roof/sidewall SAE plug to put in the floor pack sidewall so I can make any additional panels “deplyoble”.
11) I do not presently plan to connect the camper to my truck, however, should I decide or need to do that I will likely use a Blue Sea Automatic Charge Relay and large gauge wires. This is not presently in my plan so no additional details have been worked out.
12) The panels will be mounted to 1”x1-1/2” rectangular Aluminum tubing. The tubing will be attached directly to the factory installed Yakima racks on our camper.
13) The front panel will be mounted immediately aft of the forward un-powered vent where it will cover the roof mounted GO Power entry gland. The rear panel will either be mounted in front of the rear fantastic fan or between the fantastic fan and the rear edge of the camper. (there is room to place the front panel in front of the front vent but I worry about it being exposed to tree branches and etc while travelling off-pavement before my brain kicks in to pay attention).
14) The camper has internal front and rear lift assist struts and we also have a crank up speaker stand (occasionally we carry our kayaks on top) so I am not worried about the extra 45 pounds on the roof. Each panel weighs 22 or so pounds.
15) A Blue Sea 2314 MiniBus 5 x #8-32, 2 x #10-32 Common Bus Bar with Cover is used for connecting grounds.
Edit 1: I accidentally left the Victron bluetooth dongle off the list:
16) I bought the Victron VE.Direct bluetooth dongle so I can access the battery data from my cell phone via the Victron ap.
I made up a wiring diagram in powerpoint and saved it as a pdf file (attached).
Edit 2: I need to correct the wiring diagram to show the proper grounding (see the following comment #2 from Rando). I still need to decide if I want temperature or mid-point monitoring. I will likely go with Rando's suggestion in comment #4 but need to think about it and read a bit more on this choice first.
Edit 3: I tried to attach an updated wiring diagram for temperature monitoring instead of mid-point monitoring. I also added a switch for future connection of a suitcase type deployable panel having its own charge controller. - but the combination now exceeds the 500k file limit so the updated diagram didn't upload.
Is there a way to paste images into replies? I have not figured out how to do that. I could add the new pdf or jpeg to a reply if that is possible (I do not have any cloud or online image accounts)..
I am not certain I have the wiring diagram correct so I would appreciate any informed comments.
Regards,
Craig