GlennG
Member
Yet another Solar newbie
Let me start with an introduction
I live in Vancouver BC and do most of my outing North of home. I have a 2020 Hawk with an 3 way fridge which I use propane when dry camping which is all I do at the moment. I did manage to get a couple trips in late May and early June and found that factory supplied 12 volts did not keep up. Especially on a longer 20 day trip. My main use of power is the furnace, fanastic fan ,water pump, led lights and charging various electronic devises.
Would like to be able to run furnace 2 or 3 hours a day and same for the fan as for led lights around the same maybe 4 hours a day. Charge Iphone. Ipad, Walkie talkies minimally water pump and Lap top. Most trips would be 2 to 3 weeks in length and usually do not move much so no truck charging batteries unless I have to. Would like to avoid running the Honda 2200.
I have tried to read all threads on solar on this site and various other sites. So a big thanks to all who have come before me.
So what I have planned and have started is the following
2- 160 Watt Renogy flexible panels in series mounted to Thule roof racks using what I seen Charlie used. I plan on adding a 20 amp Renogy inline fuse attached to the positive side on the roof. Is this good idea ?
Possibly add a 3 rd panel when in low light conditions to the rear plug. This would also be a 160 watt panel as it seems the controller likes to see similar charge coming in. Is this right? I will be checking polarity of factory wiring.
1- Victron 100/30 Smart Solar Charger MPPT which would be mounted next to batteries c/w 30 amp inline fuse on the positive side and a big red disconnect which I’m unsure if this should be on positive and negative or just positive. Want switch when removing batteries in the winter as I plan to store camper in garage .
1- Victron BMV 712 Battery monitor planning on installing shunt in battery compartment and then fish wire to the cabinetry where my units has a square black panel I’m assuming the factory would have installed a factory controller
2- Blue top Optima batteries 34 M 55Ah in series
these are 2 years old and as I know now have be abused and drawn to dead many times. I will look at replacing these next year with Battle Born lithium.
Any recommendation and feed back would be appreciated .
Many thanks
Glenn
Let me start with an introduction
I live in Vancouver BC and do most of my outing North of home. I have a 2020 Hawk with an 3 way fridge which I use propane when dry camping which is all I do at the moment. I did manage to get a couple trips in late May and early June and found that factory supplied 12 volts did not keep up. Especially on a longer 20 day trip. My main use of power is the furnace, fanastic fan ,water pump, led lights and charging various electronic devises.
Would like to be able to run furnace 2 or 3 hours a day and same for the fan as for led lights around the same maybe 4 hours a day. Charge Iphone. Ipad, Walkie talkies minimally water pump and Lap top. Most trips would be 2 to 3 weeks in length and usually do not move much so no truck charging batteries unless I have to. Would like to avoid running the Honda 2200.
I have tried to read all threads on solar on this site and various other sites. So a big thanks to all who have come before me.
So what I have planned and have started is the following
2- 160 Watt Renogy flexible panels in series mounted to Thule roof racks using what I seen Charlie used. I plan on adding a 20 amp Renogy inline fuse attached to the positive side on the roof. Is this good idea ?
Possibly add a 3 rd panel when in low light conditions to the rear plug. This would also be a 160 watt panel as it seems the controller likes to see similar charge coming in. Is this right? I will be checking polarity of factory wiring.
1- Victron 100/30 Smart Solar Charger MPPT which would be mounted next to batteries c/w 30 amp inline fuse on the positive side and a big red disconnect which I’m unsure if this should be on positive and negative or just positive. Want switch when removing batteries in the winter as I plan to store camper in garage .
1- Victron BMV 712 Battery monitor planning on installing shunt in battery compartment and then fish wire to the cabinetry where my units has a square black panel I’m assuming the factory would have installed a factory controller
2- Blue top Optima batteries 34 M 55Ah in series
these are 2 years old and as I know now have be abused and drawn to dead many times. I will look at replacing these next year with Battle Born lithium.
Any recommendation and feed back would be appreciated .
Many thanks
Glenn