Jonnygsx wrote:
Do I really need a trimetric monitor? I can get a $10 voltage monitor on amazon which will give me an idea right? For the price of a trimetric I could get another solar panel. One thing im finding difficult is that everyone on this forum is that everything is all out top end. It is hard to find advice for limited budgets.
My opinion is that you don't need a Trimetric, the $13 Amazon monitor I linked to above works fine for a snapshot of the situation. Like you said, you can get another panel for the price of the Trimetric. I used to think I'd want all that data that the Trimetric provides, but after two summers on my system I don't feel the need anymore and have no plans on a sophisticated monitor. A snapshot of the voltage is all I need. Since I know what my charge controller setpoints are programmed to, I can tell by the voltage what state the controller is in and that is enough info for me. When the sun goes down, the voltage meter reading allows me to estimate my batteries' state of charge. My charge controller does allow for interface with my laptop and I can access all the charging data that way. I did that a lot during setup, but then it is a set it and forget thing.
My plan before I started was the same as your's. I had a nice Yamaha 2400 generator already so I knew I could always bail myself out if the solar wasn't working. My converter is a WFCO smartcharger, although these are known to not reliably perform as advertised. It's better than a single stage trickle charger, though. My plan was to start with a 140W 12V panel and I would use wiring and a controller that allowed for plenty of expansion. Since the panel was on sale I went ahead and got 2 of them and that is still the system I'm running today. I've upgraded to 2x6V batteries in series which gives me way more Ah than the 2x12V marine batteries that came with the TT.
Are you going to run an inverter?
