Hi Jonny,
Set a budget. Include a converter. Your old one is garbage. Solar will work well in tandem with any converter.
I already told you 120 watts would be more than enough for 4 six volt jars, during storage. The bare minimum is 12.5 watts per 100 amp-hours. If you wish to equalize the bank, then that number jumps up to 60 watts per 100 amp-hours.
You don't want to do the work of a proper energy audit? Then you must get one of the (expensive) amp hour counter type meters. The best of those is a Victron. Of course, then you need to know the exact capacity of the battery bank in amp-hours. And that, as you already know, is a moving target.
There is one that is better because you do NOT have to enter a capacity, but I've not been able to find a supplier in North America for it.
I use a simple volt meter myself. My goal was different than most rv'ers as far as battery bank size goes, so I did not need to do the energy audit. I also cheated, and use bank switching--because my solar cost about $11 per watt installed. It is still the best choice I made.
I would favor the Tristar 60 amp MPPT unit over the 45 amp.
Jonnygsx wrote:
The plan in the long run is to deck out the roof in solar. But I can't do that initially and since im not sure how much power ill be using or needing I dont think it would make sense to go all out right away anyways. My hope is to try and get a basic solar install that allows it to be upgraded in the future. If I were to say have a 120watt panel on the roof and controller would I still want to disconnect the batteries when I wasnt using it? Or should I just let the panel maintain it?
If I had to pick between buying a 120watt system or a new converter what would you recommend? My thought was i could disconnect the todd converter completely and let the solar refill my batts during the day while im on gen power?
