24V battery bank with solar - pros and cons
Hmmm.... should I go with a 24V Battery bank? I am in the planning phase of a 800 to 1,000 Watt solar system for my 5th wheel. I am thinking maybe a Morningstar TS-MPPT-60 charge controller and 4 ...
Forum Discussion
Chop your 12-volt power while camping and get a dose of "This Is The Way It Is"
The Crown came as a 24 volt vehicle. So the voltage issue was inverse. But nevertheless, dry camping in cold weather means running a heater, lights, water pump and accessories. If a DC to DC bucker fails, the show is over. Getting a reliable bucker should be high priority. The Only Other Option is to Invert and supply a 12 volt converter for loads. This excludes issues with single-mode-source charging the batteries.
I mused long and hard about this issue before deciding to go pure 24-volt. I have stripped several failed Sure Power and Transpo 32/12 and 24/12 buckers to reclaim the heat sinks. The items were gifts from less-than satisfied owners.
Regarding foreign travel. In Mexico. The clouds roll in and a person is forced to abandon boondock beach plans and flee to an overpriced RV park. Different tack. Boondocking. The bucker fails. What does a person do? On shore catastrophic change of plans. At sea, catastrophic change of plans. My place went with ZERO sunshine for 13-days. Can a person retain energy autonomy for 13-days?
Dedicating a system to voltage different than 99% of the hotel system should entail a lot of planning and musing scenarios. Spare bucker modules are an option. But dealing with recharging redundancy is a color of a different horse. A large bi directional inverter makes sense if a large enough generator is available. My ancient Trace has 120-amperes of charge rate which would be appropriate for 4 3-cell 220 ampere hour batteries. But I yanked the generator so that fallback is a mirage on my rig.
Choose Wisely
The Crown came as a 24 volt vehicle. So the voltage issue was inverse. But nevertheless, dry camping in cold weather means running a heater, lights, water pump and accessories. If a DC to DC bucker fails, the show is over. Getting a reliable bucker should be high priority. The Only Other Option is to Invert and supply a 12 volt converter for loads. This excludes issues with single-mode-source charging the batteries.
I mused long and hard about this issue before deciding to go pure 24-volt. I have stripped several failed Sure Power and Transpo 32/12 and 24/12 buckers to reclaim the heat sinks. The items were gifts from less-than satisfied owners.
Regarding foreign travel. In Mexico. The clouds roll in and a person is forced to abandon boondock beach plans and flee to an overpriced RV park. Different tack. Boondocking. The bucker fails. What does a person do? On shore catastrophic change of plans. At sea, catastrophic change of plans. My place went with ZERO sunshine for 13-days. Can a person retain energy autonomy for 13-days?
Dedicating a system to voltage different than 99% of the hotel system should entail a lot of planning and musing scenarios. Spare bucker modules are an option. But dealing with recharging redundancy is a color of a different horse. A large bi directional inverter makes sense if a large enough generator is available. My ancient Trace has 120-amperes of charge rate which would be appropriate for 4 3-cell 220 ampere hour batteries. But I yanked the generator so that fallback is a mirage on my rig.
Choose Wisely
