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
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I Guess I Gotta Do This Slowly
......Start the engine and what? The twelve volts is supposed to impress a 24 volt battery bank? Start the generator, the 12 volt converter is supposed to impress the 24 volt battery bank? If ten days of inclement weather is a total "Never Happen" for where you are and where you intend to RV then that really biases the decision......
No, they supply 12 volts.....what you are claiming will disappear because of reliability issues.
MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
....I am neither for or against a system that utterly depends on good weather and a gizmo that can make or break a trip.......
Make or break is a pretty subjective thing. I often camp in a tent and thus have NO 120V AC, NO 12V nor 24V DC, so the thought of POTENTIALLY losing a few systems on ONE trip, while I still have a comfy place to sleep is not a break situation to me......in fact probably gives me some good stories to tell later......oh and REDUNDANT systems for most in an RV anyway.
Not to mention even in a sticks and bricks house you don't have the guarantee of all these things. For instance I don't keep an extra water heater on hand in case mine quits working on me.....an extra frig......an extra washing machine....etc etc. all of those things these days are roughly 10 year units....probably about the same lifetime as a dc-dc converter that is not used every day......AND it takes several days to get a replacement on most since folks don't stock that stuff much anymore.
If it were me and I was setting things up, I'd go with what made the most sense for NOMINAL situations, and if I could not handle an outage of a particular system, I would just have the equipment available to ensure that any equipment failure could be overcome to my satisfaction. After all a 25A victron 24-12 converter is only $89....so having 2 wouldn't be that big of a deal if I needed to ENSURE I had 12v power on hand with minimal interruption. (and of course keeping the old converter for zero dollars would also work).
That said, I agree, researching all the possibilities and making sure you are set up to handle them to YOUR OWN satisfaction is also important.
Cheers,
hbski
