Solar Questions
Hope all is well, i am planning to upgrade the solar system of my truck camper. The camper came with 2 lead acid batteries which will be replaced with 100ah Battle Born lithium ion. THe camper als...
Forum Discussion
The cart looks good, but as was said be sure everything has a setting for lithium batteries.
You will want to upgrade the onboard converter/charger as CA Traveler mentions above. I have upgraded to Progressive Dynamics on my last 3 RVs and it's a vast improvement. the charging profile is such that you can put the unit into boost mode, that will output 14.4v and charge the batteries in about 2h of run time.
You can an upgrade kit from Best Converter that enables you to swap out the converter/charger and 12v load center without having to take out the enclosure and re-wire anything. Newer units will have a setting for Lithium batteries too.
It's a nice sunny day here in NY today! FYI, solar panels produce power whenever there is light, so they are producing even on a cloudy day, just not at full spec like they would in bright sunlight. If you have 400w worth of panels, they may still produce 100w of power on a cloudy day, enough to top off your batteries while you're at work.
I would also consider adding a multimeter like this that can clamp on and measure DC voltage. One of the things you'll want to do is start compiling data on panel output under various weather conditions and power usage under various scenarios.
One other thing that you should do immediately (if you haven't already) is to be sure that every single bulb in the camper is LED. I bought these 1141 replacement bulbs that have good color temp and lumen output and make updating the inside fixtures a breeze. A good speacialty bulb for the range hood is this one from SuperBrightLEDS.com.
You will want to upgrade the onboard converter/charger as CA Traveler mentions above. I have upgraded to Progressive Dynamics on my last 3 RVs and it's a vast improvement. the charging profile is such that you can put the unit into boost mode, that will output 14.4v and charge the batteries in about 2h of run time.
You can an upgrade kit from Best Converter that enables you to swap out the converter/charger and 12v load center without having to take out the enclosure and re-wire anything. Newer units will have a setting for Lithium batteries too.
It's a nice sunny day here in NY today! FYI, solar panels produce power whenever there is light, so they are producing even on a cloudy day, just not at full spec like they would in bright sunlight. If you have 400w worth of panels, they may still produce 100w of power on a cloudy day, enough to top off your batteries while you're at work.
I would also consider adding a multimeter like this that can clamp on and measure DC voltage. One of the things you'll want to do is start compiling data on panel output under various weather conditions and power usage under various scenarios.
One other thing that you should do immediately (if you haven't already) is to be sure that every single bulb in the camper is LED. I bought these 1141 replacement bulbs that have good color temp and lumen output and make updating the inside fixtures a breeze. A good speacialty bulb for the range hood is this one from SuperBrightLEDS.com.
