I need to upgrade my solar system. Tell me what you've got.

Had to say it:
My solar system has Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Also composed of Pluto and a lot of asteroids. Have not had to do any upgrades, but did have to "reconfigure" Pluto.

The Morningstar MPPT is one of the best and a good choice and yes if you feed the load through it there is a limit. However I wired our Sun Saver MPPT so that it feeds only to the 150AH battery.
You may be a bit light on the wire you may want to check the voltage drop http://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html
I used 10ga because I have a high voltage panel and the voltage drop is not a concern, and the controller sits on top of the AGM battery and the wire from the controller to the Victron battery monitor shunt is in inches.

crosscheck wrote:
Ripit,

I have the Blue Sky 2000 , 330w solar, 4 6V AGM Trojan batteries in a battery box under the dinette. Started out with 190w but in the 95F desert heat, my NovaKool, AC/DC,7.5cuft fridge/freezer sucked a bit of juice. Added the 140W panel and things are good.

I have a Honda 2000i which in 250 dry or boondocks nights camping(1hookup), has only run 2 hours to charge the batteries.

We also have a 2000w inverter/charger, micro/convect, LED,s everywhere, 2 speed heater, TV, radio, electric jacks, roof, 2 fantastic fans(no A/C).

Add more solar and increase the battery AH,s.

Remember, I can always charge my batteries with the alternator or genny if I have no solar, but if I have lots of solar and little storage capacity,(batteries) ,when the sun goes down or if you have some cloudy days, you will have to be care full with your electrics.

God luck,

Dave





Good luck

Dave

Dave. Thanks for the input. Your right on with what I have been thinking. I'd like to increase my solar panel wattage to 350 +/- and get 4 6v Trojans. I know it's over kill on the panels but not on cloudy days. Do you have a 120v or 12v TV? I'm not sure yet if I want to add a large 245ish or two 120ish watt panels. Still working on that.

Artum Snowbird wrote:
Now, as an alternative, why not carry a Honda 2K generator instead. That will only weigh about 100 pounds

I have a Honda 2K generator. It is actually only 46 pounds dry! very easy to carry like a suitcase.

Good suggestion - :)

Ripit,

I have the Blue Sky 2000 , 330w solar, 4 6V AGM Trojan batteries in a battery box under the dinette. Started out with 190w but in the 95F desert heat, my NovaKool, AC/DC,7.5cuft fridge/freezer sucked a bit of juice. Added the 140W panel and things are good.

I have a Honda 2000i which in 250 dry or boondocks nights camping(1hookup), has only run 2 hours to charge the batteries.

We also have a 2000w inverter/charger, micro/convect, LED,s everywhere, 2 speed heater, TV, radio, electric jacks, roof, 2 fantastic fans(no A/C).

Add more solar and increase the battery AH,s.

Remember, I can always charge my batteries with the alternator or genny if I have no solar, but if I have lots of solar and little storage capacity,(batteries) ,when the sun goes down or if you have some cloudy days, you will have to be care full with your electrics.

God luck,

Dave





Good luck

Dave

Oops, I left something out I also have a Honda EU2000i genny. But I hate the noise and hassle of using it. But I do use it when necessary for the A/C or when I'm using a lot of juice.
Thanks for ideas guys. Keep them coming I'm new at this solar stuff and need some GOOD advise.

Change out all your lights to LED and save a BUNCH of battery power.

I have a Morning Star Prostar 30 and you need to know this; the OUTPUT is limited to 30 amps. I'm sure the input is too, but that's not what is critical. It's the output. Here's why; ever check the current draw on your electric jacks? Mine draw 35 amps if I drive all 4 at once lifting the camper. The Prostar will do it, but only for short durations. I have tripped my controller and even destroyed one, under warranty, if I tried to lift the camper from the ground up to truck-bed height without pausing occasionally to let the heat dissipate.

Add the solar first and you may not need the extra lead weights.

From what I've read, Size the solar panel output to your batteries. I have 2 group 31 AGM batteries with 105 AH each. Don't discharge them lower than 50%. To recharge 1/2 or 55 AH, you need about 10 amps for 5:30 hours under near perfect daylight conditions. A Kyocera 140 watt or similar will do that for one battery. For me, two would be the proper amount of solar but if I could, I'd install 3 x 140 watts = 420 total watts. 420 x .707 = 297 real world watts. Less on cloudy days, in shadows, intermittent sun breaks, sun low in sky during winter. Being that the Kyocera outputs in the 17-18 volt range, you may not want to invest in a MPPT Controller but get a cheaper, good quality PWM controller with thermal sensing and an auxiliary load output. The second load output can be used to charge your truck or electric trolling motor batteries when the TC batteries are full. The Trimetric is a good idea.

I would say you are planning to add about 250 pounds to your rig. Now, as an alternative, why not carry a Honda 2K generator instead. That will only weigh about 100 pounds and you really only need to run it for an hour a day perhaps, if you don't charge from the truck.