I want to do a solar setup on my new TT. One big enough to run the A/C.I'm thinking of getting an inverter big enough to run the A/C, and just running the shore power cable to it when I'm camping. The problem I see with this is that the shore power charges the batteries which would eventually drain them. I need to know how to disconnect/turn off the battery charger when I'm using the inverter. ORIs there a better way of hooking up the A/C to an inverter?

rankhornjp wrote:I want to do a solar setup on my new TT. One big enough to run the A/C.I'm thinking of getting an inverter big enough to run the A/C, and just running the shore power cable to it when I'm camping. The problem I see with this is that the shore power charges the batteries which would eventually drain them. I need to know how to disconnect/turn off the battery charger when I'm using the inverter. ORIs there a better way of hooking up the A/C to an inverter?For most, it is not feasable. Start running the numbers to see why.

I guess you could run the AC with your batteries charged by solar but your asking a lot from your panels and batteries. Like the previous poster has said do the numbers first.As far as keeping your batteries from being charged from the converter/inverter just flip the converter breaker off. Just be sure that the converter is the only thing on that breaker. I had a some outlets on that breaker so I added another circuit breaker for them. I will be adding a relay to automate that procedure soon. So when it senses my inverter being on it will drop that panel breaker.Ron W.

Where we live you probably can only get to use the solar panels for 6-7 hours per day. The solar panels only works for you when in high sun. Out West of course this is longer but not much.The concept for me would be to increase your battery setup to run all the things you want to run and then use the solar panels to recharge the battery banks before the high sun goes away... You can recharge any battery bank from 50% to 90% charge state using smart mode charging in around three hours if you have enough DC current available. This however will require a very high DC CURRENT requirement at the initial re-charge start-up. Just after one hour however this high DC CURRENT requirement tapers down to a very usable solar panel output. Having 5-6 hours a day of solar energy in the high sun period would work great for you getting the batteries to at least their 90% charge state. This will happen a lot quicker depending on the charge state of the battery bank when you start charging.Using this concept then you have all the power needed 24/7 verses only a few hours a day..The ideal situation of course would be to have alot of Battery Bank and just use the solar panels to keep them topped off by not consuming alot of power from the batteries. This of course is hard to do unless you just want to run a couple of lights and a fan maybe...In my case I have very little power consumption during the day time and the 6PM to 11PM time period is where I consume most of my power consumption. Solar Panels during that time period would not be any use for me then.The obvious downside to anything solar is there is going to be days when it rains or is cloudy all day long which will require you have alternate way to keep the batteries re-charged. Being mobile almost dictates you have a usable generator source to keep the batteries charged when solar energy is not available. You only other free choices is wind generators, hydroelectric power, or fuel cells. Only the wind generators and fuel cells would be of any help when being mobile.Get some good advice from the guys on here that are setup to live in the RV's 24/7. There are a few on here that is making it work good for them but it takes a lot of planning and resources to be successful. I don't think You just can't throw up some solar panels and think you are going to solve all the encountered problems. In my case I have been doing this in baby steps. After 5-6 years of camping the off-road trails in my setup I feel I am very conscious now on what to expect when running off the battery banks and how to keep them re-charged without doing damage to them. I am just now starting to think about solar panels to keep me from having to run my 2KW Honda generator three hours each day to make it all work.IMO it is much more than just adding solar panels...Just some planning thoughts here...Roy Ken

rankhornjp wrote:I want to do a solar setup on my new TT. One big enough to run the A/C.Sure, wouldn't we all! :SCrunch the numbers, including the cost, and I have little doubt you'll realize just how impractical this is. :R

A typical 13.5 BTU RV air conditioner will draw 12-15 amps of current when operating (a bit more when starting for the instantaneous lock rotor draw). For the sake of this example lets say the AC draws 14 A on average. 14A at 120V = 140 A at 12V (probably a bit more considering inverter and wiring losses). A 12V typical RV Marine hybrid battery has a capacity of around 100AH at the 20 hr. rate. That is 5A/hr for 20 hr and the battery is completely discharged and wouldn't light a flashlight bulb, much less run an air conditioner. Since we would wish to use the battery on the second and following days, we would discharge it only 50%. That makes available 2.5 A for 20 hrs. Now we can buy some batteries...56 of them to operate the air conditioner for 20 hrs a day. But wait, you're going to have solar power available and that will recharge the batteries while the AC is on. How much will you need? To break even for the 20 hr run of the AC, you'll need to replace 2800 Amp Hours or 33,600 Watts. If you use 230-250W solar modules, you'd need 26 of them at typical insolation and typical controller/wiring losses. You would also need a big solar controller and some serious wiring to handle the 6700 W being harvested from the modules. I hope this example shows the impractibility of solar and typical AC use. There are a few members experimenting with low draw AC units and solar. They are using 5K window units and a minimum of 3 250W modules. The requisite battery bank is needed along with temperate weather to accomplish the task.

Running A/C on solar. | Good Sam Community

SoundGuy
Explorer
May 24, 2015
rankhornjp wrote:
I want to do a solar setup on my new TT. One big enough to run the A/C.

Sure, wouldn't we all! :S

Crunch the numbers, including the cost, and I have little doubt you'll realize just how impractical this is. :R
RoyB
Explorer II
May 24, 2015
Where we live you probably can only get to use the solar panels for 6-7 hours per day. The solar panels only works for you when in high sun. Out West of course this is longer but not much.

The concept for me would be to increase your battery setup to run all the things you want to run and then use the solar panels to recharge the battery banks before the high sun goes away... You can recharge any battery bank from 50% to 90% charge state using smart mode charging in around three hours if you have enough DC current available. This however will require a very high DC CURRENT requirement at the initial re-charge start-up. Just after one hour however this high DC CURRENT requirement tapers down to a very usable solar panel output. Having 5-6 hours a day of solar energy in the high sun period would work great for you getting the batteries to at least their 90% charge state. This will happen a lot quicker depending on the charge state of the battery bank when you start charging.

Using this concept then you have all the power needed 24/7 verses only a few hours a day..

The ideal situation of course would be to have alot of Battery Bank and just use the solar panels to keep them topped off by not consuming alot of power from the batteries. This of course is hard to do unless you just want to run a couple of lights and a fan maybe...

In my case I have very little power consumption during the day time and the 6PM to 11PM time period is where I consume most of my power consumption. Solar Panels during that time period would not be any use for me then.

The obvious downside to anything solar is there is going to be days when it rains or is cloudy all day long which will require you have alternate way to keep the batteries re-charged.

Being mobile almost dictates you have a usable generator source to keep the batteries charged when solar energy is not available. You only other free choices is wind generators, hydroelectric power, or fuel cells. Only the wind generators and fuel cells would be of any help when being mobile.

Get some good advice from the guys on here that are setup to live in the RV's 24/7. There are a few on here that is making it work good for them but it takes a lot of planning and resources to be successful. I don't think You just can't throw up some solar panels and think you are going to solve all the encountered problems.

In my case I have been doing this in baby steps. After 5-6 years of camping the off-road trails in my setup I feel I am very conscious now on what to expect when running off the battery banks and how to keep them re-charged without doing damage to them. I am just now starting to think about solar panels to keep me from having to run my 2KW Honda generator three hours each day to make it all work.

IMO it is much more than just adding solar panels...
Just some planning thoughts here...

Roy Ken
rjsurfer
Explorer
May 24, 2015
I guess you could run the AC with your batteries charged by solar but your asking a lot from your panels and batteries. Like the previous poster has said do the numbers first.

As far as keeping your batteries from being charged from the converter/inverter just flip the converter breaker off. Just be sure that the converter is the only thing on that breaker. I had a some outlets on that breaker so I added another circuit breaker for them. I will be adding a relay to automate that procedure soon. So when it senses my inverter being on it will drop that panel breaker.

Ron W.
Huntindog
Explorer
May 24, 2015
rankhornjp wrote:
I want to do a solar setup on my new TT. One big enough to run the A/C.

I'm thinking of getting an inverter big enough to run the A/C, and just running the shore power cable to it when I'm camping. The problem I see with this is that the shore power charges the batteries which would eventually drain them. I need to know how to disconnect/turn off the battery charger when I'm using the inverter. OR
Is there a better way of hooking up the A/C to an inverter?
For most, it is not feasable. Start running the numbers to see why.

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