Solar Installation
The first mod was to build a custom battery box frame that now houses 4 6v golf cart batteries.
I also needed to pick up a couple pieces of black pipe to reroute the gas line just a bit.
I can remove the battery top and check levels without lowering the batteries if the tanks aren't there. But otherwise I can lower them 6" or 12". I used a floor jack to raise them today. But I think in the future I might be able to leverage using the trailer jack if the trailer isn't hitched up to the truck. I will soon be installing a battery watering system (Flow-Rite RV2000 system with hand pump) so I won't need to lower the batteries to add water.
The batteries are from Sam's Club. They are 6v 230 amp hour golf cart batteries that have the Duracell name on them but are actually made by East Penn/DEKA which are suppose to be a good battery. I understand that Sam's Clubs that are East of the Mississippi carry these.
Fast forward a couple weeks..
Solar controller board was wired up on the kitchen table. I love my wife! The box on the left is the controller. The other box will hold the inbound and outbound fuses and disconnect. The funky black thing is a shunt that allows the battery monitor to sense what is going in or out of the batteries. The lugs made it easy to pre-wire this and later add the battery and solar connections. The cables are made from 4 ga flexible welding cable which is easy to work with in tight spaces.
Morningstar Tristar TS-45 PWM Controller (I will be installing the optional temperature sensor when I run the battery cables and hook up the existing house wires that currently run to the battery.
The disconnect box is a Midwest U065F1 60A 240V Fused Disconnect.
I mounted the controller board and the 4 ga cables up through the wardrobe fished through the roof and they exit the roof just in front of our TV antenna. I used 3/4" plastic conduit up through the wardrobe to hide the wiring a bit. On the roof I will be installing a combiner box. It is supposed to hit 60 tomorrow so I decided to wait until after work tomorrow to use the Dicor and install the combiner box.
The extra wires are for the battery monitor. Down the road someday I plan to install an inverter on this board as well so I'm going to run 00 wire to my battery bank.
For others interested in doing this yourself. I will list some great online resources I found when doing my research.
HandyBob's Blog « Making off grid RV electrical systems work
Kelly's RV Solar Blog | All the Electricity we need and then some!
RV Electrical
I used a hydraulic cable crimper to make up the cables along with heat shrink tubing. I believe you can get cables crimped at many welding suppliers or NAPA stores. With two sons that are mechanics I decided to add this tool to my tool chest.
TEMCo Crimper Link
Fast forward a couple weeks..
Here are a couple pictures of wrapping up the battery box. The new battery cables and battery temp sensor are now installed. As well as a battery watering system. Even though I could drop the battery box with a jack or maybe even with the aid of the tongue jack I decided this setup would be easy to use and will probably result in me keeping the water levels maintained better.
This second picture was right before I put the battery box top on and put the propane tanks on for hopefully the last time for awhile.
I have been eyeing Renogy 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel's for some time now. I had seen them listed on both their web store and Amazon at $149.99. I hadn't thought to look on eBay, I took a look and was presently surprised to find out that they sell them there for $128.99 with free shipping! Tons of good feedback with very few negative comments.
Renogy 100w Panel eBay Link
Man they make this too easy, a few clicks later I have 5 100w panels in my cart and I check out with 500w of solar for $664.95 delivered!
Fast forward a couple more weeks..
I pulled it out of storage and put the finishing touches on the solar install.
Completed controller board.
25Y Roof with 5 100w Renogy Panels
OK so how does it perform?
24.8 amps going in around noon.
I will report back after we have used it some, but it appears to work well from what I see so far.
We will be giving it the acid test later this fall when we head up the Michigan UP for 2 weeks of off the grid camping!
Happy Camper
-James
I also needed to pick up a couple pieces of black pipe to reroute the gas line just a bit.
I can remove the battery top and check levels without lowering the batteries if the tanks aren't there. But otherwise I can lower them 6" or 12". I used a floor jack to raise them today. But I think in the future I might be able to leverage using the trailer jack if the trailer isn't hitched up to the truck. I will soon be installing a battery watering system (Flow-Rite RV2000 system with hand pump) so I won't need to lower the batteries to add water.
The batteries are from Sam's Club. They are 6v 230 amp hour golf cart batteries that have the Duracell name on them but are actually made by East Penn/DEKA which are suppose to be a good battery. I understand that Sam's Clubs that are East of the Mississippi carry these.
Fast forward a couple weeks..
Solar controller board was wired up on the kitchen table. I love my wife! The box on the left is the controller. The other box will hold the inbound and outbound fuses and disconnect. The funky black thing is a shunt that allows the battery monitor to sense what is going in or out of the batteries. The lugs made it easy to pre-wire this and later add the battery and solar connections. The cables are made from 4 ga flexible welding cable which is easy to work with in tight spaces.
Morningstar Tristar TS-45 PWM Controller (I will be installing the optional temperature sensor when I run the battery cables and hook up the existing house wires that currently run to the battery.
The disconnect box is a Midwest U065F1 60A 240V Fused Disconnect.
I mounted the controller board and the 4 ga cables up through the wardrobe fished through the roof and they exit the roof just in front of our TV antenna. I used 3/4" plastic conduit up through the wardrobe to hide the wiring a bit. On the roof I will be installing a combiner box. It is supposed to hit 60 tomorrow so I decided to wait until after work tomorrow to use the Dicor and install the combiner box.
The extra wires are for the battery monitor. Down the road someday I plan to install an inverter on this board as well so I'm going to run 00 wire to my battery bank.
For others interested in doing this yourself. I will list some great online resources I found when doing my research.
HandyBob's Blog « Making off grid RV electrical systems work
Kelly's RV Solar Blog | All the Electricity we need and then some!
RV Electrical
I used a hydraulic cable crimper to make up the cables along with heat shrink tubing. I believe you can get cables crimped at many welding suppliers or NAPA stores. With two sons that are mechanics I decided to add this tool to my tool chest.
TEMCo Crimper Link
Fast forward a couple weeks..
Here are a couple pictures of wrapping up the battery box. The new battery cables and battery temp sensor are now installed. As well as a battery watering system. Even though I could drop the battery box with a jack or maybe even with the aid of the tongue jack I decided this setup would be easy to use and will probably result in me keeping the water levels maintained better.
This second picture was right before I put the battery box top on and put the propane tanks on for hopefully the last time for awhile.
I have been eyeing Renogy 100 Watt Monocrystalline Solar Panel's for some time now. I had seen them listed on both their web store and Amazon at $149.99. I hadn't thought to look on eBay, I took a look and was presently surprised to find out that they sell them there for $128.99 with free shipping! Tons of good feedback with very few negative comments.
Renogy 100w Panel eBay Link
Man they make this too easy, a few clicks later I have 5 100w panels in my cart and I check out with 500w of solar for $664.95 delivered!
Fast forward a couple more weeks..
I pulled it out of storage and put the finishing touches on the solar install.
Completed controller board.
25Y Roof with 5 100w Renogy Panels
OK so how does it perform?
24.8 amps going in around noon.
I will report back after we have used it some, but it appears to work well from what I see so far.
We will be giving it the acid test later this fall when we head up the Michigan UP for 2 weeks of off the grid camping!
Happy Camper
-James
