Forum Discussion
- X2, But then most RV owners are clueless about a lot of RV related operation. So perhaps they follow the ad and buy the batteries. :@
- That link int he first post is the DUMBEST ting I have ever seen outside politics.
Wow, what stupidity out there. RVs do not operate based on their length. A bigger RV does not need more power for its TV or water pump, or reading light.
The furnace might run more or you may have more lights on a bigger RV, but that is a problem of your battery bank, not the length of the RV. StirCrazy wrote:
That's why I pulled the polarity fuses! We have no problems filling our batteries with 465 watts on the roof. And we watch the weather, so can easily last ten or more days with minimal solar. We just wouldn't make toast during that time. :B
I had issues with every WFCO I have had to the point where they dont even leave the RV ot now, part of the deal is they throw it in the garbage and install a PD before I even take delivery.
Enjoy,
PerryPerryB67 wrote:
pianotuna wrote:
Ya Think! ;)
Perry,
You are rarity. The wfco converters rarely get to a boost voltage. 21 volts may indicate an electrical failure inside the "box".
I'm not the only one with a WFCO that went haywire. Last winter after much surfing I found one and after reading about our experience, another contacted me who had the same issue. The crazy thing is, the 21 volts was intermittent.
Our original WFCO has been recycled. A member of another forum gave me their working WFCO for the cost of shipping. They had just purchased a set of lithiums and purchased a Progressive Dynamics charger.
Perry
I had issues with every WFCO I have had to the point where they dont even leave the RV ot now, part of the deal is they throw it in the garbage and install a PD before I even take delivery.3 tons wrote:
It should only be regarded as a marketing guideline…I’m fairly sure that harvest in Minnesota is often quite different than harvest in the high Nevada desert where 200+w of solar per 100a/hr seems just a reasonably good baseline…
Bingo!
Since there are numerous derating factors (geography being one) with solar, the more panels the better. Fill your RV roof with as much potential wattage as possible.pianotuna wrote:
Ya Think! ;)
Perry,
You are rarity. The wfco converters rarely get to a boost voltage. 21 volts may indicate an electrical failure inside the "box".
I'm not the only one with a WFCO that went haywire. Last winter after much surfing I found one and after reading about our experience, another contacted me who had the same issue. The crazy thing is, the 21 volts was intermittent.
Our original WFCO has been recycled. A member of another forum gave me their working WFCO for the cost of shipping. They had just purchased a set of lithiums and purchased a Progressive Dynamics charger.
Since I pulled the reverse polarity fuses last February we haven't needed the charger. So far solar has kept our batteries full.
The new WFCO unit is installed and appears to work correctly, but now the reverse polarity fuses are pulled so it only converts. Perhaps someday we'll need the charger portion, so I'll just install the fuses then, but now with an extra 300 watts on the roof, for 465 watts total, I don't think we're going to need the charger portion.
Enjoy,
Perry- Perry,
You are rarity. The wfco converters rarely get to a boost voltage. 21 volts may indicate an electrical failure inside the "box".
To size my system, I used a 15 amp outlet and a kill-a-watt meter. I used the RV as I would for boondocking for six days and then averaged the daily consumption.
That number multiplied by two told me battery bank size--and by extrapolation the watts of solar.
I did do a "survey" of the devices, too, but I relied more on the six day average consumption. - First thing I did with the battery monitor was to measure each individual load and record it. The battery monitor will accumulate usage for a day or multiple days so just went camping for a few days as an initial input for average draw. Of course no shore, gen or solar charging, just battery draw.
- Thanks for additional USEFUL information. I am glad no longer full timing as it was not really camping. Happy fisherman and part time camper.
CA Traveler wrote:
Agree!
I first installed a battery monitor to better understand my usage. There are many factors that determine solar output and many factors determine power usage. 2/3 of the panel watts for 4-5 hours/day is a reasonable ball park estimate.
Once we retired everything changed: boondock 7-10 days instead of a three day weekends, travel south in the winter, so less daytime sun, use the furnace every night, readers and laptops to charge, and on and on.
After having a 90 day old set of AGM batteries fail we installed a Victron BMV 712 to see what was happening with our system. Best money spent!
Two years later the 712's history told us our WFCO was occasionally charging at 21 volts, and destroyed a second set of batteries. Found out our furnace can use 20-30 amps at night, just having the battery switch engaged our use can be 12 ah a day, each phone uses .9 ah and were plugged in all night, etc. It helps us control our energy use and shows us items were using more ah's than we realized.
We didn't need more/bigger batteries, although last winter we spent $1,000 on 220 usable ah's and now realize a decent set of Trojan flooded at $3-400 would have easily met our needs. We needed more solar on the roof, so 300 watts was added. We now have no problem keeping our batteries full and have added a 1500 watt inverter to make toast and charge our phones in 15 minutes.
As far as I'm concerned if you're serious, the first item I would add is a battery monitor with history (NOT the Alibaba battery monitor that lacks history). The 712 showed we didn't need more batteries than we already had, but needed more watts on the roof.
Enjoy,
Perry
