Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - Printable Version
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RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - BusNit - 10-31-2022
That looks great! Yeah, I would need to apply for a second mortgage to hire out the work these days. Your place looks amazing!
I spent some time raking up the mess from the paint debris. Looks better but will finish it off with the blower another day. Too tired and achy.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - arcticdude - 10-31-2022
While it’s probably been 15 years, I did a brand new concrete floor with a Sherwin Williams 2 part concrete epoxy product. I followed the directions exactly, even letting the floor cure for and extra week before and after application.
It was supposed to be “the thing” to prevent lift, hot tire issues, etc. The second time I parked my F250 on it, there were tire sized patches that lifted.
It was never very durable and while it never lifted on it’s own, it never lived up to the hype it was sold under.
Good luck.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - encantotom - 10-31-2022
I have never had tire left from anything including the newell
Tom
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - Dystrakti0n - 04-01-2023
Solar build idea:
This is a project that I am also in the middle of. What we went with was to get recycled commercial grade solar panels, bi-facial 410 W from the front of the panel, up to 500w with reflected to the rear of the panel. I bought 12, for $125 a pop on craigslist. They are 48v, and 8 of them would get you up to 3280w. This will charge up 307AH @ 48V over 4.5Hrs. 4 of them are running a solar split mini, that ties into 220v. They aren't pretty, but they work. I've also found straight 48v split mini, that can be driven off of just solar. We are going 100% Victron, due to the ability to get all the components to talk to each other. My parts list as follows:
Victron Energy Quattro 15,000 Watt 48 Volt Inverter & 200 Amp Battery Charger 230 VAC
Victron Autotransformer 120/240 100A
Victron Energy Cerbo GX Panels and System Monitoring
Victron Energy GX Touch 70 Touch Screen Panels and System Monitoring Display
Victron Energy 500 Amp smart shunt battery monitor
Victron Energy Orion-tr IP43 48/12 30Amp Dc-DC converter (3)
Victorn Energy SmartSolar MPPT TR 150V 70A
Witproton Solar PV 8 AWG connectors
CMYYANGLIN Solar Panel Mounting Z Brackets, packs of 16
8Gauge 8 AWG 75 Feet Black + 75 feet Red Wire
Bunfloe 4 Pack LiFePO4 Battery 12V 100AH Lithium Battery (QTY 4)* I am buying them one a set of 4 at a time.
Edit: (I forgot a couple of parts)
Victron Energy Lynx Power in Battery Connector
Victron Energy Lynx Distributor
Victron Energy Lynx Shunt IP22 VE.Can 1000 amp
Simon: I've been following your journey to get ideas for what I need to watch out for on our coach since we have similar rigs.. You are extremely helpful, hopefully this can help your journey as well.
- Marcus
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - Jack Houpe - 04-01-2023
You bought the best! Victron is number 1 in my books. We are right behind you, need to order all the hardware and start phase 2 of our conversion. Simon is doing a great job also. Make sure and post pictures a long the way.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - BusNit - 04-01-2023
I will post pics at the end of the weekend. Making a ton of headway on this. Solar racking is done and neighbor came over yesterday with his forklift to help me get the massive panels up on the roof. My goal is 6 48v batteries of 30kw. I will have less solar to keep them charged if I ran everything I wanted but the idea is to boondock for extended times on just solar with the generator as backup. Panels are 455watt x 6.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - Dystrakti0n - 04-01-2023
Jack, we are still working on purchasing all the parts, it's been put on hold until we get through EDC Las Vegas and Bonnaroo, then a trip to Newell right after to get repairs done, from our bus being broken into while in storage. We've changed to a new storage place in Aledo, which is much nicer than where we had it. I will attach pictures as we go along. I can't express enough how much help all of you are, this has been my go to forum for info along our journey, and I figured it was time to stop lurking.
Simon, sounds like you got it covered on the solar panels. One of the reasons I wanted to go with victron is that we can program it to kick the genset on if we start pulling more power than we have in the batteries, as well as schedule maintenance runs. I'm sure that's not an exclusive feature, but worth considering.
Man, a forklift would have been nice, I had to dead lift mine up using a home made stool on its end, lean panel against the bus, run up the side pegs, then do my leg day. Rinse, wash repeat. I have 5 panels up to run the spit mini we put in the basement. Not the prettiest of installs, but I'm also in the process of doing a remodel so it will get fixed up after we get it back from Newell.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - BusNit - 04-01-2023
Quick run down. I went with Victron equipment. 5kw Quattro, Cerbo GX, 70 touch screen, Lynx distributor and shunt and finally 250/70 controller. 6 455watt panels up top that I received a helping hand with neighbor and his fork lift. K2 rail with stainless hardware. I used hidden panel mounts at the fronts of panels as well as standard hold downs for added security against wind loads. Panels are divided into three as parallel. The wiring will go into some UV resistant something or other and secured down. Haven't gotten to that yet. CB antenna was removed to make room for panels up front. I intentionally left space in the mid section in case I must add roof air. One would handle the bathroom area and the other over the kitchen. For batteries, I have 3 48v server batteries with the intention of adding another 3 for extended run times. I repurposed the old satellite wiring and spliced in a cat 6 wire and 12v power for some future roof mounted internet thingamabob. Last but not least, there is a 48v to 12v 130 amp buck converter to handle our largely intense 12v house loads. I should mention I installed a new sub panel to handle inverted loads. Coach originally had 4 120v circuits wire crimped together going to the inverter with no option to shut off individually. This reared its ugly head when our inverter failed 10 hours into our 3 week trip. Had no power. Generator still has random fits of not starting unless I hold the fuel solenoid in by hand. Haven't figured out what's wrong with that.
Replaced manual pull out shore power cord reel and installed a new powered retracting reel. cleaned up compartment. Red wire is temporary as it supplied power to house circuits from 12v power supply that's plugged in.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - Dystrakti0n - 04-01-2023
Simon, that looks amazing. Where did you end up stashing your victron equipment, looks like the bedroom side closet? Also, what power retracting wheel did you go with? That looks very nice. Who is that buck converter by? Might be a better solution than my planned 48v -> 12v 30 amp stack.
RE: Solar and Lithiums for a happy life/wife - BusNit - 04-01-2023
The reel is made by southwire. I bought it from a marine and RV shop online. It was expensive for what is is. Yes, I did use the wardrobe closet but there’s plenty of room for hanging clothes. I may create a buffer to keep clothing spaced a bit.
The converter is from Amazon.
Today wanted to turn on everything but it kept cutting off the one battery I have set up. I don’t know if there’s a proper sequence for startup. Also not sure if grounding the Lynx to chassis is an issue. Tomorrow is another day.