Quote:
Originally Posted by dallasrules
I know there is a ton of information on solar out there. I just found out that its going to cost me thousands of dollars to get temporary power on my property.
So, I need to learn about solar. I have next to 0 knowledge, so can you point me to some good articles where I can learn the basics quickly and build my knowledge base.
Basically, I have a 2003 Montana 3655fl 5th wheel. It is 50 amp, but only has one ac. I can run the water heater and refrigerator on propane. I am assuming 12v led lights are a minor issue, but I will need electric for the furnace or ac, plus maybe computer and TV. Maybe refrigerator is no good and I would have to put an electric one in. What about the water pump.
I have a generator, but don't want to run it all the time. Can the generator charge up the battery banks as well.
Trailer should get decent sun during the day. It is on the edge of a clearing.
We will only use on the weekends.
What is the minimum, average and maximum systems I would need.
This is an older trailer, so I am assuming it doesn't have any solar pre wiring.
|
Normally I would say it depends on if you are full time or not. You sound like year round weekenders. That is a little different, aspects of both extremes. I would buy a battery monitor to determine what your battery requirements are. If you were full time I would recommend a Victron BMV712 or 702 but in your case the gold standard Trimetric TM-2030RV might be better. The procedure is, early morning note time and 'Amp Hours from full'. Go about your day and the next morning note time and 'Amp Hours from full' again. Simple math will tell you how long your batteries will last. Assuming they are real deep discharge batteries like Trojan T105's you probably know they can only be discharged to 50% without damage (if they are not real, they won't last at all). The TM-2030 shows that number on the screen so you will know. Running an AC especially without a soft start needs roughly 125 DC amps to run and briefly 3 or 4 hundred to start w/o the soft start. AC with FLA is not a good idea unless you turn on the generator. For solar, once you know how much power you need subtract your solar estimate from that to determine battery life. If you do get the Trimetric TM-2030-RV since this is a small installation and not full time, I recomend the companion charge controller SC-2030 because they work real well together. The furnace is the biggest power pig and probably means at least 4 T105's plus generator since there is hardly any sun in the winter. To determine sun, use the web site
https://pvwatts.nrel.gov I have 4x170Watt panels and today was my best day at a peak or 500W for a few minutes. The web site is the best estimator. I am full time so have 400AH of Lithium ($4,000) You will likely need 4xT105 which is a usable 225AH. I would buy a real 3 or 4 stage charger, the built in chargers are just trickle chargers. For TV and other AC use you will need an inverter. If you get an inverter charger like my Victron you kill 2 birds wih one stone and can program it to make life simpler.