Selecting the right equipment, could some point me and perhaps others in the right direction.I need to charge house batteries from my vehicle charging system and my solar panels at the same time.What should I use?
Look at the orion dc to dc range (be careful there are converters and chargers) for vehicle charging.
And them the mppt depends on your panels. You can run the panels through the victron online mppt calculator to see what it recommends.
Seems I can save a boat load of money with a Renogy product, but it’s only 12 volts
I suppose it also depends on the amperage you are looking for and if your alternator can handle it. And of you want to integrate everything.
I want to stay In the victron product, I’m just not sure what equipment to use.
So, I’m building a power plant in my tow vehicle to run my travel trailer RV off grid while we boondock.It would seem using a 24 volt house system to invert to the required 120 volt system would be better then a 12 volt inverter.Problem I have is, if I want to charge from my tow vehicle alternator, how do I get from the 12 volts to the 24 volts and continue to collect power from the solar panels.The idea is if we hit cloudy bad weather days or run out of power in the middle of the night, we can start the van and recharge or charge while we are traveling.
Yeah 24v is more efficient. Ican say though a 12v done right is also ok.
You can use the converters. They just don’t have three stage charging exactly.
I had asked this question ages ago got some neat answers.
They don’t interfere with mppt charging.
What size inverter are you wanting to use?
So, our biggest want n desire is to run Air Conditioning and with a soft start on the air unit it will draw about 1800 watts……so im thinking we should use at least a 3000 watt inverter…… does that make sense ?
The RV does have a 12 volt fridge and a small 100 watt solar system running it.I have no problem running 12 volts as I’m planning 2 storage batteries which I could series to get to 24 volts if the 12 volt in parallel doesn’t work for us.Of course we would have to change the 12 volt to 24 volt inverter, but having an extra 12 volt inverter laying around is not a bad thing
For 24v made from two 12v batteries, get a balancer as well.
3kVa sounds good. It will allow for heat derating as well. Are you looking at the MP or the MP2
I have not got that far yet because I’m still trying to figure out how to attach vehicle alternator charging in case we run out of power we can start the van or charge while we’re traveling if it’s raining and cloudy.Alternator charging would be more important then shore power charging at this point
Noted.
Just one more thing though make sure the battery bank can discharge at the needed amps for nominal rating. So a 3kVa @24v thats 125A discharge continuously. Very few 2s 1p banks can do that.
You might find yourself staying at 12v and adding one more 12v to make the discharge amps comfortably. 3000va at 12v is 250A. (Usually 3x12v batteries lithium)
Good to know ! Thank you. Any suggestions on how to handle the alternator charging piece in case we need it ?
They all have manuals on their product pages that suggest guage of wire and fusing. Some have example pictures and diagrams
Generally it is a fuse by the source side battery and after the orion output
Gauge is dependent on length of cable and amps orion chosen.
So you’re suggesting using a Orion 12v to 12v charger? If so how does the output of that tie into the system with solar panels? Sorry this seem so simple but I can’t believe I would just connect the Orion output to my storage batteries with the solar charger already connected
Got a small box that fits in my vehicle removable since it is a daily driver.
No they do not interfere, they can charge both at the same time.
Wow ! Very nice, so the output from your solar charger and your output from your Orien both connect to your storage battery? And I assume you have everything done in 12 volts?
I guess I cannot have a 12 volt Orian if I’m going to use 24 volt storage batteries
Yes they both connect to a bus bar and the battery. We have 12v mainly in the vehicle. And some mains.
The orion has a 12/24 in that same range that i have there. But the principal will be the same. Connect them both to the 24v battery
The other consideration is that your panel voltage it higher. I assume that since you are planning that your load is larger, you will increase the solar a bit too?
Perfect ! It appears the Orion 12/24 will let me get some charging back from the van when needed on cloudy days.so onto the batteries… I’m thinking or lookin* at 2 - Li Time 12volt 230 Ah in series for 24 volts could then jump to 4 if we often run out of power, what’s your opinion for batteries ?
On to the panels, I’m planning to install 3 panels on the van roof, I am open to suggestions as I have not yet purchased them.I also have 8 panels from a experimental harbor freight kit which I was hoping to series 2 getting them to 40+ volts then parallel them into 4 groups of 2 and use them as ground setups when needed just to add more collection, I guess I would need to have a separate solar charger as we won’t use them all the time. Am I on the track here ?
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You are on track.
Do I need 2 of these or would I be better using 12v in series?
LiTime 24v 230Ah 5888w, $ 1109.00 includes shipping.
They will handle 200a continuous
I would use the 24v battery straight up.
2x12 in a 24v system has other problems and considerations.
200A continuous is good enough discharge current for the 3kVa inverter. It could run your 1800w air con for around 3 hours inverting only.
I have no personal experience with li time - will prowse on youtube seems to get excited by them.
Ideally with solar you want to at least double your battery voltage in series on the low voltage systems.