Solar Panel deal

These panels are actually a bit of over-kill, if you camp where there is good Sun exposure. However, for a solar system to really be effective, I think that you must go with over-kill because you can't count on all sunny days and good exposure in all camp sites.

We ran our lights at will, I even left the porch light on all night. We ran the furnace all night (starting at Sunset) and did not conserve at all. Our batteries were at 12.8V by 9:AM and 14.7V by 1:pM, each day.

Sunday morning 8:AM, after 3 nights
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Sunday noon, just before leaving.
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I left my ammeter at home...... :(
 
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Does the federal solar system tax credit also apply to RVs? I'm fairly confident that the tax code considers RVs and boats residences, as you can deduct loan interest on such vehicles, so why wouldn't the solar credit also apply? IIRC, the credit is for something like 30% of the price of the system & installation. And that's a CREDIT, not a deduction, so it's like getting a 30% refund on your solar system.

For those who are interested, check out the relevant IRS publication:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5695.pdf

It appears as though travel trailer installations qualify.

Dave
 
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Another good MPPT controller:
http://www.roguepowertech.com/products/mpt3024.htm
Gets good reviews at the Northern Arizona Wind & Sun Forum / Solar Product Reviews & Opinions. Includes the LCD display and battery temp sensor in the package.
Made off-grid in Oregon.

How do you find the MC4 snap connectors? Do they look like they will handle multiple disconnects? Wasn't sure if they were designed for easy but permanent installations.
 
brulaz said:
Another good MPPT controller:
http://www.roguepowertech.com/products/mpt3024.htm
Gets good reviews at the Northern Arizona Wind & Sun Forum / Solar Product Reviews & Opinions. Includes the LCD display and battery temp sensor in the package.
Made off-grid in Oregon.

How do you find the MC4 snap connectors? Do they look like they will handle multiple disconnects? Wasn't sure if they were designed for easy but permanent installations.
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I don't think that I would like to disconnect those MC4 connectors daily but for 15-20 camp-outs a year, I think they will be OK. They are kind of a pain to disconnect. The little prongs that you have to squeeze in don't fit my big old fingers very well.
 
The MC-4 connectors seems pretty sturdy and seem like they would handle fairly frequent connecting/disconnecting.

They sell ends that you can attach to your own cable - for those you apparently need a special tool to make the connection water-tight.

For the pre-made cables they just click together. To release you squeeze a couple of tabs in and the connection comes apart.

I could actually probably get another 15-20' extension and use it to put one of the solar panels on a portable ground mount if I found myself someplace where there was too much shade on the roof.....hmmmm...
 
MudDog said:
The MC-4 connectors seems pretty sturdy and seem like they would handle fairly frequent connecting/disconnecting.

They sell ends that you can attach to your own cable - for those you apparently need a special tool to make the connection water-tight.

For the pre-made cables they just click together. To release you squeeze a couple of tabs in and the connection comes apart.

I could actually probably get another 15-20' extension and use it to put one of the solar panels on a portable ground mount if I found myself someplace where there was too much shade on the roof.....hmmmm...
Click to expand...

The connectors that I purchased don't need a special tool. Although, I did solder the actual wire connector onto the end of the wire before assembling (instead of just crimping it).

There is a nut that you put on the wire first. Then you solder the wire connector to the wire, push the connector into the housing. Then screw the nut onto the housing. The housing has a special seal that tightens against the wire as you tighten the nut.
 
I took the TM out of the garage today to install a Xantrex LinkLite battery monitor and took a few pictures of the solar install.

First picture shows where I installed the Solar Controller Remote Display and LinkLite.

Second picture shows where I installed the controller (looking down into the dinette storage area)

Third picture shows the panels on the front shell. Will take another picture closer up when I fold it down later today.
 

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I just installed the panels and the MPPT controller. My first experience with them is that my LinkLite reported 9A going into the battery. Success!

I can't wait to go camping at Pt. Mugu to see how it works in a non-driveway situation. Thanks to harveyrv and MudDog for all of the information. (I copied a lot of MudDog's configuration.)
 
M&M Hokie said:
I just installed the panels and the MPPT controller. My first experience with them is that my LinkLite reported 9A going into the battery. Success!

I can't wait to go camping at Pt. Mugu to see how it works in a non-driveway situation. Thanks to harveyrv and MudDog for all of the information. (I copied a lot of MudDog's configuration.)
Click to expand...

We go to Pt Mugu a lot. When are you going?
 
harveyrv said:
We go to Pt Mugu a lot. When are you going?
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We haven't been there before. We had reservations over Christmas last year but kids got sick so we didn't go. We are finally getting our chance beginning 7/16.
 
M&M Hokie said:
We haven't been there before. We had reservations over Christmas last year but kids got sick so we didn't go. We are finally getting our chance beginning 7/16.
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We have plans for that week-end.......grandkids....:D

We love Pt Mugu........ That's where we met MudDog the 1st time.
 
M&M Hokie said:
I just installed the panels and the MPPT controller. My first experience with them is that my LinkLite reported 9A going into the battery. Success!

I can't wait to go camping at Pt. Mugu to see how it works in a non-driveway situation. Thanks to harveyrv and MudDog for all of the information. (I copied a lot of MudDog's configuration.)
Click to expand...

Mark - Great news!

We've been real happy with the panels (Thanks Wayne!) and have been enjoying doing more 'primitive' camping without giving up some of the creature comforts.

Point Mugu should be a good place to exercise the panels. We've been a couple of times and I think both times we and Wayne were fully charged by noon.

Last time he put an anameter on his setup and then mine and it showed I was getting about 20% more amps to the battery - likely from the MPPT controller converting some of the extra voltage the battery couldn't use to amps that it could. Not sure Wayne is a full believer yet.... ;)

As mentioned earlier in the thread, Point Mugu is literally right down the canyon from my house...so may come down and say hi, or who knows, you may see a TM with a similar looking solar setup pull in for a day or two :D

I may have mentioned this, but on the inverter install be sure to get enough 1/0 guage cables. I started off with just two (one for the + and one for the - connection) and was getting low volatge warnings when running high-load things like the microwave. Wayne helped diagnose it as the small guage cable between the two 6 volt batteries. Replaced that cable and it's a bit better now, but still get the warning if the microwave is on for 30+ seconds.

I realized I have at least one more weak link....because of the Linklite I wired the 1/0 guage negative to the shunt, but still have the smaller wire from the shunt to the battery negative. I think when I replace that segment with a 1/0 guage wire I should be OK.
 
MudDog said:
Mark - Great news!

Point Mugu should be a good place to exercise the panels. We've been a couple of times and I think both times we and Wayne were fully charged by noon.
.
Click to expand...

Good luck...June gloom seems to have extended way into July this year. Let us know if you get any sun...
 
MudDog said:
As mentioned earlier in the thread, Point Mugu is literally right down the canyon from my house...so may come down and say hi, or who knows, you may see a TM with a similar looking solar setup pull in for a day or two :D
...
I may have mentioned this, but on the inverter install be sure to get enough 1/0 guage cables. I started off with just two (one for the + and one for the - connection) and was getting low volatge warnings when running high-load things like the microwave. Wayne helped diagnose it as the small guage cable between the two 6 volt batteries. Replaced that cable and it's a bit better now, but still get the warning if the microwave is on for 30+ seconds.

I realized I have at least one more weak link....because of the Linklite I wired the 1/0 guage negative to the shunt, but still have the smaller wire from the shunt to the battery negative. I think when I replace that segment with a 1/0 guage wire I should be OK.
Click to expand...

It would be great meeting you and thanking you in person for designing my panel configuration.;)

Here is what I did or am in the process of doing....

I will be using 4/0 cabling between the batteries and the inverter. This includes the jumper between the two batteries. The inverter is supposed to be delivered Tuesday evening. It is an open question whether I will manage to get that pig installed between then and Friday morning when we leave for Pt. Mugu.

I did do a lot of prep work for the inverter install as part of my solar array install yesterday. The first thing I did was reverse my battery wiring. My trailer came from the factory with the opposite battery terminals jumpered rather than the adjacent terminals. (Why???) I did not like this approach because I am going to be using 4/0 cables and they are already out of hand. This reduces the 4/0 cable run by a foot or more and any reduction in those cable runs is welcome.

My stroke of genius over the weekend was to mount the 250A fuse directly to the positive battery terminal. (So there is no short jumper between the positive terminal and the 250A fuse.) I did a similar thing with the LinkLite shunt. I actually removed the shunt from its holder and cut the shunt holder in half. One half of the shunt holder is now used as the "other" terminal on the 250 A fuse and the other half of the shunt holder is for the shunt's "other" terminal. Cosmetically, it appears as if a third terminal has been added to each battery and these third terminals are the ones that all of the loads to/from the battery pass through. This had the added advantage of eliminating more headaches routing the 4/0 cable.

I should take a picture because it sounds more confusing than it really is. It is actually a pretty clean looking arrangement despite the amount of wiring going on underneath the battery covers. I will wait until I get the 4/0 in there before taking the picture.

As for how I will wire in the inverter's AC side, my plan is to route 12/2 wire from the breaker panel AND from the inverter itself to the panel under the sink. There I will mount a 20A DPDT switch that will dictate which source (shore power or inverter power) is heating up all of the outlets in the TM. This switch will preclude having both sources hot at the same time and eliminate the hazard of a hot male plug being pulled out of the inverter when the TM is on shore power. I will also mount the remote power switch for the inverter under the sink and connect its ACC switch to the bathroom wall switch. This will prevent any potential parasitic load from the inverter when the bathroom wall folds down. This solution appears pretty simple from a wiring perspective and should be very simple for wife/kids.

I would have preferred something slightly more elegant wherein a relay would automatically do the DPDT throw to shore power whenever shore power is present (and maybe even a second relay to open the ACC switch to depower the inverter) but I have never worked with relays so not sure where to begin. It seems simple in concept but I don't have experience with them so I am keeping it simple. If any of your electrical geniuses out there want to explain how to work with relays I am all ears.

I might not get all of this inverter work done by the Pt Mugu trip but I am pretty sure I will have it done by my Montana de Oro two weeks later.
 
MudDog said:
Good point Scott....

Mark - may want to consider adding a Wind Turbine to your user installed options :D
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Don't encourage me....

The weather has been funny though. Can you believe that I had to wait until nearly 2pm on a July day to break 60 degrees so I could bond the panels to the roof? I thought the sun would never come out yesterday.
 
Hey MudDog,

We still haven't decided where to mount our solar panel but I am wondering where you brought the cable down the front shell.

Thanks!
Malinda
 
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