Hello, Newbie here with a question.
kc6cnn
Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭
Hello
My name is Gerald. I am living off grid in a RV on a 300 acre ranch.
I have 4 trojan 150 ah batteries for a total of 600 ah, If I am right then I can safely use 300 ah without hurting the batteries.
I also have a trojan 225 ah battery that runs just the led lights in the rv.
I have a sunforce wind turbine right now that is 600 watts. The turbine has a charge controller and when the wind is high it charges good. but the wind down here does take a day off every once in a while. So I am looking at getting some solar panels to mount on the roof of the rv and charge the batteries.
My Question is can I use two forms of charging from separate charge controllers? or do I need to get one that the solar and turbine connect to?
I have a 5000 watt converter and it will peak to 10,000 for a second or two, and have plugged the rv into the converter and ran everything, but ac kills the batteries. Microwave also kills them.
I do not use the microwave or ac anymore. I am looking for any suggestions and help with getting my rv set up to run and stay charged up. I have used my Honda EU3000IS to run the trailer and AC, and to charge the batteries during the hot summer night.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Gerald.
My name is Gerald. I am living off grid in a RV on a 300 acre ranch.
I have 4 trojan 150 ah batteries for a total of 600 ah, If I am right then I can safely use 300 ah without hurting the batteries.
I also have a trojan 225 ah battery that runs just the led lights in the rv.
I have a sunforce wind turbine right now that is 600 watts. The turbine has a charge controller and when the wind is high it charges good. but the wind down here does take a day off every once in a while. So I am looking at getting some solar panels to mount on the roof of the rv and charge the batteries.
My Question is can I use two forms of charging from separate charge controllers? or do I need to get one that the solar and turbine connect to?
I have a 5000 watt converter and it will peak to 10,000 for a second or two, and have plugged the rv into the converter and ran everything, but ac kills the batteries. Microwave also kills them.
I do not use the microwave or ac anymore. I am looking for any suggestions and help with getting my rv set up to run and stay charged up. I have used my Honda EU3000IS to run the trailer and AC, and to charge the batteries during the hot summer night.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Gerald.
Comments
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Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.Hello
My name is Gerald. I am living off grid in a RV on a 300 acre ranch.
I have 4 trojan 150 ah batteries for a total of 600 ah, If I am right then I can safely use 300 ah without hurting the batteries.
I also have a trojan 225 ah battery that runs just the led lights in the rv.
I have a sunforce wind turbine right now that is 600 watts. The turbine has a charge controller and when the wind is high it charges good. but the wind down here does take a day off every once in a while. So I am looking at getting some solar panels to mount on the roof of the rv and charge the batteries.
My Question is can I use two forms of charging from separate charge controllers? or do I need to get one that the solar and turbine connect to?
I have a 5000 watt converter and it will peak to 10,000 for a second or two, and have plugged the rv into the converter and ran everything, but ac kills the batteries. Microwave also kills them.
I do not use the microwave or ac anymore. I am looking for any suggestions and help with getting my rv set up to run and stay charged up. I have used my Honda EU3000IS to run the trailer and AC, and to charge the batteries during the hot summer night.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Gerald.
You can use two separate CCs to charge your battery bank, one from wind and one from PV, but they must be compatible and correctly configured. I do not know of a single CC which can accept both wind and PV inputs at the same time. The controller for your wind turbine has to be special because it needs to always be able to dump power somewhere to keep the turbine from running away in a high wind.
Running your AC is going to be difficult, and will require more battery and more panel than you have now. Your 5000 watt converter (running off 12 volts, if it is a typical RV convertor) is going to draw an outrageous current from the batteries if you ever go near its full output. (10000 watts out would be more than 833 amps!) You can run a small A/C pretty well from as small as a 1000 watt pure-sine inverter, and it is likely to be more efficient than your existing convertor.
Are you using four 12 volt Trojans in parallel? If so, then using four 6 volt Trojans in series / parallel would be better and using 2 or 4 volt batteries in straight series would be better still.
If you add solar (1000 watts or more), you will be able to run the microwave during the sunny part of the day without even draining the batteries at all. They also make 600 watt microwaves just for low power environments. It just takes a little longer to cook.
What kind of power output / wind speed are you getting from the Sunforce on good days or nights?SMA SB 3000, old BP panels. -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.
Thanks for the fast reply. I will look into what two charge controllers are compatable. The 5000 watt converter is after market, does run everything including ac on low, but I dont even try the microwave. My RV AC is 13,500 btu so might need to find a smaller more efficent unit. Yes I have the four trojans in parallel. Why are 6 volt better in series? Microwave is no big deal as I have stove and oven, fire pit, bbq pit to cook on.
When the wind is 8 mph it starts charging usually around 1 amp. When the wind is up to 24 to 30 mph the charger is putting out around 12 to 15 amps.
if you have any suggestions as to compatible cc's please let me know.
I do use the trailer at ranch and on the island where there is no power available so looking forward to getting things set up right.
Thanks
Gerald -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.Yes I have the four trojans in parallel. Why are 6 volt better in series?
When the wind is 8 mph it starts charging usually around 1 amp. When the wind is up to 24 to 30 mph the charger is putting out around 12 to 15 amps.
The basic problem is that when you put more than two batteries or strings of batteries in parallel it gets harder and harder to get them to charge and discharge equally, resulting in premature battery aging as well as reduced available power. You can read about the problems at http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html. There is a lot of other very good information about batteries, charging and inverters there, just not focused on PV.
At 15 amps charging current in a 30 mph wind, your 600 watt turbine is giving you only about 180 watts into the battery bank. Not very encouraging, and another reason to get solar PV working soon.
Does it get that windy on warm summer nights? :-)SMA SB 3000, old BP panels. -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.
During the summer it gets that windy and more. But it is not steady. sometimes we have gust up to that and other days there is only 8 to 10 mph winds. so really looking for a more predictable and stronger charging system. -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.
Wow Inetdog
That was a great read. I wish I would have read that before I purchased my system.
Yes two six volt batteries would have given me alot better system. man they are expensive. I also saw the 2 and 4 volt systems.
The other mistake I have been making is I use the 12 volt battery charger on my Honda generator to charge during slow times.
My generator is converted to propane so it doesnt use much to run on eco mode, but if I bought a 45 amp charger it would only pull about 9.5 amps and would charge at a rate of 45 amps per hour. With my rv pulling less than 25 amps at full load it would run everything and still charge my batteries. If I understood that right.
lots to think about now, and really looking at getting a 500 to 600 watt solar panel system.
Gerald -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.
You are bumping up against the limits that a 12V system will do.
Too many batts in parallel, high current losses, hard to charge from PV modules that are geared for higher voltages and hard to upgrade because there is no getting around having to buy a different inverter and maybe different charge controllers. On the other hand, in an RV situation, 12Vdc is convenient. At some point you have to make the jump to higher battery pack voltage in order to get more power. For one thing, you can hardly buy 12V type PV modules at a decent price. The industry has moved on to the large format, 24V modules (really work at more like 30V) which are now available at incredibly great values. However, to utilize them efficiently, you pretty much have to use the expensive MPPT type charge controllers which are even less cost effective if they are hamstrung by a low voltage battery pack. You can either use expensive low voltage PV modules on a cheap PWM controller or cheap high-voltage PVmodules on an expensive MPPT controller. The latter is really the better way to go unless you can find someone selling their old 12V modules cheap. -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.Wow Inetdog
That was a great read. I wish I would have read that before I purchased my system.
Yes two six volt batteries would have given me alot better system. man they are expensive. I also saw the 2 and 4 volt systems.
The other mistake I have been making is I use the 12 volt battery charger on my Honda generator to charge during slow times.
My generator is converted to propane so it doesnt use much to run on eco mode, but if I bought a 45 amp charger it would only pull about 9.5 amps and would charge at a rate of 45 amps per hour. With my rv pulling less than 25 amps at full load it would run everything and still charge my batteries. If I understood that right.
lots to think about now, and really looking at getting a 500 to 600 watt solar panel system.
Gerald
http://www.dmsolar.com/solar-module-1141.html
Added Content :
Opps, I now see you have a EU3000IS, you have 23 amps, you can run about any charger you want under 150 amps or so. A 13,500 btu A/C is pretty much a non-starter on PV. You might be able to run a 5,000 for a couple hrs depending on the Solar you decide on. You do have your generator and you can work out some power management to use it.
. -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.
Okay, been reading everything I can get my hands on about solar power. Looks like I might have jumped the gun to get this system up. Then to find out it will work, but not run everything I want to run. Looks like I need to up my voltages and get high output solar panels, and a generator auto start and large amp charger.
I need to figure out how much all my equipment pulls and then build the system around that. I think it will be hard to get the 13,000 btu air conditioner to work on the inverter and batteries.
Thanks for all the help and I will be contacting everyone later for help, I am sure.
Gerald -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.Okay, been reading everything I can get my hands on about solar power. Looks like I might have jumped the gun to get this system up. Then to find out it will work, but not run everything I want to run. Looks like I need to up my voltages and get high output solar panels, and a generator auto start and large amp charger.
I need to figure out how much all my equipment pulls and then build the system around that. I think it will be hard to get the 13,000 btu air conditioner to work on the inverter and batteries.
Thanks for all the help and I will be contacting everyone later for help, I am sure.
Gerald -
Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.
Inet...great article.You can read about the problems at http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html.
I saved a copy and bookmarked this site, thanks.
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