Hello, Newbie here with a question.

Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.

kc6cnn wrote: »

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?

Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.

kc6cnn wrote: »

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? :-)

Re: Hello, Newbie here with a question.

kc6cnn wrote: »

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

A Honda EU2000 will actually pull a 55-60 amp charger with some room for additional loads, a 75 amp will pretty much max it out. How do you plan to mount your panels ?? With a ground mount and 2-4-6-8, 145 Watt panels you'd have a nice setup, you choose the output. Your choice of a Charge Controller will be important, that I wouldn't short change. The smaller modules can be shipped UPS, thats important to build a small system. Yeah, you could re-build the whole system, but what you have can be used with a little manipulation. Batteries in Parallel can be a issue and require more attention. You monitor them and shuffle the order once a year and keep you connections clean. I have had paralleled batteries for 30 years without issue, it's in here they have problems because people do not care for them.

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.

kc6cnn wrote: »

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

Thats probably a good place to start. Only you know your tolerance for Power Management and availability for $$$$ to make it happen. I'd be easy to design you a system to run every thing you have and your neighbor. Large Panels require large storage ( Batteries ) unless you can run things as opportunity loads during the 4-6 hours of Sun. Choosing your system Voltage depends on your loads and if you plan to use Generator Support. Air Conditioners are big Power users. I have a 4 Ton, but I sure do not run it on Solar PV's, but I can run it for a couple hrs to get things cool for a couple hrs on the generator, top up the batteries and let the 5,000 btu cycle me through the night. A Microwave is two different cooking dilemmas, over 2 minutes, you probably ought to start the generator, unless you want to spend another $1,000 to support it longer with Batteries and PV.