Am solar

[peter griffin]

I just wanted to give some feedback on a great solar dealer i found over the internet. I purchased 150 watt panel,TriStar 45 MPPT controller, magnum 2000 watt inverter w/remote, and ags remote gen starter from AM solar. The people at AM SOLAR walked me through the entire install, provided every cable, fuse, wire, and part that I would need. They took many calls and emails from me. After I installed everything they explained how all of the controls worked and should be set. Great service! www.AMSOLAR.com

[ralper]

Now to see if they did it right go to the blog of "Handy Bob Solar" read and learn. Unless AM solar has educated themselves since they taught New Horizons how to install solar, you had better check up on them.

My panel to controler to batteries wiring was way too small and the junk controler they supplied was not even near the batteries. It works great now since I fixed it.

[peter griffin]

When and what ype did you get and approximately how much was it?


My RV is in a field and I have not yet have to hook up to shore power. So far so good. It does what I wanted it to do, but if I can get more out of it by reading BOBS comments I am going to try. AM solar did explain to me that I needed to charge it at a higher setting, put everyhting as close to the battery as possible and use large wires. Also for some people it has a lot to do with how much you want to spend.

As for Bobs posts/articles... From what I understand his main theme has a lot to do with charger and solar charging settings. I just don't have enough experience or time with it to make a logical comment. I am 100 percent in agreement with him on proper wiring size. I have gotten different answers from magnum and interstate on what to leave my settings at. I have 4 interstate 232 ah 6 volt batteries tied together for a 12 volt system. After a couple of months I will post my results.

[WheelingIt]

AM solar did a good job for us too, but we'd read handybob's site beforehand and upgraded wire size plus were very involved with the installation. Over a year so far and never had to run the generator while dry camping. AM Solar used to undersize their wires but they're offering kits with #4 and even #2 wiring now so I think they've come a long way in understanding the importance of proper wire size.

[peter griffin]

Wheelingit - what settings did you choose for your solar charger and what type of batteries do you have?

I have 4 interstate 6 volts tied together and decided to go with battery type 6 which is abs 14.7v and 13.5 float.


Also, If you have an inverter/charger can you tell me what settings you chose and how everything is working out?

thanks...

[WheelingIt]

We have Lifeline AGMs so we went with the AGM mfr settings 14.3V absorb, 13.3V float. Regular flooded cell lead-acid batteries need higher settings. The key is to aways go with the battery mfr specs no matter which battery you chose.

We have the Tristar MPPT 45 as our solar charger and a Magnum as our inverter/charger. Both chargers have setting for Lifeline AGMs as one of their options (the Tristar actually has a custom Lifeline AGM setting if you buy it from AM Solar). All works great.

[KJINTF]

WheelingIt

A few questions on your installation
I kind of remember (My problem is a bad case of CRS) several months back (maybe more) you posting regarding your solar PV installation

The Morningstar MPPT 45 is a really nice controller.
I am wondering if you are taking full advantage of it's capabilities.
It's constructed of two 22.5watt buck converters and only uses the second if the power requirements demand it - saving you a few daily watts of power.

Do you have the temperature sensor installed and operational?
Have you changed the offset coefficient?
How about the voltage sense line, are you using it?
If installed what kind of wire is being used for the voltage sense line?
How about the RS232 computer interface connection?
Have you upgraded the firmware since the installation?
Morningstar does a great job with firmware releases
Do you change the configuration file depending on your location and or time of the year?
Would you mind sending me the configiration file?

I see many installations not taking full advantage of the excellent equipment available today. Many folks do a great job at "wire nutting" things together but do not do the extra effort needed (IMHO) to finish off the job.

Morningstar released a new version of MSView and complete firware upgrade package earlier this month. Suggest you take a look at it

Regards
KJ

[lajuene]

I'm going to stay tuned to this thread to see how your system works out for you. Thanks for posting. I'm going to use AMsolar with input based on HandyBob. That's a team hard to beat.

[Wanderman]

If I can just chime in here.
I spent a lot of time researching various peoples installs and performance including the Handy Bob blog entries. He makes several good points that I incorporated into my research.

I also concluded, after A LOT of research, to use the Moriningstar MPPT45 with my system. I had a very small amount of roof real estate to work with and efficiency was very important to me.

So far it has performed great. Well within the numbers that were pre-calculated based upon load an sun.

I wrote a 6 Part series of articles for the RV Newsletter all about it.

You can take a look at:

WanderMan: A Better Solar Charging Mouse Trap.PART 1

That's Part 1.

I'd also like to thank PianoTuna..his initial guidance helped a lot.

Installing any Solar Electric System is a learning experience. RV's and RV'ers needs are somewhat different. As always Your Mileage May Vary!

Rich "The Wanderman"

[peter griffin]

Its winter time and I have had about 2 months of playing with the solar panels. I have (4) 6 volt interstates and one 150 watt am solar panel. In Massachusetts, this one panel will keep my RV charged but the SOC (on the magnum control panel) will flucuate based on the clouds. It ranges from 100 percent to 95 percent. I am going to order two more panels (150 watt) in the spring and this should be enough for me. I will keep you posted. FYI when you make any dip switch changes to the MPPT charger you must completely kill the all power (solar panel input and battery input cable) to it so when it reeboots all the new settings/changes will actually occur. If you dont the remote will indicate the changes have taken place but the really havent. I had this problem.

[KJINTF]

Peter
A complete power reboot is sometimes required for the switch setting to take effect.
Another easier method can be accomplished via the "reboot" command using the computer interface. That way you do not need to get outside and turn off the properly fused input / power connections to the controller.

To date I have not yet heard from Wheelingit or any others as to how they take advantage of the configuration items available on there great controllers. Calling it done and good at the switch settings is loosing a large portion of the controllers functionality. Check out the Morningstar web site they often have firmware upgrades that greatly enhance the controller functionality, plus it's FREE

Sure hope others use these controllers to their fullest extent

[peter griffin]

The reboot worked. Anytime you make changes to the settings you must disconnect the power completely and reboot for the changes to take place.

update on on 150 watt panel. well I really need more panels One is great to keep the batteries charged and use the tv every once in a while. I am going to try one or two more panels when they come back in stock.

Here is an example of one trip. My "wife" left the camper with one light 12 Volt over the bathroom sink in Jayco TT on by accident and the 150 watt panel/4 6 volts could not keep up with the light and after one week the batteries died. This was during the winter months in Mass, but no snow.

[Happy Prospector]

Peter, Did AM Solar say when they would have the 150 Watt panels back in stock?

Kevin

[peter griffin]

Yes i emailed Roger at AMSOLAR today and they told me maybe summers end. Something about US tariff and supply issues with china.

I am going to wait for the 150 to stay with the same panel and keep my business with am solar. they really took a lot of emails and phone calls when install came and technical questions.