Solar advice needed please

[vsheetz]

Originally Posted by jdwky

Whore power? How much does that cost?! LoL

Oops. (-:

[ArloShmarlo]

Perhaps it's a perverter rather than an inverter? The ultimate pimped-out ride!

[Bumps]

My question involves how to connect the solar inverter to the rv.

Ron:

Yea ... this can get confusing. I look at it this way: If I understand, what you are really building is 4 (or 5, don't know your system) different electrical circuits/systems. The first circuit is from the solar PV to the Charge Controller. The second circuit is from the CC to the Battery Bank. The third circuit is from the BB to the inverter; to me, the inverter is part of the battery circuit/system. The fourth system is from the 120v output of the inverter to the load center (or a transfer switch, or..., don't know your system) on the 120v side of your coach. By separating the logic into [at least] four separate systems it is less confusing.

Are you asking about the fourth circuit (the circuit from the inverter to the breaker box in the coach)? If so...

What we did is disconnect the two HUGE battery cables from the output side of the old inverter, and re-connect them to the output side of the new inverter. The rest of the OEM electronics remained unchanged. Make sure your battery cables are properly sized. Bigger is better (in all four circuits, actually).

I may have misunderstood your question, however.

\ken

[Reed Cundiff]

Of course you can run a/c on solar. We have done it several times for 3 to 4 hours and have posted this elsewhere. As noted elsewhere, we have 1410 W of solar, around 9600 W-h of LFP batteries (over 8000 W-h of usable power), a 4.0 kW Magnum inverter etc. The a/c pulls approximately 1900 W from the battery suite (which is getting around 1100 W from solar panels). We still had over 50% battery capacity and LFP are good down to 10% and will last 2000 cycles if you don't go below 20%.

The real answer is to be a "Goldilocker" and get the heck out of Dodge when it gets to hot: go north or up in altitude. It was 103 at our son's place in Fort Collins, CO two summers ago so we just drove to Long Draw at 10,400' where it was in high 30's at night and mid 70s in the day.

A "Goldilocker" believes in not to hot and not to cold, just right. So we have gone down to Baja once and Yucatan/Belize/Guatemala three times.

Reed and Elaine Cundiff

[Flanagan]

There is some good advice here. "Goldilocking" is a catchy name for a good way to modify your climate, I like it. The simple connection of the Shore Power Cord to the inverter is what I intend to do when my system is complete & I finnally get on the road this year. My Shore Power Cord right now eithers plugs into the Generator or Shore Power, no transfer switch involved. Managing my 110V load by turning things off is simple enough.

[unyalli]

You CAN run an air conditioner on solar. You have to do it with enough solar watts to run the air conditioner compressor via a moderately sized battery bank and inverter with enough head room and plenty of surge capacity is all.

Replacing the air conditioner with one that draws less power will help. The coleman PS (power saver) series only draw 1050 watts while cooling. The atwood 13,500 draws around 1400 watts and cools like a 15,000. Dometic is the worst with there all new Brisk air II 13,500 drawing over 1700 watts and their 15k drawing over 1800 watts.

-Jeff

[terry735001]

dont look over neutral to ground or you could have a fire make sure you wire that right in the system

all so some thing to keep in mind is where to install the solar panels where the RV can hold the higher LB on the roof if you add it up you are all most installing a new AC unit up there so stay away from wide windows or long lines in the side walls fro like the slide or after time you could see sage in the roof or side walls over like a slide out

just things to keep in mind

[hes4all]

Originally Posted by unyalli

You CAN run an air conditioner on solar. You have to do it with enough solar watts to run the air conditioner compressor via a moderately sized battery bank and inverter with enough head room and plenty of surge capacity is all.

Replacing the air conditioner with one that draws less power will help. The coleman PS (power saver) series only draw 1050 watts while cooling. The atwood 13,500 draws around 1400 watts and cools like a 15,000. Dometic is the worst with there all new Brisk air II 13,500 drawing over 1700 watts and their 15k drawing over 1800 watts.

-Jeff

What would be a "moderately" size battery bank to run the air conditioner?
And how long would it last?
The solar needed to substain it would be a 1400-1600-1800- watts system?

I have 900 watts and have never seen it do that!

And the 1050 watts is what it takes when running?
What is the start up draw? That will kill it.

Its not even worth trying to do it in my opinion. It can be done but the cost would not be worth just starting the geny.

[unyalli]

Originally Posted by hes4all

What would be a "moderately" size battery bank to run the air conditioner?

This statement is incorrect. You don't need a battery bank big enough to run an air conditioner. You need one big enough to handle the few seconds of start up surge along with an inverter and wiring capable of providing that surge.

Originally Posted by hes4all

The solar needed to sustain it would be a 1400-1600-1800- watts system?

Exactly

Originally Posted by hes4all

And the 1050 watts is what it takes when running?

Originally Posted by hes4all

Its not even worth trying to do it in my opinion.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Originally Posted by hes4all

It can be done but the cost would not be worth just starting the geny.

My god man, your not trying to talk ROI with solar are you? What's the ROI on owing an RV in the first place? They cost way too much, have no resale value, and are endless money pits to operate. The ROI is the enjoyment. How do you put a money value on that? Don't tell me that genny you would rather start is a complete wast of money Honda or Yamaha.

-Jeff

[Reed Cundiff]

As noted earlier, we have 1420 W of solar and about 9500 W-hr of LFP and a Magnum 4kW PSW inverter. Our son, who designed and fabricated the system ran a few tests such as running air conditioner (a power hog as noted in a post above) and the micro-wave simultaneously got 10 minutes. It was drawing 3000 W. However, you do not need this large a battery bank (as also noted above). We misadvtently ran the air conditioner on battery/solar on our old rig (800 W and 400 or so amp-hr glass mats. It ran for 15 minutes before quitting and I realized that I had not turned on shore power.

We are set up to use a15 amp power cord if we ever do use shore power on this rig. It hooks into battery chargers for the LFP. We were on beach in Yucatan for three winters and the shore power went from 90 to 145v which is a good way to fry air conditioner and microwave (we did fry microwaves in Baja and Yucatan. The surge protector we got for last trip was shutting down more than it was on. Son Cary and family came down for a week and brought along a battery charger and components so that the shore power went through battery bank and psw inverter and everything worked well afterwards.
Reed