solar panel ?

[69RoadRunner]

The solar prep wiring depends on the manufacturer. They probably don't use as heavy of a wire as they should, but it saves you some effort. It should be a much higher gauge than the 5 watt wire.

If you have solar panels above X watts (sorry, I don't know the value of X, but certainly anything over 80 watts), then you have to have a controller to avoid frying the batteries.

So, you would use the solar prep to go from the panels to a controller. The controller should be within 6' of the batteries.

Some fancy controllers have a display module that you can mount anywhere.

[chy46]

Originally Posted by thedubs

ok roadrunner. What about from the batts to the inverter? Should i try and keep the length to a min on that too?

( wiring ) go as big as you can depending on amp of batteries and as short as you can .

[TheDubs]

Originally Posted by Luv2go

Justin:

To disconnect the loop, just unplug the converter or turn off the breaker that the converter is wired into. Hopefully the converter is on it's own breaker so you won't lose any outlets.

Good luck!
Stewart

We just got our panels in the mail. We've been looking at the whole setup and are just as confused as before.

It doesn't seem as if we can disconnect the converter from the breaker - it's all one and the same unit.

So are we going to need to bypass the breaker all together and just plug our appliances directly into the inverter? Or is there a way to do it otherwise?

We called a couple electricians and solar installers in our area and got a bunch of "uhhs" and "ummms" and "I don't knows". One seemed to think we could install some sort of "interupter switch". He couldn't tell us how or where to find one or much else. Has anyone heard of this? Do you think it would work?

Tara (the wife)

[TheDubs]

Okay!

My awesome hubs has been fiddling with the breaker panel wiring. He thinks he found the wire that charges the batteries, unplug it, tested the batteries with a multi-tester and it shows they are NOT charging.

So are we good? Can we now plug into our breaker panel, power all our electrical outlets and not fry our system?

[pleasesayyes, pleasesayyes, pleasesayyes]

Tara

[Luv2go]

Tara, sorry I've been away from the computer for a while. Yes, that should be fine. If the wire carried the 120VAC to the converter that would be the best wire to unplug, if it had 12V on it the converter would still be powered (taking a small amount of power) but not trying to charge the battery, so the loop would be avoided.

Stewart

[TheDubs]

Well I finished the install today, here is blog post about it.

Solar panel installation

Thanks everyone for your help!

[TheDubs]

I have one more Question. If I use the shore power to charge my batts, and the solar panels at the same time what would happen? Do I need to put a kill switch on the solar?

[Luv2go]

Great blog and pictures of your install! You can leave the solar charge controller connected to your batteries while charging with shore power. However I just looked at the specs of the Morningstar controller and noticed it is constant voltage at 14.4 V. This voltage will boil your batteries if left applied long term, say, for a week of storage with no use, or camping with full hookups. You should install a kill switch and turn it off after a couple of sunny days when camping with full hookups or in storage.

With the flooded batteries you have, I'd suggest checking the acid levels once a month or so until you learn the usage. Keeping the levels right by adding distilled water when necessary will allow you to make mistakes and not have to replace your batteries!

Stewart

[69RoadRunner]

If it's a constant 14.1v, I'd replace it with a good 3 stage controller. You could do more harm than good.

[TheDubs]

I have been checking the batts with a multimeter and they haven't got over 14v. I'll keep a constant eye on them over the next month. Thanks for the info.
Justin

[RedneckExpress]

The point Dubs is that they can't Remain taking a 14 volt charge constantly. 14v is only when the batteries need to be bulk charged. When they're not needing it the voltage needs to drop to 13.6 for topping off and 13.2 for floating (storage).

How much did this whole setup put ya back? Solar always seems like a major investment.

[TheDubs]

The hole set up cost me about 1300.00. But I think it will pay for itself in a year or so, especially when we start full timing in march.
Justin