Tomorrow is the day- solar

[Kid Gloves]

Originally Posted by Theturboman

I will always run the gen before bed while watching tv and will shut down the fridge at night but if I can save 5 hours a day of gen time, I win!! Also Concord batteries is who makes the batteries for Lifeline has told me a number of times that they run the batteries down 80% without damage. I understand what Paul is explaining about cost since these batteries are $450 ea but I am in them under $400 for all 4 batteries

You may find that after a decent day of solar generation, it won’t be necessary to run the generator in the evening or turn off the refrigerator. Overnight consumption will be minimal. Your new monitoring devices will help you decide when generator run time is necessary. Unless you’re parked in the shade or weather conditions are cloudy/rainy, I doubt you’ll be using the generator very much, if at all.

[Theturboman]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

You may find that after a decent day of solar generation, it won’t be necessary to run the generator in the evening or turn off the refrigerator. Overnight consumption will be minimal. Your new monitoring devices will help you decide when generator run time is necessary. Unless you’re parked in the shade or weather conditions are cloudy/rainy, I doubt you’ll be using the generator very much, if at all.

I can't even imagine that but I hope you are right!!! My new monitor has an alarm setting I can set

[paul65k]

Originally Posted by Kid Gloves

Here’s some data from Lifeline. Using their formula it would take 9 hours to fully charge a 600Ah AGM battery from a 50% DOD using a charge rate of 50A. That’s six hours at bulk and 3 at absorb. That would restore 300Ah of energy.

Using the same charge rating to restore 300Ah to a lithium battery would take 6 hours. In this example the AGM will require 1.5X more time to fully charge.

Using a 100A charge rate from 50% DOD on the 600Ah AGM battery would require 6 hours of charge time to restore 300Ah’s. It would take 3 hours to restore 300Ah’s to a lithium battery at the same charge rate. In this example the AGM would require twice the amount of time to charge as a lithium battery.

If a coach uses 300Ah’s, the batteries are going to need 300Ah’s of charging regardless of the battery chemistry or capacity of the bank. A lithium battery isn’t going to provide 300Ah’s of energy and only discharge 150Ah’s. They aren’t that magical.

If I had to guess, the OP will probably use somewhere in the neighborhood of 150Ah’s a day while boondocking. Or they will learn to modify their usage to achieve a similar goal. We have a propane refrigerator and typically use ~100Ah/day. Another owner, who I believe has a residential refrigerator, in addition to the Hydro-Hot and smart beds, had mentioned using 140-170Ah’s/day.

Worst case for the OP would be to run the generator for an hour in the morning to give the batteries ~100Ah’s and then let the solar panels finish the job.

The only thing not accounted for here is that the solar system will also go into absorb during the final stages of charging and it is possible for the MPPT charger to run out of daylight and NOT be able to utilize the total available amps..... but that's not really too important in this case with such a small solar array

[Theturboman]

Turned the coach on today and ran the fridge (from warm) , cable box, amp also for 5 hours stayed at 100% all day. Things are looking up!!

[cruizerEd]

Originally Posted by Theturboman

Turned the coach on today and ran the fridge (from warm) , cable box, amp also for 5 hours stayed at 100% all day. Things are looking up!!

It is so nice to have something quietly and constantly make power for you. Hope your panels hold up better than our GRAPE solar panels.

[Theturboman]

Update: Just did an overnight dry camp trip this weekend. Left the house at 7am ran the inverter, got to destination turned TV on for 6 hours, heater, direct tv box, charged phones, used the microwave to heat up food and at 530pm batteries were 100%. Decided to fire up the Gen for a couple hours while we watched TV before bed so we would be 100% at end of day. Turned off gen set TV timer for an hour, turned fridge off, left inverter on, Direct tv box, charged a phone, heater was blowing it was 36 degrees out. Got up at 7am batteries we 85%, turned fridge on, used the toaster, watched tv left at 9am. At 11am I got on my phone and batteries were 100%

Next trip I will leave the fridge on

[cruizerEd]

Thanks for the update. Maybe you'll be able to drop the fridge run.
Those lithium batteries will be very happy living at 30 to 80% SOC.
No need to top them off unless you need the extra AH to get to the next good solar day.

[paul65k]

Originally Posted by cruizerEd

Thanks for the update. Maybe you'll be able to drop the fridge run.
Those lithium batteries will be very happy living at 30 to 80% SOC.
No need to top them off unless you need the extra AH to get to the next good solar day.

The OP is running AGM batteries

[Kid Gloves]

Sounds like everything is working. Next trip, leave the refrigerator on and don’t run the generator. Let the panels do their thing. The batteries may be ~70% in the morning, but will probably be fully charged by 2-3pm. A slight discharge before bed is fine.

[cruizerEd]

Originally Posted by paul65k

The OP is running AGM batteries

Thank you for the correction. For some reason I read "lifeline" and thought they lithium ion.