Another BigFoot Solar Thread

[ThomasC]

I positioned the box and trimmed all of the wires. Then I crimped and shrunk wrapped the ten cables. I cut a couple of small pieces of of copper bar stock to make a couple of bus bars for the connections.

I used double sided tape to hold the box to the roof. I like Gorilla tape better than the 3M VHB tape. Then I washed the roof and tomorrow I will apply some of that solution stuff before the staging comes down.

[ThomasC]

Next week I will start the inside. I will have to go quicker because I am running out of time.

[Effie]

Thanks for showing us your install. I do have 320w ridgid panels (that I installed) on my Escape 19 but flexible panels are the future of RV solar. I will use your panel install method on my next install.

[ThomasC]

Well I finished the difficult truck wiring for the battery to battery charger that I am installing. I ran a 4ga cable from the battery to a 170 amp Anderson connector that is attached with Velcro underneath my tailgate. Now I will be able to charge my batteries at a 50 amp rate while I am driving. In a pinch I could also use the remote start built into the truck to grab some extra power.

This was hard because I had to do it from a creeper. I always hated creeper work. I'm probably getting to old for this, Oh Well.

Here is a photo of the under hood part.

[charlsara]

Originally Posted by ThomasC

Well I finished the difficult truck wiring for the battery to battery charger that I am installing. I ran a 4ga cable from the battery to a 170 amp Anderson connector that is attached with Velcro underneath my tailgate. Now I will be able to charge my batteries at a 50 amp rate while I am driving. In a pinch I could also use the remote start built into the truck to grab some extra power.



This was hard because I had to do it from a creeper. I always hated creeper work. I'm probably getting to old for this, Oh Well.



Here is a photo of the under hood part.

That’s a nice setup. Much better than solar if you travel much. Mine will recharge my 6 volt two pack in less than an hour. And yes the work was hard on my old back to.

[ThomasC]

Well I have to get in gear and get this finished. I have the batteries in place and all locked down with dense foam padding. I made some short cables and they are wired in parallel. Then I drilled a hole in the floor and brought the solar wires in from outside. I figured I would connect the solar panels real quick and charge the 3 Battle Born batteries. Well I got my voltmeter and I had no voltage. Nasty language soon followed.

I went up on the roof to check the voltage at my junction box and I had over 20 volts. I checked in that wiring mess a the base of the refrigerator and i had power there. Trailer world didn't return my call so I crawled underneath and pulled off the leading edge of the enclosure to see what I could see and the wires appeared to follow the gas line under the oven.

Back inside and removed the drawers and heat duct and found them coiled together and going nowhere. Why would they do that AND mention nothing in the owners manual. The only good thing is I didn't waste too much time and now I may install a breaker so I can disconnect the panels when I want to.

[ThomasC]

I am 90% done. Today I disconnected the lead acid battery and wired in the three Battle Born batteries. Then I unplugged the shore power and wired in the AC lines to my inverter. I reinstalled the 12 volt cables to the inverter, switched on the battery power and I was off.

Toaster - check
Microwave - check

I plugged the shore power back in and the inverter is charging the batteries. Tomorrow I will connect the battery to battery with MPPT directly into the inverter as it has connections for that. I will take some photos as soon as I clean up the work area.

[ThomasC]

I'm done and cleaning up. I put the dinette back in today. Tomorrow I'll vacuum and start the final packing for Florida.

I added all of the expenses to get a total I usually don't do that because of the face it causes

Misc parts $328.00
Wires terminals tools $639.00
Major parts Inverter Panels $2339.00

I thought that isn't to bad.... but I forgot the batteries

3 BattleB + Victron 712 $3192.00

To late to back out now. I better do a lot of Boondocking now.

[charlsara]

Looks great. That’s neat work.

[John Razzo]

What an outstanding job. Gotta be one of the best systems out there. Appreciate you sharing the steps, parts and pictures.

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by John Razzo

What an outstanding job. Gotta be one of the best systems out there. Appreciate you sharing the steps, parts and pictures.

Thanks for the good words. I didn't think anyone was following the thread but if someone is I guess I should report about the trip down and something that came up today.

I spent four days driving to Florida. I started out with the propane off and the hot water heater off and figured the battery to battery charger would handle the refrigerator. It didn't quite keep up with the draw so my battery voltage was dropping slightly. I thought that Renolgy combo unit would give me 50 amps but it only gives 25 amps from the truck and 25 from solar if it is available. I need 50 amps to run the frig and top off the batteries so it wasn't quite making it.

Maybe I was to afraid to led the voltage drop to much because I would get in the low 13's and switch the frig to propane so the voltage would come up. Now that I realize that even if I am down to 13 volts with the 3 Battle Borns it will probably run the heat for 3 nights.

On the way back I will keep the propane off until the voltage drops to the mid twelves. Then I will decide whether I need a stronger battery to battery charger.

Today I was running the AC and like a dummy I was also running the water heater and the refrigerator on AC. Well I tripped the 20 amp breaker in the house and didn't know it because the inverter switched on the way it was supposed to and nothing even blinked. However I don't have adequate ventilation under that dining room seat so my inverter got warm and shut down.

I was aware of this but was hoping I could get away with it. I have some ventilation down there but not enough. I will have to cut a couple of holes in the seat base and maybe put in a couple of PC fans. That will be the next project.

[jackmerado]

Put the components under the dinette: 2000W inverter / switch, mppt controller, 2 X 250AH LiFePo4 batteries (with builtin monitor/control systems for temperature etc). 3x 190W monocrystaline solar panels up top (screwed in not taped). BMV-712 Smart battery monitor.

Will take it out on initial run soon. Not the most fancy solar setup but Im thinking it should capture and store enough energy for our needs.

no generator yet - It would be great if I didnt need one...

[Effie]

Thanks for the update, great to learn how the system performs in real life. As for the overheating inverter, I would think that the heat in the compartment is not good for the Battleborns, even when the inverter is not tripping, you may already know if you have the temp sensor option with the Victron 712.

[JonRaw]

I'm following this thread closely. Have you considered mounting the inverter outside? I have the generator bracket and I saw someone else on here who mounted the inverter there. Might help with heat/airflow? Not sure if it will be too wet when driving though.

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by jackmerado

Put the components under the dinette: 2000W inverter / switch, mppt controller, 2 X 250AH LiFePo4 batteries (with builtin monitor/control systems for temperature etc). 3x 190W monocrystaline solar panels up top (screwed in not taped). BMV-712 Smart battery monitor.

Will take it out on initial run soon. Not the most fancy solar setup but Im thinking it should capture and store enough energy for our needs.

no generator yet - It would be great if I didnt need one...

Wow 500 amp/hours of batteries. You should be able to run your AC for more than a few hours. One thing that I have found myself wishing for is a shore power shut off from inside. That way I wouldn't have to go outside to unplug if I am testing something. For instance I just went outside and unplugged. My batteries are topped off from the solar panels and now my Samlex inverter is providing AC for a 43" TV and a tablet. The inverter monitor says it is inverting 54 watts which is nothing. I thought the TV would draw a couple a hundred watts.

I left my generator home this time. I think I would only need it now for air conditioning for long periods of time.

When I installed the Victron 712 I thought I would be using my windows tablet to access it's full feature set but I have never been able to connect via blue tooth with 2 different windows tablets. Victron has a support forum that I just spent some time reading on and it seems their windows app doesn't and has not worked over blue tooth ever.

So anyone wanting to use Victron Connect with a windows laptop or tablet forget it. I don't want to get a new phone just to run this one thing and it is flaky with android to. One of my daughters gave me an old Galaxy 5 and that won't work either. I got my grandson in the RV with his newish Samsung phone and the app works just fine. I will try to run an android emulator on the tablet and see if that works before getting another phone.

If I find I need more solar I will get a portable and plug it into the Anderson plug that I have installed to connect the RV and the truck.

Personally I would like to see some photos of your setup. Don't worry about fancy. It is always better if you do the work yourself that way when something comes up you will know what to do.

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by Effie

Thanks for the update, great to learn how the system performs in real life. As for the overheating inverter, I would think that the heat in the compartment is not good for the Battleborns, even when the inverter is not tripping, you may already know if you have the temp sensor option with the Victron 712.

My inverter didn't get hot it was warm not hot to touch. I just checked over at Battle Born and their temperature range is 25 - 135 F. I will have to come up with some kind of an outside thermometer with the probe under the seat. I have found through my experience with Ebikes that lithium batteries perform better when they are on the warm side of things.

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by JonRaw

I'm following this thread closely. Have you considered mounting the inverter outside? I have the generator bracket and I saw someone else on here who mounted the inverter there. Might help with heat/airflow? Not sure if it will be too wet when driving though.

Oh I don't think that is a good idea. The water would be bad enough but picture a wet salty winter road spraying that thing down. No not me I wouldn't.

[jackmerado]

""
Personally I would like to see some photos of your setup. Don't worry about fancy. It is always better if you do the work yourself that way when something comes up you will know what to do.[/QUOTE]""

Ill post photos once i get out with the initial setup and it tests out.

Ill be using the victron with a cellphone bluetooth - that is "supposed" to work.

Ill have an inverter control panel mounted and that should allow me to turn off the inverter ...but completely turning off shore power ....not sure if I can do that. I think I would need to put in a relay and controller for that.

The bigfoot looks good so far: Ive learned a lot on these forums and others: especially to not pressurize the water fill tank while filling.

Thanks to all.

[ThomasC]

I watched a Will Prowse video about my Renogy DCC50S and it matched my experiences with it. When I first hooked it up I was getting more than 50 amps from the truck. Since then it has been 25 amps. I am now realizing that it will produce more amps if there is a larger voltage difference between the TV battery and the house battery. So if I run the RV battery down into the twelves it will put out more than 25 amps.

This is good as I will not have to change any equipment.

[ThomasC]

Due to the massive construction on the old farm I have been off the grid for a few nights. I bought an android phone and have been getting used to my Victron 712 battery monitor.

Everyday my solar panels top off my battery bank to 14.4 volts but just a few amp/hours of draw will pull them down to 13.3 or so. This makes sense because my ebike battery is 84.0 volts fully charged but a half mile ride drops it 2 volts and then it settles down. That is very similar.

I seem to have a parasitic draw of around 12 to 20 watts or almost 2 amps. So it would take about 50 hours to drain one of my battleborns. I have a 43" Samsung UHD 4K TV that I use as a monitor for a Surface Pro X tablet. The tablet uses less than 10 watts and the TV is around 80 watts.

Basically if I am using my TV with the draw of my 12 volt circuits like propane refrigerator and water heater it will draw about 8 amps. If the furnace comes on there is an additional 8 amps. So I can use one battery or 100 amp/hours from late afternoon to the next morning. That is mostly because of the TV. I will be at about 13.1 volts by then.

Today is finally sunny so I will find out how much I am getting out of my panels. If I had a Victron solar controller it would talk to the 712 battery monitor and I would know more. Right now my panels are a sort of blind spot in the system. I know they are working but not how exactly how well.

The other day I was pulling 12 volt fuses out of the RV's panel one at a time and watching my parasitic draw. I never did get it to zero because the Victron 712 monitor draws current to. I will have to do it again with a separate power supply for the 712 just for kicks.

Here is a little interesting observation. When I was reinstalling my smart jack fuse I saw some tiny sparks so that has a parasitic draw to.

How about a few photos of the old farm house coming down. I have been full timing in the BigFoot since last August.