Here is my electricity plan, feedback needed!

[vtwxmixte]

Evening all!

I am the owner of a 1980 13ft fiberglass trailer. I have been researching batteries/solar/12V systems for a while now and am finally ready to make some purchases. Just wanted to post my plan here to get a little feedback and see if I am on the right track. If you would do something different I would love to hear about it! 

To keep it simple I will be sticking with a 12V system and want to eventually (in the next couple months) purchase solar panels 

Power Needs:
Typically I take my camper out for 2 - 3 days max, but I am planning a 10 day trip in about 5 months which is why I want to get this all squared away soon. 
2 or 3 12V LED lights
MaxxFan 4500
USB ports/voltmeter/12v outlet 

Battery Ideas:
2 6V AGM Deep Cycle Golf Cart Batteries (Costco - Interstate Batteries)
Connected in Series

Wiring Thoughts:
12 circuit fuse block
Battery Switch

Next I'm starting to look into wiring to make sure I use the proper gauged wire
(I just saw that thread in this forum about it - going to check that out now!)

Solar Possibilities: 
Not sure if I should go with 80 or 100 Watts - still researching on this front. They need to be relatively small since my camper is on the small side.

 

[Canine]

The 4000K is the same thing except it has a manual opening lid for $139 if you want to save a couple of dollars.

https://www.amazon.com/Maxxair-00-0...rd_wg=k560h&psc=1&refRID=X2G2WXZ2F9Y3TKH8VBAG

My preference is for red lights as that is less disturbing when sleeping. The blue lights on the ciggy receptacle are pretty bright. I went with the Blue Sea Systems, three ciggy receptacle instead because it has a switch and built in circuit breaker. When I'm not using it, I shut it off to prevent phantom voltage from further draining my battery.

I have the same fuse block. It has helped a lot wiring things in and it looks professional. I'm glad I went with the 12 circuit one; I'm surprised at how much stuff I have hooked up to it.

Depending on where your vents and fans are on your roof, you can put quite a bit of solar on there. If you are interested in putting enough solar on the roof for your needs, but can't seem to find a size that will fit yet still give a lot of power, let me know. There are variances in size among solar panels that are hard to find without a ton of looking. I'm familiar with the sizes of many panels from many brands, so I can save you a lot of time drudging through the Internet.

Not a lot of experience with battery switches. All I know is some are good quality and others not so good. Instead I use a Blue Sea Systems circuit breaker for a switch for the solar panels. Yes, it is a circuit breaker, but it is made to be used as a switch and for continuous duty. It also looks sharp, but is quite a bit more expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Sys...eywords=blue+sea+system+circuit+breaker.&th=1

I can't speak about the batteries.

I'm a fan of Blue Sea Systems, but would go with other brands. You have some good stuff- I can't find fault with it.

Wires can be pretty cheap. Some is copper-coated aluminum. The good stuff can be hard to find locally. Cheap wire will be inefficient and waste all your hard earned money that you will spend on batteries and panels. I use Ancor brand.

 

[Riverman]

I would not try to save a penny on wire... I'd buy real copper wire. It will outlast you.

 

[John61CT]

Ancor is overpriced.

UL1426 tinned "boat cable" is the spec

East Penn, Berkshire, Pacer just as good, call for a local distributor.

​http://www.bestboatwire.com is a good source, sister company genuinedealz.com will also custom cut and crimp-terminate very reasonably.

 

[John61CT]

Duracell (actually Deka/East Penn) FLA deep cycle golf cart batteries, 2x6V, around $200 per 200+AH pair from BatteriesPlus or Sam's Club

Much better quality than Costco's Interstate (actually Johnson Controls)

Flooded, not AGM.

If you actually **need** AGM (really?) Lifeline, Odyssey or Northstar.

 

[John61CT]

Bank switches and fusing stick to Blue Sea.

 

[vtwxmixte]

The 4000K is the same thing except it has a manual opening lid for $139 if you want to save a couple of dollars.
[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]https://www.amazon.com/Maxxair-00-04000K...Y3TKH8VBAG[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]My preference is for red lights as that is less disturbing when sleeping. The blue lights on the ciggy receptacle are pretty bright. I went with the Blue Sea Systems, three ciggy receptacle instead because it has a switch and built in circuit breaker. When I'm not using it, I shut it off to prevent phantom voltage from further draining my battery.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]I have the same fuse block. It has helped a lot wiring things in and it looks professional. I'm glad I went with the 12 circuit one; I'm surprised at how much stuff I have hooked up to it.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Depending on where your vents and fans are on your roof, you can put quite a bit of solar on there. If you are interested in putting enough solar on the roof for your needs, but can't seem to find a size that will fit yet still give a lot of power, let me know. There are variances in size among solar panels that are hard to find without a ton of looking. I'm familiar with the sizes of many panels from many brands, so I can save you a lot of time drudging through the Internet.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Not a lot of experience with battery switches. All I know is some are good quality and others not so good. Instead I use a Blue Sea Systems circuit breaker for a switch for the solar panels. Yes, it is a circuit breaker, but it is made to be used as a switch and for continuous duty. It also looks sharp, but is quite a bit more expensive.[/font]

[font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-...aker.&th=1[/font]

Canine, 

Thank you so much for the helpful info! I already got the Maxx 4500 and it is ready to install (unforuntately I didn't know about the 4000K, oh well!)
Good idea on the red lights! *noted*

Good to know! I was thinking about going with the 6 circuit, but thought it would be better to have a few extra fuses just in case I want to add more fun stuff in the future. 

Thanks again - yeah, I'm not sure I want to venture putting them on the roof, I was thinking about having one or maybe a fold up portable pair to keep inside the camper and then pull them out once I set up camp - I typically camp in pretty open areas here in AZ. Do you know any good ones for that type of use? I'm thinking I don't need anything extremely powerful, but I guess next I should work on a power budget to see.

- Ashley

 

[Canine]

Ancor wire is expensive. If you can get wire that has the rating that John stated, go for that. Unless you are using the wire in an extremely harsh environment, you don't need brand name of Ancor.

There are folding suitcase style that Renogy makes. Eco Worthy also makes some. Then you have the option of semi flexible panels. Renogy and Ecoworthy make them as well. Sunpower makes the best solar panel on the market and they also make flexible ones, but you will pay dearly for their product. Bob has done a video on flexible panels on his YouTube channel.

Go with the 12 circuit unless you are absolutely squished for space. For my trailer I was going to put in only 3 lights, but ended up putting in 5 which was a good choice. Then the propane detector, the ciggy plug in, the fridge, the fan, etc., all adds up. I didn't have to take the extra time and wiring to put each light on an individual circuit, but I did. If I ever have to replace a light, and need to pull the fuse to work on it, I don't want my other lights to go out because they are all on the same circuit.

 

[Putts]

In general, the rule of thumb is to at least match the battery AH to the solar Watts. Your battery bank will have around 200AH capacity, so you should put 200W of solar on the roof. A wize person once said that 2:1 is better because on cloudy days you may not get a full charge, so 400W of solar will usually perform well with 200AH battery in less than optimal conditions.

I've got 200W of panel and two of the Duracell flooded 6V golf cart batts mentioned above. It's often suboptimal.

 

[John61CT]

Whatever the ratio, bottom line is don't deplete farther than you recharge each cycle.

To clarify re Ancor, it is in no way better quality than the other sources I mentioned. Just their more famous name means it costs more.

The marine UL spec is not "necessary", just that you need to be more careful and knowledgeable to get the right stuff without it. If you're really broke and plan to only keep the van a couple years most just use whatever.

 

[Canine]

I have 570 watts of solar and 560 amp hours of AGM battery. If I were to use all my battery in a day, it would take me into the second day to fully charge it. I'm OK with that as long as I don't do it all the time. Doing that all the time would kill the batteries in short order.

What is probably a good idea is to put at least on panel on the roof so that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you are getting some charge. With the folding panels out, you can get a jump on the initial bulk charge then should you leave on a hike or a doctor's visit or work, you don't have to forgo topping off the battery. The panel on the top will do the acceptance and keep it in float which will make your batteries last much, much, much, much longer. Gotta hit that float as often as possible; ideally every day.

 

[RepublicOfTXPatriot]

For your lighting I suggest Luci Lights that are solar and recharge themselves. I just put mine on the dash during the day and they last all night. Depending on the inside square footage of your rig one or two will plenty most likely. Then you can save battery juice since they each have their own solar panel to recharge themselves.

 

[highdesertranger]

the only time I would say that you really need Marine wire is if you are running 110vAC and plan on using Romex. the Marine Romex is multi-strand not solid. it's meant to handle the vibration you would encounter in a vehicle. highdesertranger

 

[RVTravel]

But, 200 AH of battery is effectively only 100 AH so why put 400 watts of solar for 4:1. 200 watts should do?

In general, the rule of thumb is to at least match the battery AH to the solar Watts. Your battery bank will have around 200AH capacity, so you should put 200W of solar on the roof. A wize person once said that 2:1 is better because on cloudy days you may not get a full charge, so 400W of solar will usually perform well with 200AH battery in less than optimal conditions.

I've got 200W of panel and two of the Duracell flooded 6V golf cart batts mentioned above. It's often suboptimal.

 

[John61CT]

It's just a rule of thumb ratio, already takes nominal vs usable into account.

Even a 50W panel can go with a 1000AH bank, as long as you don't deplete as much as you can put back each cycle.

But unless you have lots of other sources of power, between 1:1 and 2:1 has been found to work well enough most of the time.

More panels is almost always better.

 

[akrvbob]

I’d mount the largest single panel on your roof you can fit. Often it will cost you very little more because the price per watt of big panels is much lower than small panels. But, it will probably mean getting an MPPT controller, Buy a Ecoworthy or Victron for about $100 and their controllability will keep your batteries alive much longer.

The one thing you don’t mention is charging off the alternator. Is that done automatically through the trailer plug?

 

[HumbleBeginnings]

For the MaxxFan, if you can spend about $210 you can get a model that you can open in the rain: https://www.amazon.com/Maxxair-00-0..._rd_wg=VfDQd&refRID=6T8PCMCKBSQYC8YPA9S1&th=1

Nothing worse than having to seal your roof fan shut on a wet rainy day. I have this fan and I'm very happy with it. For a little more you can get a fan with a remote, so you can adjust it during the night without having to get out of bed. I thought it sounded like an unnecessary luxury and figured I would just lose the remote anyway, but I can definitely see its usefulness.

 

[EnduroRdr]

There’s some good advice so far on here.
Sounds and look like your on a good path forward to me.

Here’s another thing to consider that I don’t see anybody mentioning when your on shore power:

Your trailer is from the 80’s if you are still using the original 12v power station, then it’s most likely still got the original 12v converter which is just that - a full on converter (not regulated) the kind that usually prematurely cooks in house batteries. Not the way to go if you want to maximize the life of your new batteries.

Do your homework on it. How fast recovery will you need? Budget? Etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[John61CT]

There is little to no difference between a good "converter" and modern quality battery chargers, if that helps you expand your search.

Some chargers have a "power supply" mode if you want to feed consumer loads without a battery in the loop.