System Recommendations?

[ibuzzard]

I am busy accumulating parts, plus recommendations, for installing a solar system on the roof of our vintage camper shell. The panels I plan on installing are these, from SanTan, which we’ll pick up when we visit friends this winter:
https://store.santansolar.com/product/trina-400w/#reviews

Are there any concerns about these? I am also looking for advice on a good MPPT controller(80 amp?)

Would appreciate advice for choosing a quality controller, battery charge indicator, inverter, as well as sockets, power inlets, etc. I am planning on using marine grade for parts mounted on the exterior. I will build a cabinet on the interior of the camper shell to contain all these components, plus  12 volt sockets, and a 110 volt outlet , and battery charge status indicator in the door of the cabinet. Also, an exterior 12 volt socket and 110 volt receptacle on camper shell.

I also want to be able to charge my battery bank using either our portable inverter generator , or shore power, hopefully mounting inlets for these on the exterior of the camper shell. Can anyone give me specific parts that would work? 

I appreciate any help. This being my first install, I want to avoid mistakes and use quality components from the start. Thanks.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have 2 of the 435 watt panels. they are huge.

do you have room on your shell for more than one?

why do you need an 80amp controller?

I used a Morning Star 60amp MPPT. the most I have seen going into the batteries is 56amps.

https://www.amazon.com/MORNINGSTAR-...2&sr=1-1-791c2399-d602-4248-afbb-8a79de2d236f

highdesertranger

 

[jonyjoe303]

I recently bought the makeskyblue 60a mppt controller (130 dollars total cost) , I been using it for the past 3 months and works excellent. With this controller you can calibrate it if there is voltage drop from the controller to the battery a very good feature. Also it states in the manual that it won't cause voltage surges when use with lithium batteries (if bms activates many controllers will produce voltage surges). It has a built-in fan that only comes on when its hot (drawback is fan is loud). All the parameters can be imputed through the LCD screen (drawback LCD backlight is always on 24/7). For a 12 volt system it can handle a maximum of 80 volts pv input (max 720 watt panels), maybe 1x 400 watt panel, for more then one panel you might need to buy 2 controllers which is still cheaper then 1 of the expensive controllers. But if you have a 24 volt system it has a max of 105 input volts (1440 watt panels).
All around I think it's a good value for the money.

 

[barleyguy]

You should never go over about 50 amps on a particular circuit. The cables and connectors aren't designed for it, unless you use massively thick cables and special connectors. And even then, having high amperage is going to lose voltage over distance.

If you need more than that, you can go to more than one charge controller. Running multiple charge controllers in parallel works fine, and as HDR said, two normal sized controllers should be cheaper than an especially large one.

If you go to 24-volts on the battery bank, two 400 watt panels in series will be about 29 amps. (800 watts divided by the MPPT charge voltage, which is about 28 volts.) If you stay at 12 volts, two 400 watt panels will be about 58 amps from the charge controller to the batteries. That's doable (barely) on a 60-amp controller, but with 400 watt panels at 12 volts, you really should do a cable run and charge controller for each panel.

 

[ibuzzard]

I do have room for two of those 400 watt panels, barely, they’ll mount crossways, one at very front of shell, one at very back, with about 3.5 inch overhang on each end. Shell is only 72” wide, panels are 79” long. I will have to fabricate some kind of rack(s).

Thank you all for your input. If I use an mppt per panel, how do I size them?

 

[1shemp]

I second what 303 said about the make sky blue controllers.I had 4 of these on my solar set up at my last house.8 years of service with 0 problems.