General Bus electrics-Solar

[Toolman]

I have a 24V house Much better but tap off the 12v side and run a battery equaliser.

[jon_d]

My Bedford is 24V house and 12 volt vehicle.

[Kappy]

The lights and fridge run of the Solar controller as far as I can figure, there's a switch on the controller that can control the lights.

There's a Redarc 12 V converter at the back I believe for trailer lights.

[T1 Terry]

A lot of people decided that if the vehicle electrics were 24v then the house electrics should be 24v as well so they could charge from the alternator and the amp draw from 24v batteries was 1/2 that from 12v batteries so the Peukert factor was much lower . Then lithium batteries came omto the scene, virtually zero Peukert factor and very fast charging ability, now it makes more sense to go 12v and use a 24/12 DC to DC charger for alternator charging and everything house powered as 12v. A lot more gear at a much better price for 12v than there is for 24v, the cabling to the inverter is so short it really is a very small difference in cost to use 0 gauge cable in place of 4 gauge cable for the same sized inverter. Anything that draws high amps these days is far cheaper as a 240vac appliance powered via an inverter, LED's use so little power the wiring is not an issue, so there really is a major change occurring in regards to RV electrics.

T1 Terry

[homeless]

My Hino is 24v throught.

[Kappy]

I posted this in another thread and just realized it may be off that topic so I thought I would try here.
Just an update on my invertor issues.

Finally got my new HD cable 0 gauge together with a new separate in-line 150amp fuse.

I have constructed new frame to house the invertor in a more accessible location and to act also as battery tie downs.

Its just sitting loosly ATM as I just wanted to wire up to see how everything function with the adjustments.

Friday night and all wired up powered up invertor all seemed OK, plugged in my 1450 watt toaster and seemed to be drawing 2.9 amps with the voltage at 24.7 volts.

Toaster ran non stop for 20 minutes and no apparent issues and no tripping out or shut downs.also running house 24 volt stuff.

DSC_0120 (360x640).jpg

DSC_0121 (640x360).jpg

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Later I ran a Delonghi portable A/c and all seemed good.

Now maybe time to tidy everything up and finish some other projects like my invertor A/C.

Saturday morning Good Morning.

Comments noted, will need to relocate invertor back to where it was, seemed like a good idea at the time.

240 Volt isolated by manual switch.

Seems my victory was maybe premature.

Well last night I ran A/C for about 3 hours and when turned off was showing 90%.

So over night I was running electric side of Suburban HWS, microwave on standby, 2 TV's on standby and 24 volt fridge and this morning before the sun had any effect on panel, notice an alarm coming from Bus.

On inspection invertor fault light was on and controller was showing 0% nothing coming in and nothing going out Amp wise but was displaying 23.7 volts I guess battery voltage.

I so I guess I'm at an impasse.

Although I do believe either or both the controller and invertor has a low voltage protection.

Open for suggestions

[jon_d]

Hi Kappy,

something doesn't make sense.

Friday night and all wired up powered up invertor all seemed OK, plugged in my 1450 watt toaster and seemed to be drawing 2.9 amps with the voltage at 24.7 volts.

A while back, I sent a PM suggesting buying some of Collyn's RV electric books. It might still be worthwhile doing to help with the explanations.


Watts = Volts x Amps.
2.9 x 24.7 = 71.6 watts

What ever it is being measured is not the AC load. (Is it the solar charge going into the batteries?)
If the loads described in the post were being powered by the batteries alone, I think they might be very very flat.

jon.

[Kappy]

Yeah Jon I have 2 of Collyns books but I haven't really found anything in there that can assist me.

Electrrics noit my strong point, I guess there will come a time when AH yes I see, but it aint there yet.

I discovered recently that part of my system was wired wrong so aren't sure if any pat is damaged.

Wiring rectified with HD wiring.

Cant find anyway how I can test other parts of the system. testing the Solar controller and the invertor.

Will pull the batteries out and load test each one.

Part of my confusion is that I ran a portable A/C for several hours and was 90% after that.

I also sat and watch TV via the invertor, pretty confident the 240 v AC input was turned off, I have a manual switch AC/Invertor power.


Cheers
Confused

[bagmaker]

There is no way you had 90% battery capacity left after running a portable A/C for several hours................
Me thinks the advice about "where the meter is getting its information" should be reviewed

[BruceS]

Although it would depend on when the A/C was running? I can run mine through the day & also bring my batteries up to 100% at the same time.
I think it might be best to get good advice from either someone who knows a lot about it or a good auto sparkie.
Maybe WE can start with the basics?
All the solar should go into the solar controller.
Then wires should go to the battery from it. No wires should be connected to LOAD at all. (on the solar controller)
The inverter should be connected by BIG wires to the battery.
All 12v items should be connected to the battery.
Do you have a battery monitor that is supposed to sit between the bat pos and ALL things using power?
or... Do you have a battery monitor that is supposed to sit between the bat neg and ALL things using power? (Victron?)
The Victron ones only show Balance going in or out.
In other words if solar is providing 500w & you are using 300w then the Victron will show +200w.
.................. if solar is providing 300w & you are using 400w then Victron will show -100w.

Change the lights & fridge to hook up to the battery. (with fuses or circuit breakers)