Wednesday, December 10, 2008

More solar than I know what to do with

This post will probably need to be split up into individual posts for details on each of the components in the solar system.
The electrical system is as follows: 2 L-16 6 volt batteries are the heart of the 12 volt system. They can be charged from an Iota dls-75 charger/converter or from the solar system or from the engine alternator. The solar on the roof consists of five Kyocera kc-130's and 4 shell 55 watt panels totaling 870 watts in full sun. These are attached to an Outback MX-60 mppt controller. The batteries are tied to a Go Power 3000 watt pure sine wave inverter which feeds a 30 amp sub-panel off the 50 amp main panel. The sub-panel is switched from an Iota 30 amp transfer switch normally closed in the inverter position, switched by power off the main panel. There is a backup 1000 watt inverter under the hood...just in case. The chassis battery is kept up via a Battery Tender trickle charger and from the alternator, of course. This system keeps us dry camping in the sun with no need EVER to run the generator, except when it's just too darn hot and we need the A/C's.
What can we run while camping? I've never done a true load calc to see what we're pulling but I can tell you what a typical day is. Microwave in the morning for no less than 25 minutes combined time to get our bacon nice and crispy; coffee maker for the group; TV running to keep the kids busy with cartoons for a couple of hours while we sleep in; fantastic fans when smoke alarm goes from cooking; water pump as needed; AND THAT'S ALL FOR BREAKFAST. As the day progresses we have an air inflatable bounce house running off and on and the TV or radio off and on. Lunch brings on the microwave again. The afternoon is where we really start going to town...lots of lights on; sometimes our rope lights outside will be on; the microwave again; don't forget the rice cooker and sometimes the slow cooker; water pump again for showers and then both TVs are going with DVDs. In between all of that we have lots of parasitic loads going with toothbrush chargers, phone chargers, and all the little electronic stuff when in the off position. During our trip to Death Valley in late November we actually had to turn off the inverter during the day while we weren't there so the batteries could recover. Usually we just turn on the inverter when we start the engine to go camping and don't turn it off until we get home. We have a neat little manual transfer switch to run the refrigerator from the inverter while we drive so we can save on our propane. We've pulled 35 or so amp hours in late November with this system. When we had just the four kc-130-'s we would typically produce 210 amps or so for the day. I'm looking forward to the summer to see what we will make now. This is good enough for now; I'll try to elaborate on each of the components later.

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