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I'm in the process of planning a sliding solar panel setup for the roof of my RV conversion and I'm pretty confused about how to best wire up a system to capture the most energy. The plan is for two ~400-450w panels (probably bifacial but I don't think that matters much for this discussion)...

I was trying to figure out how Renogy's 450W bifacial has the exact same specs as its 450W mono panel except being a couple pounds lighter than its opaque backsheet brother. Turns out its because they use the transparent backsheet mentioned by rhino. I did quite a bit of searching and it's been...

The submittal data for the Fujitsu has a cooling range of 3100-12000 BTU and an input power of 110-850kW. That works out to a COP range of 28.2-14.12. You're right though, the rated power is exactly 500W for the 9k BTU nameplate.

Does anyone have experience using a 110v to 220v transformer in a mobile application to run 220v appliances? I'm thinking of using a toroidal based transformer that's typically used for US to Euro appliance conversion. The specific use case is to run a 220v mini split which typically has better...

Ha, after all this i just found out that the 2020 express cutaways come with a 150amp alternator standard. That's still not enough for fast charging, but a small charger shouldn't be too much issue. I'll have to use a clamp meter and do some testing to confirm, especially since I'm planning to...

Maybe a silly question, but can someone help me walk through what the potential panel degradation and hotspot concerns might be with an offset stack of bifacial panels on a vehicle roof? I'm planning to do a double stack of panels with drawer slides to extend at least one (possibly both)...

Love the design! I can tell some thought went into it.

If you read through the procedure Gary addresses some of your concerns. The trip meter and mpg were reset only once 65mph was hit, so acceleration shouldn't be a factor. I agree that logging the injectors would be more accurate than the dash, but a previous test he ran with vortex generators...

I'm seeing a max difference of 7.7% run to run, but his four runs per "design" should hopefully mitigate some of the randomness. You're right though, it's not a perfect test which would be nearly impossible to conduct. Do you have a source on that ford transit epa data? As a commercial vehicle...

There's some really interesting arguments made by GaryBIS (https://www.buildagreenrv.com/mpg-penalty-for-roof-racks-on-camper-vans/) on the Ram promaster forums that more solar isn't always the answer from both a cost and environmental impacts standpoint. Roof racks and solar panels on the roof...

Has anyone purchased a Fivsta Sola panel from Amazon and have experience with them? Looks like they're a relatively new brand on Amazon and they have some interesting panel sizes (squarish, as well as long/skinny) compared to others, as well as bifacial options. The 200w squarish bifacial is...

2020 express 3500 cutaway, with the 6.0L Vortec V8.

Yeah, I'm not trying to get the max power out of alternator or really do any ridiculous levels of charging though. 250-500w just to supplement solar. What's grinding my gears is there doesn't seem to be any reasonable cost commercial options on the market that do what I feel should be a...

Just looked up the wakespeed and it's a sweet product! Pricey though... Victron has a very programmable 25a buck boost converter that's a similar price point and has many of the same features. Neither option gets around the alternator being the biggest limiter for high current applications.

Ah, I understand now. I'm planning to limit all of my charging profiles across all methods to 90% of full capacity in order to hopefully limit over-charge concerns as well as to increase the battery life. I'm planning for a 20% lower discharge cutoff point as well. I posted on the forum...

Answering my own question, I found this post on the victron forum that states there isn't a user settable current limit on the high power converters (or the tr-smart): https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/170700/orion-dc-dc-converter-current-limiting.html Max current is 30a (at 24v)...

@justinm001 is correct. Lithium batteries will pull as much current as they're able at a given voltage. For CC/CV power supplies you start at a lower voltage than the set-point because you're current limited. As the internal resistance resistance rises, the voltage increases until you hit your...

This is a good point. The vehicle has a 150w AC receptacle in the cab, so I'm assuming there's at least 200w of headroom. It's also a cutaway model and there's an unused 30a fuse in the auxiliary fuse block in the cab. That should mean there's at least 25a and 300w of headroom otherwise it...

The 70a version accepts 24v as the input and outputs 12v so wouldn't work in my case. It'd be a good option for powering 12v devices from the 24v house battery though. What happened with your 12 to 48v buck boost? I thought those devices were pretty much indestructible. Was it the sealed...

I feel like I'm missing something when deciding how to handle DC-DC charging a house battery while the vehicle is running. I'll have a 24v house battery (NMC) and a 12v lead acid starter battery in a Chevy Express 3500 based vehicle with a 105amp alternator. What seems like the most common...

I'm not aware of any fire suppression system that is feasible to implement in a mobile application that can put out a runaway lithium battery failure, do they exist?

This isn't specifically for the solar portion of the system, but this seems the best place to discuss fire safety of electrical enclosures in vehicle mounted systems. I'm starting to plan out how I want to design my electrical enclosure to be as fire safe as possible and it's led me down a ton...

Proper installation is key for any method. I agree that CIGS/flexible solar panels are both more tolerant to improper installation AND due to their lighter weight a smaller risk to others in a total failure. However, in the video shared we can determine that the issue was not the corner mounts...

Fwiw, there are plenty of ways to mount rigid panels without drilling through your roof. Will covers a corner bracket method here: Panels mounted to racks that don't require holes through the roof are also plenty secure.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I took a look at your other post and you mention ~20% greater gains over a day from a CIGS panel when compared to a same wattage mono panel. I think that tracks roughly in line with my shaded performance estimates. I think that still points to half-cut rigid...

Reviving this thread as I just became aware of CIGS panels and the (honestly pretty amazing) various options out there with cell level bypass diodes. Were you able to run any tests with your CIGS panels in partial shading? Just doing some math... half cut solar panels can help alleviate some of...

Does anyone have a list (or link to a list) of the many solar suppliers across the US? I'm trying to find one local to Northeast Ohio (Cleveland area) to do an in person pickup of a small order of 4-6 panels to save on shipping costs. Most of the companies shilled on Youtube (Santan Solar...

I've decided on targeting 20-90% which should be 28.5v on the charging side, and 24.8-24.9v for the cut-off voltage.

There's not really (much) false advertising , NMC is just referring to the cathode portion of the battery, the lithium makes the anode. The full chemical name would be LiNiMnCoO2 like we say LiFePO4.

Well, I bought mine direct from Vestwoods for the lower price. There's no false advertising on their own website though, NMC is just referring to the cathode portion of the battery, the lithium makes the anode. The full chemical name would be LiNiMnCoO2 like we say LiFePO4. There's also only one...

Apologies for the long post... Over the last five days I’ve been comparing the wave 2 and its standard modes (no modifications) against a 5000 btu Toshiba window unit that I had out in my garage. All tests were started at ~4pm and ran for one hour to try and get similar sun loadings across...

This is the key to your question OP... since you're such a light user I'd honestly just use the standard charging profiles and forget about it. You could try and tune your battery to increase longevity, but when people talk about number of cycles in a battery the end result isn't a dead battery...

FYI, I did buy this battery and the reason it's so cheap is because it's NOT a LiFePO4. The cells are NMC. See more info in my post here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/vestwoods-24v-220ah-lithium-ion-buyer-beware-nmc-battery-questions.66663/

Well, I screwed up. I was looking for an LFP to start a conversion and stumbled upon this Amazon listing for a 220Ah 24v LiFePO4 https://www.amazon.com/FOIIOE-24V-VESTWOODS-Bluetooth-Replacement/dp/B0BY295N5Y/. Amazon listing claims it's a LiFePo4, can handle 4500+ cycles, has bluetooth for...

If anyone finds this thread in the future... I just got back from a music festival (Electric Forest) where I got to try my final setup out... I bought a refurbished ecoflow delta mini on walmart for $620, then paired that with the 1280wh zooms that I built into a standard battery box. The...