12v 800 watt System Upgrade Check for Travel Trailer

[pdaddy]

So my 2023 travel trailer came with a pretty useless 200w panel, 20 amp solar controller, 1000w inverter and (2) 100ah lead acid batteries. We like to boondock for 4+ days.
Plan to run the following on 12v system: 3.1 cubic fridge, 10 in macbook laptop, LED overhead interior lights at night, and starlink internet. I am going to set-up everything at home and run a test of daily power draw to see how much all that will use. If I can get away with 1 200ah battery, great. If not, I'll get a second for 400ah total.

Here are the upgraded components I've already purchased:
Li Time 60a Solar Controller
PowerUrus 200ah LifePo4 self-heating, low temp protection battery with BlueTooth monitoring

I plan to purchase 3 more Rich Solar 200w panels for a system total of 800w wired in series/parallel.

Here's my questions:
1. Looks like I should add inline fuses from the solar panels to the solar controller. But exactly where do I add them, what size should I use and how many?
2. I should upgrade my wiring to handle the additional loads. What wiring needs to be upgraded? Is it just from the solar controller to the inverter? I already have 2 awg from the inverter to the battery. Or... do I need to upgrade the wiring that runs from where all my panels connect on the top of the roof to the solar controller?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[MisterSandals]

Plan to run the following on 12v system: 3.1 cubic fridge, 10 in macbook laptop, LED overhead interior lights at night, and starlink internet.

Can you determine the watt hours per day to run these? With this info. most of the other numbers fall into place.

 

[pdaddy]

Yes. I will know that next week when I set everything up at home and test.

 

[pdaddy]

Can you determine the watt hours per day to run these? With this info. most of the other numbers fall into place.

I will be running 90 to 100 ah per 24 hr period.

 

[Rednecktek]

1. Looks like I should add inline fuses from the solar panels to the solar controller. But exactly where do I add them, what size should I use and how many?

Considering that you're likely to only have 1 penetration coming down inside from the roof, you're likely not going to need any inline fuses. You only need fuses if you're going to have 3 strings in parallel or more. If you have 2 panels in series, or 2 panels in parallel, or 4 panels in 2s2p you don't need any fuses. If you were to do something like I did on my camper and run 4 panels in parallel, you'll want to put a combiner box on the roof to bring all the panels in parallel to the single wire set coming down. That combiner box will have the fuses for the parallel panels so problem solved.

2. I should upgrade my wiring to handle the additional loads. What wiring needs to be upgraded? Is it just from the solar controller to the inverter? I already have 2 awg from the inverter to the battery. Or... do I need to upgrade the wiring that runs from where all my panels connect on the top of the roof to the solar controller?

That's again going to come down to how many of what size panels you're feeding and what you have to work with. If you can keep your panels in series up top and keep the voltage high, you'll probably be able to use the existing wires coming into the SCC from the roof. If you were to do a large parallel set you'd likely need to upgrade the wires coming into the roof. Without knowing the exact specs on those panels, I'd still guesstimate that in a 2s2p arrangement you're going to be fine.

The SCC to the battery bank should be at least 6AWG to handle the 60a your SCC can put out, or 4AWG if you want a little overhead. The battery bank to the inverter is going to need to be 4AWG to feed that 1Kw inverter so the existing 2AWG is great.

 

[MisterSandals]

I will be running 90 to 100 ah per 24 hr period.

100Ah x 12.8V = 1280Wh

The starlink alone i believe is 40W
40W x 24h = 960Wh

The fridge is probably at least this much too so my gut feel is you are wildly underestimating your planned usage.