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That’s pretty cool. As a 70 year old in Northern Utah, dodging the cold and snow, I’ve just started my solar configuration and it’s very taxing to me. I just finished hoisting my panels up to the roof and also have in place strut channels to put my panels on limiting the holes going into my new RV. I’ve learned a lot and wish I had the funds to do what you described today Ben as it would be perfect. Yet 800 watts of panels, (4) 100 amp LiFePO4 batteries and 3000 watt pure sine inverter diy system that you and Will Prouse helped me to figure through RU-vid is the best I can do and it be affordable. You always go above and beyond and out of my league but I sure enjoy learning from you and your Dad/Mom as you put out top tier content. Awesomeness in recognizing Monument Solar Racking. Wow. PS. I’ve just been getting use to climbing up the ladder as it’s scary and dangerous.
That's awesome that you got a system figured out. You don't HAVE to have this new setup, but it is indeed the best one I've seen out there. As long as what you've installed works for you, then I'm happy for you.
The original racking has tens of thousands of miles on it with zero wiggle or problems. But a wind deflector would still be good. Nothing that I am aware of now, but maybe that's a side gig for them to do
I saw that solar awning at Q this year. Sweet and innovative. The biggest drawback of it is that it can't produce power like our side or rooftop array does when it's rolled up, either when traveling down the road, when stopped in rest areas and parking lots or in high winds. We're old, retired FTers who designed and built our system ourselves, on a tight budget. It took us 5 years to gather the resources and finally complete the project, doing all the work ourselves. We started by building a 620-watt liftable solar array on the side of our motorhome. Our side array makes a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean, standing safely on the ground. Next, we built a 12v, 560ah LiFePo-4 battery using 8, 280ah prismatic cells and a Heltec 330amp BMS with a 5a active balancer. These cells fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of golf cart batteries used to reside. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a small hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging due to low temperature - or their life reduced from getting too hot. Our 12v system uses an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1,000w Renogy inverter, a 50a Epever MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor. All this cost us under $3,500 and met all our off-grid electrical needs except for our air conditioning, heat and microwave. For heat and refrigeration, we used propane and for our A/C and microwave we ran our generator. We lived with this limited system for 4 years, while we saved our money, traveling with the seasons so as to minimize our need to run our 5,500w generator which is noisy and pretty expensive to run for hours at a time to power our A/C. By mounting the solar array on the side of our coach, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550w solar panels down the length of our 35ft Class A, 15" off our roof, above our AC, vents, etc. I considered going with bi-facial panels myself, but they would have added a lot of extra weight as they have a heavy back glass too, and since I wasn't going to lift them, I don't think the bi-facial gains would have offset the extra roof weight. We built the rack out of 2" 6061-T6 structural aluminum angle. The front 2 panels slope down at a shallow 9.5-degrees to meet the roof, producing a smooth laminar airflow over the array, making the RV more stable with less wind drag while driving too. It shades our entire roof, allowing plenty of cooling air underneath, increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners as you correctly observed. Our overall height is still just under 12 ft., up 2 inches like Monument solar's design. Yes, it required making 54 holes in our roof for the mounting bolts, (3 in each foot) but each hole was filled with Henry's silicone caulking, before coating the entire roof, completely covering all array mounting feet, bolts, etc. with Henry's 100% waterproof Tropicool silicone sealant, with a lifetime guarantee. Monument's solar has a sweet system, with a lot going for it, but on many rubber roofs, like ours, the adhesive would just pull the loose EDPM membrane off our roof unless it was glued on with an equally strong bonding agent. The best application for this design would appear to be on a sturdy metal roof. At my age, I can't see myself climbing on my roof every time I want to raise or lower my panels. If it could be done by remote control while standing safely on the ground, then a liftable rooftop array would be more practical for older retired folk like us. But in reality, our 4,400w fixed array can run both our A/Cs, household appliances and charge our batteries from solar at the same time, even in winter. That's more power than we need. If your array is big enough there's no need to lift it - or worry which way your RV is parked to optimize your production. Five years of boondocking experience across the country with our liftable side mounted array taught us that it's often difficult to find a NF campsite or boondocking spot oriented correctly (due east) for a south facing array. We mounted a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger, breakers and a Lnex battery monitor on the wall in our bedroom, saving us space as well as money compared to a system built with individual components. Our 48v battery uses 16, 320ah prismatic cells and a 200amp Heltec BMS to keep it safe. Together with our 560ah 12v bank, we have a total of 23.5 kwh of batteries onboard - kept charged by 5,020 watts of solar. This is the equivalent storage capacity as $16,650 worth of 100ah Battleborn batteries for under $3,400. We removed the rooftop A/C we had in the bedroom and replaced it with an EG4 28.5 seer-2, 12k btu mini-split heat pump on the upper rear of our motorhome. It's super quiet and cools as well as our 14.5k btu soft start equipped Furrion we installed up front. This second phase provides 24/7 off-grid air conditioning and heat from the heat pump. We have a total of 6,000 watts of 120v inverted ac power, giving us off-grid electrical self-sufficiency without the need to run our generator, for a total budget of around $11,500, including the high-efficiency heat pump. Any similarly sized professionally designed and built system will, out of necessity, cost several times this amount. Take care. Good luck with your new liftable array!
Fair enough it can't make power while driving, but when parked, it's nice to get the extra boost. With their upcoming 1200w awning, that's enough to completely offset the power usage of an A/C unit.
This was great information. I first saw this mounting system on AZ Expert's channel and was very intrigued. I would like to see how your install went. We are getting a 2019 Tiffin 45 OPP that is already pretty tall and won't make it under some bridges. If this really only adds a couple of inches, it might be okay. I love the idea of the solar awning!! Thanks for all the great information. A lot more to think about now :)
Birch, if I get an R Vi cut everything off to rough so there won't be nothing unrough because that's just a pain in the yes, and then I could put my own reconsistem up on the rough and it'll be like none others, but but to some similar. I saw that already. I designed mine many years ago and I see people getting really close to It.
I took a quick look at their website and noticed that even the smallest system needs an 8foot wide camper. I would love the 800watt system but my camper is a Jayco Baja and is under the width requirements. This is my hunting camper and the narrower width is a prime consideration as i remote camp with it. and often away from the road(where legal) I will be contacting them about using smaller panels so they can install on my smaller camper.
I don’t know if you’ve covered this topic, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else either. What do you do with all these batteries that are obsolete or aren’t working anymore, how do you get rid of them? 🖖
They're not obsolete yet. There are many recycling factories popping up though and that'll be the next billion dollar industry, is battery recycling and remaking. You can break down all of the elements and remake new batteries that work 100% like new. They won't be going to land fills.
But you can't cover the whole roof in panels, which means you can't max out the solar input, which means you can't successfully run the RV however you'd like. I'm not against CIGS, they're great panels. All I'm saying is the focus of this setup is to max out the solar input and have tons of power, you can't do that with CIGS. You can still walk on the roof with the Monument Solar rack because there is an opening down the center of it that still allows roof access the full length.
@@minutemanprep Respectfully disagree. not only are CIGS literally bulletproof, they work when shaded and have a much better efficiency, not to mention how much easier they are to install and you have full area to walk on, not a small path.. mind boggling why you wouldn't use them.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QNVt4fwio5Q.html
respectfully disagree.. not only are CIGS literally bulletproof, they work when partially shaded and have a much better efficiency..not to mention how much easier they are to install, no leaks, lighter, make your roof stronger and you have full area to walk on , not a small path.. mind boggling why you wouldn't use them. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QNVt4fwio5Q.html&t @@minutemanprep
respectfully disagree.. not only are CIGS literally bulletproof, they work when partially shaded and have a much better efficiency..not to mention how much easier they are to install, no leaks, lighter, make your roof stronger and you have full area to walk on , not a small path.. mind boggling why you wouldn't use them. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QNVt4fwio5Q.html&t @minutemanprep @@minutemanprep
@@DeFiDuke CIGS are great, I'm not opposing that. And to clarify, they're not bulletproof, the test was if you shoot them will they still work, and they do. The newer residential solar panels also work partially shaded. My point, is how to get the most solar input in an RV. You can get more than 2x the solar input using this racking system, over CIGS. That's what I am saying. I'm not saying CIGS are bad panels.
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