Nate, I learned so much from Will Prowse back when I was building out my van. He is Einstein when it comes to solar, he’s the man!! Have fun on the build.
I just had my son built my solar system. We purchased SOK lithium batteries for $570 each ( I got 2). They work great and are affordable! Oh yes, we also followed Will’s 400 watt solar setup diagram 👍🏼
Excellent choice. I too used this schematic by Will Prowse. I have been full time on the road and have had very few hiccups. Some things to consider are to cap your terminals on the right side of the dc/dc mppt charger. I made cut outs on the covers to fit the wires thru. In addition I noticed one of the suggested circuit breakers that connects the Starting battery to the controller for me is regulated lower than spec. I have the 50 amp model and my circuit breaker will cut out around 48 amps. Since I have just lowered the dc/dc to only run at 40amps. That is programmable in the app. One final thing, there is a second amp called Renogy Home that will also work with your setup. That app has analytics such as graphs and is much better than the app you mentioned. I think you’ll enjoy this setup! See you on the road.
I have several home battery/inverter builds. The BT-1 and BT-2 apps are OK but the Victron Smart Shunt does not have much range and the app has things that just don't work. It's constantly dropping its connection. I rarely use it. However, I am a big fan of the Renogy 500 amp shunt battery meter. It shows everything you need about the load, battery state, amps, time remaining to discharge, time remaining to charge. No phone needed, it's like a gas gage for the battery. No need to scroll through anything to see the information. You can see from 30 feet away if the battery is charging or discharging. I think it would be an ideal meter to put in a camper van.
watching 720 watts (60 amps alternator) flow into my 280AH lifepo4 is bliss. Lets you have toys like espresso maker (120A draw), zero breeze I air conditioner consumes 120 watts.
Will's RU-vid channel is a wealth of information. I'm currently working on a 280 amp hour 12 volt LiFePo battery setup to add to my Element. Also preparing to add a 2nd 100-watt solar panel for a total of 200 watts. Definitely overkill for my compact little Element RV but "overkill" is my style. AGM has its pros over lithium, mainly the ability to charge/discharge below freezing. The new setup definitely looks good! The Renogy app has received a ton of complaints for its issues. Some even suspect that the app isn't compatible with that particular charge controller.
Well done Nate! Hope that you ARE very proud of yourself! Fingers crossed for you both, that this setup treats you both well, with no more issues. To not have to ever worry about any of that again, will be such a boost to your van life. I hope that everything is going well inside the house for whatever Shannon has on her plate right now. Christmas getting ever nearer. I hope you both have a great one. Just me, myself and I and my van this yr. My first since the loss of one of my boys, so a tough one for me, for sure. So many memories.Take care there Nate and Shannon. 💜👍🙋♀️🚐🌏
Also the charge controller will charge the starter battery when house battery is full. Guess the Bluetooth is why chrome went with the victron Bluetooth adapter
Hey Nate, you need to update to the DC home app.. that app you are using is no longer updated. The renogy dc home app will give you better information on your charging. Also, I would highly recommend to run the ignition wire on that charger.. many users (including myself) found that the charging amps would drop significantly after running the vehicle. For me, my charging amps would cut in half from 25 amps to 10 after my vehicle ran for 15-20 minutes and I do not have a smart alternator. I ran my ignition wire to my tail light running lights so that I can turn the system on or off with my lights.
Missing nut at the top of the fuse panel at 10:22? Looks to be missing toward the end of the video, too. Did you catch it later? Nice job with the layout!
According to at least one RU-vid creator; the thumbs down is still good for the metrics and isn’t harmful. But yeah if you don’t like the videos leave and find what you like.
Nice clean looking job and hope all works well. Looks like a part time job in the future to me. Hope all is going well and tell Shannon Hi!. Take care.
Nice job Nate! Did you ever find the source of the burning smell? Will Prowse is the man when it comes to these systems that's for sure. Hope you and Shannon had a nice Thanksgiving. Have a good one! -Jon
The renogy unit is a sweet unit. Its too bad they cheapened out and put only a mppt controller capable of only 25V but 600w of input. That means you have to do all parallel panel arrays with 8awg or thicker wire.
I bought their DC-DC controller with MPPT. The 25 volt solar limitation sucks. It's still in the box unused. I installed the Renogy Rover 30 amp MPPT and put 4x100 watt panels in series and see 70-88 volts regularly. I have a Renogy 30 amp DC-DC unit but have not installed it yet as the solar charges adequately even on cloudy days. I will install it but don't feel like crawling around to run the ignition switch sense wire. I wired the panels with 10 gage wire, more than adequate.
It looked like you have the old app. Did you get the right BT model, and update the Renogy app? Also a battery monitor is a nice touch just to have an exact reading of the battery
Hi, I bought this mmpt dc/dc charger and I would like to know if it needs to be in a place where it's cool or have ventillation? Does it get hot and is it noisy? Sorry for all those questions but I have a car that I change into a van and so I don't have much room. Thanks in advance and btw great video :)
I would have gone with the Renogy combo controller but they gimped it with that terrible 25V MPPT limit. Makes it impossible to basically put any panels in series.
Nate are you ever planning to move into a larger van at some point in time? Heard one of your fans in the background. Element Van Life is very popular.
I won't be using the Bluetti system anymore in this van. I'll find a use for it somewhere else though :). That compartment is the coolest spot in the van. It rarely gets hot down there for some reason, even on the warmest days!
