I'm planning on building a 24V system soon. I don't see too many of those around. I'm curious if anyone has an thoughts on 24V systems versus this 12V one.
Nice video for a basic system. Suggest less arms flailing around in front of the camera blocking the items you’re talking about. I like the layout on the wall. Wondering why the batteries on external shelves vs wall mounted? Temporary setup, convenience of some kind????? Be nice to know that for others to emulate/avoid depending on their needs. Better to copy than reinvent such details. Watching previous videos about the solar panels, racking, mobility, etc. were very nice. Together you’ve built quite the library of information. 😊
I did not realize my arms were in the way during filming. I will get better as I gain more experience doing this. I already had that rack and it seemed to work for the batteries. So I went with the lazy route and just used that rack. Thanks for the comments.
GOT to argue what you said about the fuse in the red wire being at the battery!. NO! At the Battery means AT the Battery! Pull your wires from the battery to the disconnect switch and flip it end for end and put the fuse as close as possible to the POS post. Open any Commercial built unit or one that has to pass inspection and you will find the fuse on the POS post. Take that fuse out of the fuse holder and bolt it to the POS post if you want. Or get another fuse. it's a SAFETY ISSUE! Love your Design!
Good point. I will look into getting a fuse that can mount right on the post as an extra safety precaution. If something happened to the wire between the battery post and fuse, the fuse does no good then. I now use a 24v system with two 24v batteries. I would need one for each battery post. Thanks!!
@@proficientprepper If you want to buy another that's cool But you would be just fine flipping the fuse you got off the Switch and mount to battery with the same wires. End for End...
I have watched many videos on small 12 volt systems and their construction. I would say that yours is the first I have seen that combines a description of the components and also discusses wire gauge, fuses, breaker sizes etc. Great explanations. To get all that info I have had to go to many different sources to put it all together in my head. The only question I still have not been able to answer is why have a breaker/fuse between the solar charger and the positive bus bar? What are you protecting? The MPPT can only put out so many amps, so if the wire is sized correctly this seems redundant to me. Thanks.
Nice build. I love do it yourself builds. I built a few myself. We have an old GMC camper van that has been in the family since new. We use it on 2-3 night trips to the coast and redwood campgrounds. I recently installed 400 watts of solar panels on the roof which are barely noticeable. It got a 300 amp hour 3840 watt hour Chins lithium battery, 2000 watt Renogy inverter, 40 amp Renogy charge controller and Renogy battery SOC meter. The whole setup fits between the front seats. I put an exterior weatherproof outlet on the right rear quarter panel outside fed by a 12 gage cord. When we camp, the fridge/freezer, and extension cords get plugged in there. We run a small microwave oven, small instapot, coffee maker, and toaster with it as well as Ma's CPAP machine. I have a 6 light chandelier hung over the picnic table with a slide dimmer on it. There's a 1950's floor lamp that we use by the outlet as well. They always gets laughs at the campgrounds. The van has a stained glass 120 volt tiffany lamp on the ceiling with a dimmer switch so Ma can find her pills at night. The best part of having a battery/inverter solar powered sunshine compressor is that it serves nicely as a mobile 20 amp electrical outlet. I recently built a gate for a friend and the solar power ran the worm drive saw, a pancake air compressor with brad nailer, belt and disk sander, paint sprayer, right angle grinder.....and it ran my Harbor Freight wire feed welder to make the hinge plates. This was a very useful project. There is a 50 amp Anderson plug on it to add another battery, run an external 1200 watt inverter, or to input charge from a generator and battery charger. It was hot at the redwoods in NorCal, so I put a 20 inch box fan on top of the inverter box to keep Ma cool until the sun went down. Even with all of the redwood tree shade and heavy usage, the charge never got below 72% on the entire trip. The toaster and microwave beat on the battery the most. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cXQO80MghOU.html
@@proficientprepper It is a useful vehicle. Has everything in there already...food, water, everything to camp with, supplies, meds, clothing. A real bug out vehicle. Even has long and short cordless hole punchers for defense or food acquisition. We had it since new, bought in 1989. All running gear was recently rebuilt, new crate engine, new tires, ready to go!
Thank you for sharing! Thanks for explaining it and allsow for telling the size of wiring and fuses. I will do a solar generator and allsow a 12v solar shed at my cabin.. so this helped me much! 👍⭐️🎉
Great video. For people just starting in the solar projects ,it is good to have good videos. There is a man Name John Daniels on youtube that has been doing solar and wind turbines for a while that has some awesome ideals. Worth while checking out. Keep up the great job.
I thought your video was very helpful. I'm just starting to build my 700w system and waiting for a few of the components to come in. I still had some questions about wire gages, fuses, and disconnects and you seem to have gone over it fairly well. Mine will be 12v also.
I love the way you explain your system. My only question is why you only have a 20a breaker between the solar and the mppt ? but a 40a breaker between the mppt and battery ? Gave you a thumbs up.
Good question. Although, I don't have a real good answer why I chose a 20amp breaker coming into the mppt. My panel arrays are bringing in about 11amps each. So I chose a breaker a little larger than what my panels were supposed to produce for protection of the system. I see they do make a 16amp version of that breaker which I could have used instead. Now for the 40amp breaker between the mppt and battery, I chose that because the mppt controller is a 40amp controller producing 40amp rated current. So if something went wrong with the controller and it spiked above 40amp, the breaker should trip. I used a 32amp breaker for the Victron mppt. That mppt is a 30amp mppt controller. So 32amd should be good for that. Thanks for the comments!
nice set up. mine is like that but a lot smaller. i have 2x 110ah flooded batteries, victron 800w inverter and a tracer controller. breakers on everything like yours but i added an extractor fan as my solar in in my garden shed. when the temp hits 25 degrees a 12v fan kicks in sucking the hot air out and it turns off when the air temp is 23 degrees. i only have 2x 100w solar panels but in series and will be adding a 3rd soon. the power runs from the garden shed to a socket in the house in the living room and i use the power to run laptops, charge usb devices, a fan and a lamp. i have added a kwh meeter in the shed after the inverter and before the socket/outlet in the house so i can see what power i use from the house. i do save a small amount running a few items from solar but the main thing is if we have a power cut we have a socket in the house that will last a good few hours :D
Hey friend a very nice video I may only suggest that you zoom the camera out just a hair or sometimes it's good to see the particular components you were talking about but at the same time it's difficult to just stare at one little section for a while just a thought. Love the fact that you don't yell or scream or dance or have weird crazy music playing in the background or over this very nice job just subscribed. I have been doing solar installs with friends and family for years and years and I'm still learning things everyday❤❤❤
Thanks for commenting and subscribing! I'm still very new to filming these videos and I'm trying to get better with each one. Thanks for the filming tips. Backup power and solar is addictive.
It totally depends on how much load you put on it. This setup should keep a typical full size refrigerator running maybe a day and a half without any sun. But if you had good sun every day, it could keep it running almost indefinitely. But we always get clouds, so if you had 400 ah, that just might get you through a series of cloudy days. If I just ran lights, then 200 ah should be fine to run that every day.
Best reason to do a 24 - 48volt system is you don’t have to use huge wire. More volts, less amps for the same wattage. Wire gauge is dependent only on amps. Home systems should really be 48v. Benefits and no downsides other than you have to be more careful with it. That bouge can do 48v btw.
I will eventually move to a 48v system at some point in the future. Right now, I'm enjoying the 24v system I just built and did a video on. We have had multiple cloudy/rainy days recently. Difficult to keep everything charged.
How hot is your charge controller getting? Mine was running around 112 degrees inside and went out on me after two days of use. There was yellow oil and just the PV light was flashing. It would not power backup after disconnecting and reconnecting to the batteries. I've got a new one coming.
I believe mine is getting hotter than 112. Can't remember exactly. Seems like it was around 140. The mobile app says current is being limited because it is overheating when it gets really hot. Do you have the same Bougerv charge controller?
5000 watts is right up there at the limit for a 12v system. For 5000, you would need the largest wire readily available which is 4/0 wire. 5000watts / 12.8v = 390amps. Windynation is where I buy most of my wire and their 4/0 wire can handle a max of 440amps according to their website. But personally, I would never build a 5000watt 12v system for normal use. 1/0 wire is difficult to work with. I can't imagine building a system with 4/0 wire. It is very thick. For 5000 watts, I would at least use a 24v system if possible.
It has been a while since I sized this system. But from memory it seems like these panels have a maximum series fuse rating of 15 or 20 amps when wired in series as I have. I may could have gone with a 15 amp breaker. I believe these panels have a 11amp max.
I'm not an expert on this, but from what I've read and seen on other videos, those little breakers do work, but are not as quick and reliable as the fuses. Sometimes the current can go quite a bit over the rating on those breakers before it will trip. I did buy some real cheap fuses once and learned that it does not pay to buy cheap fuses. Quality matters with breakers and fuses.
How did you calculate the breaker size for PV wire? I see people using all different sizes I’m using 10awg wich is rated for 30amps but read that mc4 connectors are rated for 20amps so maybe I should be using a 20amp breaker? My panels are in series so it’s only like 7amps
For the PV input breaker, I used a 20 amp breaker mostly because that is what I had at the time. Shortly after I did this video, I did install a 15 amp fuse at the solar panel array. My solar panels are wired in series which means they can produce up to 12 amps. In retrospect, I should have probably went with a smaller amp breaker closer to the the 12 amps. If your panels are only 7 amps, then I would suggest getting above 7 but not too far above. I believe most MC4 connectors are rated up to 30 amps. There may be some at 20 amp ones, but I thought they were at least 30 amps.
I replaced that 12V system with a 24V system. But I was able to dig around in my box of cables and I believe I found the ones I used. They are 8.5 inches from end to end of the lug tips. I did not think to measure the center of the lug holes while I had them out. I hope that helps.
I/we Are not/don't want to be electricians. You said this would be simple And like everyone else you talk about amp hours, I understand the gauge of wire is necessary. What the f*** is Amp hour? Honestly how many batteries/inverters/solar panels Do I need to keep the lights on fridge running in a blackout?
If you built this exact system, it should keep a full size refrigerator running about 1 day without using any solar panel input. If you connected four 200 watt solar panels as I used in this system and you have good sun every day, you could most likely run a refrigerator and a couple of led lights indefinitely. Of course the amount of sun and size/efficiency of your refrigerator has a huge impact on that. I am now using a 24v system I recently built and I was running several things every day no problem in good sun. But over the past couple of weeks we have had a lot of rain and clouds and I had to switch back to grid power for most things. Even doing that I can't seem to get back to a full charge. I need more solar panels now. So clouds can really throw a wrench into your plans. If you did not want to go the DIY route, you can always buy the portable power stations like the Bluetti AC200MAX. It is roughly equivalent to this 12v DIY system I built, but will cost more. If your are interested, I tried to explain amp hours, watt hours, etc here on my blog - www.proficientprepper.com/2023/03/solar-diy-concepts-and-equipment-for.html
The 285 amps was the amperage rating on the 1/0 battery wire from Windy Nation. That is listed on their website. Let me know if that is not what you are referring to.
love your set up. But 1/0 is not rated to 285 amps. check out the NEC ratings of wire. I got the 2000 watt renogy inverter, and they said the wires that came with it were good for the amperage, I upgraded to 2/0 .@@proficientprepper
