Solar kit recommendation

[tbirdman]

After months of looking I purchased a small C, a 2002 Coach House 23' Ford V10. It was the first used RV that didn't smell or feel used. I paid 1/3 of what I would had paid for a new Travato which was the only B that met all my needs. I was concerned about buying new and taking a depreciation hit especially if I my traveling plans didn't work out. I know what I'm giving up, but At $24K I'm at the bottom of the depreciation curve with plenty of room for upgrades Already picked a radio upgrade to add backup camera, GPS, sat radio and BT.

Next step is replace the tube TV and VCR player. I also want to add solar. This AM Solar kit looks good. Nice heavy duty wire with the ability to migrate to lithium. Cost for 400W would be around $1900 with about $650 coming back as a tax credit so real price is around $1250. I don't have the RV yet so don't know how many panels I can fit.

I see kits for about half the price, but are suspect as with a 40A controller they should be using 6 gauge wire and they use 10. Do they really know what they are doing? A lot of the kits out their had the incorrect wire gauge.

Any other recommendations?

[stanw909]

I'm a real cheap guy so did my own from Renogy but AM Solar has a sterling reputation.I would suggest waiting and using the RV then decide if you even need solar let alone that big of a system.100 watts might serve you fine.When you get into 12 volt fridges and such will you find it is really needed to have big solar and battery banks.

[mkguitar]

comment on TV-

I upgraded ( or replaced) the 15" tv in my Pleasure way with a costco samsung 18".- $130

It fit with minor mods to the mounts

this tv is digital ready, so I was able to strip out the HDTV adapter box and wiring from the old tv- and a rats nest of cables.

what it really cool is that the TV has a media player- so I can play downloaded movies from a usb thumb drive plugged right into the TV- I have 64 gb thumbdrive- that's 35~40 movies. ( so no vcr or DVD...dvd's are on the way out)

also the TV came with a "wall wart" type AC/DC adapter...the tv has a 14 volt DC input- which I wired into the coach power.

so when in teh middle of nowhere we can watch movies from the drive, with low power consumption.

really really happy with this

power consumption- my coffee strategy is a percolator on the gas burner- rather than a AC powered unit

mike

[tbirdman]

Originally Posted by stanw909

I'm a real cheap guy so did my own from Renogy but AM Solar has a sterling reputation.I would suggest waiting and using the RV then decide if you even need solar let alone that big of a system.100 watts might serve you fine.When you get into 12 volt fridges and such will you find it is really needed to have big solar and battery banks.

I want to have the capability to go large in case I go to lithium one day. So I may only stick 200W up there but have room for expansion. Also need to figure my inverter strategy. I really need the inverter for charging laptop/Ipad/phones plus maybe the entertainment section so a small one would work. Would be nice to run the coffee maker, but that takes a much larger inverter. Ideally I would like to run everything off the inverter except AC/Microwave and fridge.

[tbirdman]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

comment on TV-

I upgraded ( or replaced) the 15" tv in my Pleasure way with a costco samsung 18".- $130

It fit with minor mods to the mounts

this tv is digital ready, so I was able to strip out the HDTV adapter box and wiring from the old tv- and a rats nest of cables.

what it really cool is that the TV has a media player- so I can play downloaded movies from a usb thumb drive plugged right into the TV- I have 64 gb thumbdrive- that's 35~40 movies. ( so no vcr or DVD...dvd's are on the way out)

also the TV came with a "wall wart" type AC/DC adapter...the tv has a 14 volt DC input- which I wired into the coach power.

so when in teh middle of nowhere we can watch movies from the drive, with low power consumption.

really really happy with this

mike

I want to go a little bigger than that, probably 32". Can you legally download movies to your USB drive?

[mkguitar]

yes- and i also have copied my dvd's onto harddrive.

this falls within the realm of making a "back up copy" of media you have already purchased.

downloaded movies are available for purchase thru itunes, amazon etc.
alot of stuff is also available for free - often documentaries

my van wouldn;t allow for a larger tv...and the thing is never farther than 6 feet away. running off DC power is a big plus.

mike

[stanw909]

All the things you mentioned except 32" tv are native dc. Why use inverter to change 12 volt power to 110 then back to 12 volt through wall warts ?

[booster]

There a few things to consider, especially with the future lithium plans. Whatever you do for solar is going to be as compatible as any other solar setup, for the most part. All of the controllers, that I know of, work pretty much the same as either basic or multistep chargers. You won't get the option of a full cutoff type charge profile or return amp charging (for lithium) unless you are into a very setup like an Outback inverter/charger/solar controller setup. 400 watts is a real push on the high end for the 2512ix, but you might want to do a series parallel and run it at 24v (might have to use the hv model for that, though). It is a good controller, but you really need the Pro Remote to get the good features.

As was mentioned, if you don't have compressor frig or other high use, 400 watts is probably overkill. Many get by on 100 watts, and 200 would be quite safe unless you are always in horrible solar conditions. How long you need to be off grid will determine a lot of what you really need.

If you are really looking forward to future compatibility with lithium, having the capability to move to high rate charging sources would be more important the solar size, I think. Big shore charger, maybe big alternator in the van. More solar will apply to all battery types.

If you don't want to be able to run the AC or microwave off the inverter, I would agree with those that say to try to get everything native 12v, so you can leave the inverter off almost all the time. It will pull 15-20 watts just idling, in most cases, which would use up at least one 100 watt solar panel's output (in good conditions) without even running anything,

[tbirdman]

Good point. So I just need maybe to add some 12V USB charging stations and maybe use a small inverter for the entertainment. I already have one 12V plug in the dinette area so maybe adding a few USB ports would suffice. I envision later when lithum batteries come even further down their price curve to upgrade to them. I will need a bigger inverter then as I will want to run the AC and microwave.

Maybe install a 200W system with capability up to 400W. Still need to figure out what room on the roof I have to put the panels.

Purchased the upgrade radio today. Now I will have backup camera, GPS, NAV and sat radio. Since the radio has capability for two cameras, I think I may go with two camera. One for the bumper area and then one for a more behind the RV view. Both would be beneficial when backing into a spot.