Big Solar on Motor Home 12 26 23

[@starwoodstudios1]

Dude you are racking up the views!

[@BrianBowden]

I chatted with this guy a bit on Facebook after someone posted there and he responded. It’s 4.4kW of solar. Not quite as much as I expected, but that’s still a whole lot of solar.

[@timaz1066]

Thank you very much for the information. Did he say how and where it is mounted to the chassis?

[@stevethomas9070]

Looks awesome. The wind in Quartzsite can blow 25-35 mph constantly with gust 40-50 mph. Hope you have taken that into consideration. 😊😊🌵

[@timaz1066]

It's not mine.

[@WindGypsy65]

WOW!

[@rosaburgos2416]

WOW 😮

[@SuperSushidog]

We just found your channel and subscribed. It sure looks like they maximized their roof space, which is our goal too. That lifting mechanism is sweet, but when lifted it looks like it might become a giant sail. I'd be afraid a big wind might come up and tip the MH over before I could lower it. A couple years ago we were boondocking at lake Mead when a 70+ mph wind came up and ripped the awning off our MH. The weird part is that the awning was rolled up at the time, but somehow the wind got behind it and caused it to bellow out. It destroyed our slide topper on the other side too. Five years ago, we took an early retirement, sold everything, bought an older MH and hit the road FT. It was the best decision we ever made. We discovered that we enjoy boondocking and it helps stretch our budget too. We quickly learned the advantages of solar and decided to build our solar/battery system in 2 phases, a 12v system for our basic 12v DC needs and a 48v system for our 110v A/C needs. We started with a pair of lead acid golf cart batteries and custom built a 620-watt liftable solar array mounted on the side of our motorhome. We lift the array to the optimal angle to improve their output by 20-30% vs flat mounted panels - even more in the winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, like this fellow does. It serves as a nice bedroom window awning too, practically lifting itself to the desired angle with a couple gas struts, and it's easy to clean with a windshield squeegee, standing safely on the ground. This set-up, while far from optimal, allowed us to boondock till we could afford to do better. We finished the 12v part of our build last January, with the addition of a 560ah LiFePo-4 battery that we built with 8, 280ah "A" grade prismatic cells. We use a Heltec 350amp BMS, and a 5a active balancer to keep the cells synched up. We typically use less than 20% of their capacity daily giving us enough reserve capacity for about a week of bad weather before we have to run our generator for charging. It cost us less than $1,500 to build this 560ah 12v (7.1Kwh) battery, including the high amp BMS and balancer. We chose these cells rather than a pre-built battery because they fit perfectly under the steps of our MH where our old pair of GC-2 golf cart batteries used to reside, saving 35lbs too. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a 1" 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 if they get too cold - or their life reduced from getting too hot. We use an 80A Progressive Dynamics LFP converter/charger, a 1,000w Renogy PSW inverter (to run our TV, PC, ice maker, etc.), an Epever 50a MPPT charge controller and a Lnex battery monitor/shunt. This entire 12v system cost us under $3,500 to build and takes care of all of our basic off-grid needs except for air conditioning and microwave use. By mounting our solar array on the side of our MH, we left the roof free to rack 8, 550W Sungold Power solar panels (4,400 watts) down the length of our 35ft Class A about 15" off our roof, above our AC, fan shrouds, etc. They will cover the entire roof, providing some nice shade with plenty of cooling air underneath, further increasing solar output and reducing the heat load on the air conditioners too. We bought them for only 51 cents/watt shipped to our door! We're assembling the components for this build now. We bought our aluminum racking material in Yuma, where we're wintering over this year, for under $400, which is the best price we've found. Our solar panels, wiring, breakers, etc. arrived a couple week ago, but we're taking our time to get everything in and installed over the winter. At 67 yrs old, we're moving much slower these days. Our Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W, 120V PSW Inverter/100A charge controller/battery charger just arrived last week. Our 48v battery bank will use 16, 320ah grade A prismatic cells which only cost us $1,726 from EEL batteries. So together with our 560ah (7.1 Kwh)12v bank, we will have a total of 23.5 Kwh of batteries onboard - kept charged with over 5,000 watts of solar. Unfortunately, only 620 watts of it are liftable. We removed our 24 yr old rear 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC and filled the hole it left with a powered roof vent. We well be installing an EG4 28.5 seer-2 plug and play 12k btu mini-split heat pump. This second phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning, supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our rooftop mounted Furrion AC in the front of our MH during peak afternoon hours, as well as give us whole house 120v ac power. We'll soon have total off-grid electrical independence on a budget we can afford, reserving our generator for back-up use only. Take care, we hope to see you down the road!

[@timaz1066]

That sounds like a heck of a system.

[@jacklandismcgowan1413]

Amazing setup that you’re putting together. Where did you find all the information regarding your setup? I’m in the process of selling my home and traveling in an rv or ambulance. Leaning towards the ambulance….retired pipe welder,fabricator. I built ambulances many years ago while I was in welding school. Happy New Year 😎

[@SuperSushidog]

@@jacklandismcgowan1413 I did a lot of research on the internet, like Will Prouse's you tube solar channel, and talked to a lot of fellow RVers about what their ideal system would look like, what they would do different, and so on. It took a while to put it all together and select the components that would fit my RV, stay within my weight limit and so on. I was on the roof today, doing some final Eterna Bond prep work. Next, I'll screw the brackets for my custom-built rack onto the roof trusses with 3/8" lag screws. Then I'll seal everything with Henry's Tropicool before mounting the rack superstructure and panels. If I can help with any questions, just fire away. Happy new year to you and yours! 🎆🎇🧨🎉🎊

[@jacklandismcgowan1413]

@@SuperSushidogThank you for your response and information. I will check out Will’s channel and start doing some research. I’m headed out to look at an ambulance today. Thanks again and have a safe, prosperous and healthy New Year.🎉🎉😎

[@cue881-yo7kz]

That is an impressive solar array!

[@timaz1066]

Thank You, Not mine but I hope to talk to them.

[@mark_osborne]

60 cell panels, likely 250 watts each x 18 = 4800 watts . Huge set up for sure I'll bet those mini-splits are reversing and he's trying to heat the coach on solar Let us know what you find out if you talk to him He's probably super smart and willing to talk most engineers are ;-)

[@timaz1066]

Thank you, I do want to try to catch him and talk to him about his set up. Hopefully he will be open to doing that and I will try to update the information here when I find out.

[@KevIsOffGrid]

I'd say they are 600w panels - full width of RV - so 6kw array, impressive.

[@timaz1066]

I guess we won't know unless I get a chance to talk to them.

[@safffff1000]

Don't be shy, knock on the door.

[@timaz1066]

Maybe one day

[@SoCalAdam]

Those look like QCells 87x41" 480w panels. 9x480 = 4.3kW. Most RV's are 8'6 max width (102") and 41*9 = 369" or just under 31' long. If this was a 32-36' motorhome that would make sense.

[@timaz1066]

I guess we won't know unless I get a chance to talk to them.

[@Bohonk212]

WTH are they running inside that thing? Meth lab?

[@timaz1066]

I'm sure they are running their heat through the mini split also. I would guess anything they want.

[@paulcurtis5496]

My current array: (8x540w/hr) + (5x445W/hr bifacial) 6,545w/hrs. The 540's are configured into a 4S2P and I need to add one more 445 to put that 5S into a 3S2P.

[@timaz1066]

Is this your solar setup in the video?

[@paulcurtis5496]

@@timaz1066 No, I have a 8.5x20 Toy Hauler conversion into Taj-Ma-Haul. I have 5 panels on the roof, and 2 x Solar Awnings that hold the rest.

[@saladbreath607]

One big gust...all i'm saying.

[@terrytytula]

Agree, don't know why they don't leave a gap between the panels to allow the wind to pass thought.

[@BrianBowden]

I’ve been here in Quartzsite for a bit, and that was my first thought too when I saw it. We’ve had some major windstorms though, and this guy’s setup has held up fine.

[@PopsGG]

I love it, but practically speaking, angling solar panels will only net around a 15% gain. The added cost to enabling tilting on an RV could be huge, if you have space for it, it makes more sense to add panels. In this case, they do not have more space, but they are likely making more energy than they need... unless they have a EV towed vehicle.

[@timaz1066]

I was told that 15% is all I would get when I angled my panels and that’s not true as I have seen up to 40% increase. I do my manually on my motorhome.

[@PopsGG]

@@timaz1066 it's true you can see a 40% again at a specific time(ie 10:00am), but over the course of a whole day the gain is only around 15%. It's a geometry problem. If you had a solar tracking system, that would be a ~40% gain for the whole day.

[@timaz1066]

@@PopsGG I get what you’re saying but that has not been my experience. I park my motorhome facing about 85° and I have four panels that are tilted and four panels that were put on previously that are flat so I can really see the difference and measure it. At times on a cloudy day the flat panels will actually make more power but that’s just at times.

[@dodgeplow]

PopsGG - I don't think money is a factor in this case...

[@KevIsOffGrid]

that depends entirely on your latitude and time of year, up here at 54N, this time of year the ideal angle is latitude +23.5 degrees, might be 15% better in Texas or Mexico, but up north that could be worth 300%.