Skoolie Solar System Install - Victron Inverters with Autoformer, 270Ah Battle Born Game Changers...

[@timf6916]

Nice Looking 👀

[@1067fmny]

That’s our bus! 😊 great job! Thank you again so much for hooking all this up for us!

[@ccrvsolar]

Thanks so much for choosing us to get you "Plugged into Nature"..... Hope to see you guys on the road somewhere one day.....

[@RVLifeWithTheMuirs]

Another great job Derek!

[@805_Raptor]

Awesome as always! Look forward to linking up with you guys again soon.

[@ccrvsolar]

Thanks so much, looking forward to seeing you again for the 3rd round of growing your RVs power capabilities....

[@ClassyBsAdventures]

Cool, I am in Florida for the winter in RV near Gainesville!

[@ccrvsolar]

Oh nice, hope all is well and if we don't see you this winter maybe we will this summer in Michigan if your around.....

[@ClassyBsAdventures]

@ccrvsolar sounds good - safe travels!

[@RollinHomies]

Lots of blue stuff in there. They’ll definitely want some exhaust fans. As you stated, that service panel is going to be annoying but sometimes you just gotta get stuff in there.

[@ccrvsolar]

Yea definitely the owner is going to put some exhaust fans in the wall once he gets it built.... The autoformer actually helps keep the system cooler I have noticed with my own setup, a 1200 watt load on one inverter will make it get warm but 600 watts on each inverter no so much.... He will still want air flow tho forsure.... Thanks for watching and commenting....

[@jake8882]

Nice work. I live in AZ. Curious. What is the magic of Quartzite all about?

[@RollinHomies]

A warmer place to stay in the winter, big tent event (lots of vendors selling polished rocks) and kind term dry camping with some accommodations at a very cheap monthly rate. I do believe it went up this year quite a bit, though.

[@ccrvsolar]

There is multiple reason we go there, the completely free camping just a few extra miles outside of quartzite but close enough to hit the easy in and out rv service stations on our way in and out of the area, tons of RVs, we have lots of friends and fellow Escapees we see there.... We really only spend about 3 weeks there but it's a place we go every winter.... It's kind of a right of passage for fulltimer rvers, you got to go to quartzite at least once....

[@jake8882]

@ccrvsolar that's great. I have a project starting in February there. So it should be a good time.

[@ccrvsolar]

@jake8882 what kind of project?

[@jake8882]

@ccrvsolar we are building a kids splash pad there. It does get hot out there. Ha

[@evil17]

Nice setup, well insulated, should be a great build when finished. Bit crampy on the breaker switch area, but what do you do? Lots of blue stuff, looks nice, I want one, what would this whole setup be worth/cost?

[@ccrvsolar]

This exact system with battle born batteries and the 200 watt panels around $27,000 with labor....change battery brands and use bigger panels I could shave 10-15% off that..... It's pricey but those who truely use the system regularly or in my case every day we couldn't live without it.... I have a few system options on my website as starting points....ccrvsolar.com Thanks so much for your comment.....

[@charlieodom9107]

Why did you choose to split phase the inverters instead of using the autotransformer to split phase? If you let the autotransformer do the split, he would be able to output power if one inverter goes down. Curious as to the reasoning behind split phase before the autotransformer.

[@ccrvsolar]

All the dual inverter installs I've done, which has been 80 or so, have been wired in split phase, autoformer or not.....I never run them in parallel due to the potential to overload the shared neutral.... The autoformer is installed solely for load balancing the inverters, the same autofomer can be used to make split phase out if single phase but it's not really great for that, it gets hot and shuts down..... I've installed 100s of victron inverters and the only 1 that failed and it was abused and I still had his power on in matter of hours, so I never really plan for an inverter failing.... I appreciate the question and everyone has their own opinion forsure, especially with rv solar.....

[@charlieodom9107]

@ccrvsolar they do fail, all the time, but not from manufacturer defects. They fail from outside sources like lightning strikes or power surges. I've even had capacitor failures in them. I've installed quite a few autotransformers and never had any issues with them as you suggest, but I have also never had a neutral overload like you suggest either. Maybe there is something you are doing wrong that is causing the issues. I currently have quite a few parallel inverter with autotransformer installations running for quite some time and never had an issue out of any of them.

[@ccrvsolar]

@charlieodom9107 Alright your totally welcome to your opinion. All my customers use surge protection from shore power, so again would be extremely rare to have an outside source fry an inverter....funny your sitting here telling me about all the inverters you have burned out which I haven't had but your telling me I'm doing something wrong, kind of ironic.... I've never had a neutral burn up because it was beat into my head from my first ever dual inverter install from my Victron contact not to do parallel systems in my RV applications....doesn't mean they won't work but from a liability standpoint I'm not doing it. Do you have circuit protection on your neutrals, I'm sure not. Single phase the neutral has amps and in a hybrid boost situation there can be more than 6g is rated for add some resistance somewhere and you have a hot connection....is it a rare sitiation sure but doing 1-2 RV Victron Solar systems install a week 50 weeks a year I meet all kinds, I'm not putting that liability in their hands.... And as for the autoformer a simple search on the victron forums will show you they get hot and shut down making split phase from single phase....if the load imbalance stays low between the legs they're fine so if your installing them to run one 220v appliance that might work for you but thats not how I'm using if I install it to make split phase..... Again to each their own, if your business model works for you great cause mine is has surely been working for me..... Thanks so much for the conversation.....

[@charlieodom9107]

@ccrvsolar oh no!!!! Not a surge protector!!! We all know those things work great, right??? You are comically ignorant! Please, continue; I haven't had a laugh this good in quite some time!!!

[@osmosisdaily]

How much weight is that damn

[@ccrvsolar]

Well depends on if we are talking just what's inside the back of the bus or including the roof rack and panels..... As for everything inside Victron equipment, batteries and wiring, is somewhere around 550 pounds, the solar panels themselves are about 325 pounds, the rack I didn't build but it's got to all of 400 pounds I bet.... So everything is definitely over a 1100 pounds.....for this skoolie it doesn't matter, for some RVs it totally does......