OK, subscribed! I've got 2x 100AH lithium. Man I'd live to build this battery bank!! I have some large panels, I need more battery power. Nice Job! Looks great!
You can find some amazing deals on Aliexpress, I have also gotten some cells from Battery Hookup, they sell all kinds of stuff but you really need to be careful with them I got some pretty marginal cells from them.
Wow, sound like you built a great system super cheaply! Congrats! What brand BMS did you use? I just built a 12v 560ah bank using grade "A" 280ah prismatic cells, but I spent about as much as you did for only 8 cells. We paid $1380 for our raw cells with busbars. When we add the cost of a Heltec 350A BMS and 5A active balancer it came to around $1,500. Where did you get yours from? Mine are rated at 6,000 cycles at 100% DOD. Are yours rated similarly? I got mine from a California warehouse in about a week, so I guess that's why I paid a little more. I love them though. They didn't take much top balancing as they were pretty closely matched. I will be building a 48v bank soon but plan on using the 310ah cells. I will be using both 12v and 48v systems on my motorhome. I also plan on using an all-in-one system like you are for my 48v bank. We looked at the MPP 3048, and was going to get this model, till I found the Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W, 120V PSW Inverter, 80a 500V MPPT charge controller with a 40a ac battery charger. www.amazon.com/SUNGOLDPOWER-Inverter-Sine-Wave-Charger-Battery/dp/B0B468XWVZ?th=1 The reason we chose this all-in-one is because the idle power consumption is only 25 watts - and it's only $800. Most this size have an idle power consumption over 70 watts and cost at least $1,200. It also has a 63 amp pass through when plugged in at an RV park. So together with our 560ah (7.1 Kwh)12v bank, we will have a total of 23Kwh of batteries onboard. We will be replacing our old rear 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC with a super high-efficiency 12k Btu 48v DC mini-split heat pump from Cold and Colder.com that only draws 750 watts at peak output and less than 500 watts when it's cooling normally. It's the most efficient one I've seen, even better than the Hotspot 48vDC mini-split. We started our build 4 years ago with a 620-watt liftable array mounted on the side of our motorhome. It serves as a nice bedroom window awning too. It practically lifts 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. Lifting an array to the correct angle for latitude and month, produces 25-30% more power than a flat mounted array - even more in winter when the sun is low on the horizon. By mounting our current solar array on the side of our MH, we left the roof free to rack 8, 460W bifacial solar panels in a single row down the length of our 35ft Class A. If you're not familiar with bifacial panels, the front side of these is rated at 460 watts with up to 25% additional wattage output from reflected light on the back side, for a total of up to 575 watts, depending on how they are mounted. We will be racking ours about 13" off the roof to clear our front AC shroud and vents. This clearance should conservatively produce another 10% output off the back of these bifacial panels, from sunlight reflected off our white roof - more during off-peak hours and in the winter. It will give us some nice shade too, reducing the heat load on our air conditioners.
Hey Chip Dog, I would love to see and hear more about your system. I got my cells from Aliexpress on a black friday special and have never seen them that low since which was over 2 years ago, I spent under $1600 for all grade A spec 280ah eve cells with shipping. I however do not love my cells and they are not perfectly balanced they drift alot during usage but the active balance should help this. I originally had a Daly BMS and it worked fine but no low temp cutoff and it did a poor job of balancing, so I got a JK BMS with active balance and bluetooth, I love it's versatility and discovered it on Peter's channel "solar garage". I also follow Will Prowse but he doesn't do much with RV's anymore. I am thinking about doing a 12volt battery and solar system but I kinda want to keep it simple. A friend I met in New Orleans a few years ago had a van build with a big 12 volt bank and no solar he simply charged off his alternator, it was a very simple setup that was based off of marine system. I am not familiar with sungoldpower but I love the specs, I wish I had a larger capacity in both transfer and inverter and the higher solar input voltage is pretty much standard these days. I got my MPP solar over 3 years ago and made that decision because alot of people have used them for years on small off grid cottages and love the reliability however because it is so versatile it can be a pain to program but I have recently added the solar panels and went totally off grid so my settings have changed. Thanks for the response, and enjoy the build Chris
@@adventurezinrecovery It's funny you mentioned New Orleans as that's my hometown. I've seen RVs with dual alternator set-ups that work well if you move every couple of days. But if you sit in one place for 2 weeks at a time (the BLM and FS camping limit) it would get expensive running your big engine just to charge your batteries. A generator is much more efficient. It would really depend on your lifestyle and boondocking habits if using this method exclusively would be practical or not. I have a battery-to-battery charger, for charging off my MHs alternator when enroute, but I haven't had to use it much. Between my solar and my 80 amp Progressive Dynamics converter/charger they keep my battery topped off daily. I just recently experienced a week of overcast days while boondocking at the reservoir in Sutherland, NE, but even with limited solar charging, I was able to keep my battery at 100% just with incidental generator use - like running my microwave or making a pot of rice with my rice cooker. It's satisfying to look at my battery monitor and see 15 amps coming from the converter to power my coach while another 65 amps is going directly into the battery, knowing it's not going to overcharge it either, like a big alternator might. I used to watch Will Prouse a lot. I learned how to top balance my battery from him. I think Peter's channel is funny. They do things a little differently down under, but lots of good stuff can be gleaned from his experiments too. From what I understand buying batteries online can be a crap shoot. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you might get a couple bad cells - even from a reputable vender. I don't want the hassle of returning cells to China which is why I went with a company with USA stock - though I'm sure I paid for this convenience up front. It's tough if you're moving every couple of weeks to receive amazon deliveries, much less keep up with returns. It can be expensive (not to mention inconvenient) to sit in an RV park for a month or more paying for hookups because the batteries you live off of are in transit from China. I guess you've gotta pay to play. Take care, Chip
OK, subscribed! I've got 2x 100AH lithium. Man I'd live to build this battery bank!!
I have some large panels, I need more battery power.
Nice Job! Looks great!
You can find some amazing deals on Aliexpress, I have also gotten some cells from Battery Hookup, they sell all kinds of stuff but you really need to be careful with them I got some pretty marginal cells from them.
Nice.
Wow, sound like you built a great system super cheaply! Congrats! What brand BMS did you use? I just built a 12v 560ah bank using grade "A" 280ah prismatic cells, but I spent about as much as you did for only 8 cells. We paid $1380 for our raw cells with busbars. When we add the cost of a Heltec 350A BMS and 5A active balancer it came to around $1,500. Where did you get yours from? Mine are rated at 6,000 cycles at 100% DOD. Are yours rated similarly? I got mine from a California warehouse in about a week, so I guess that's why I paid a little more. I love them though. They didn't take much top balancing as they were pretty closely matched.
I will be building a 48v bank soon but plan on using the 310ah cells. I will be using both 12v and 48v systems on my motorhome. I also plan on using an all-in-one system like you are for my 48v bank. We looked at the MPP 3048, and was going to get this model, till I found the Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W, 120V PSW Inverter, 80a 500V MPPT charge controller with a 40a ac battery charger. www.amazon.com/SUNGOLDPOWER-Inverter-Sine-Wave-Charger-Battery/dp/B0B468XWVZ?th=1 The reason we chose this all-in-one is because the idle power consumption is only 25 watts - and it's only $800. Most this size have an idle power consumption over 70 watts and cost at least $1,200. It also has a 63 amp pass through when plugged in at an RV park. So together with our 560ah (7.1 Kwh)12v bank, we will have a total of 23Kwh of batteries onboard. We will be replacing our old rear 13.5k btu rooftop Dometic AC with a super high-efficiency 12k Btu 48v DC mini-split heat pump from Cold and Colder.com that only draws 750 watts at peak output and less than 500 watts when it's cooling normally. It's the most efficient one I've seen, even better than the Hotspot 48vDC mini-split.
We started our build 4 years ago with a 620-watt liftable array mounted on the side of our motorhome. It serves as a nice bedroom window awning too. It practically lifts 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. Lifting an array to the correct angle for latitude and month, produces 25-30% more power than a flat mounted array - even more in winter when the sun is low on the horizon. By mounting our current solar array on the side of our MH, we left the roof free to rack 8, 460W bifacial solar panels in a single row down the length of our 35ft Class A. If you're not familiar with bifacial panels, the front side of these is rated at 460 watts with up to 25% additional wattage output from reflected light on the back side, for a total of up to 575 watts, depending on how they are mounted. We will be racking ours about 13" off the roof to clear our front AC shroud and vents. This clearance should conservatively produce another 10% output off the back of these bifacial panels, from sunlight reflected off our white roof - more during off-peak hours and in the winter. It will give us some nice shade too, reducing the heat load on our air conditioners.
Hey Chip Dog, I would love to see and hear more about your system. I got my cells from Aliexpress on a black friday special and have never seen them that low since which was over 2 years ago, I spent under $1600 for all grade A spec 280ah eve cells with shipping. I however do not love my cells and they are not perfectly balanced they drift alot during usage but the active balance should help this. I originally had a Daly BMS and it worked fine but no low temp cutoff and it did a poor job of balancing, so I got a JK BMS with active balance and bluetooth, I love it's versatility and discovered it on Peter's channel "solar garage". I also follow Will Prowse but he doesn't do much with RV's anymore. I am thinking about doing a 12volt battery and solar system but I kinda want to keep it simple. A friend I met in New Orleans a few years ago had a van build with a big 12 volt bank and no solar he simply charged off his alternator, it was a very simple setup that was based off of marine system. I am not familiar with sungoldpower but I love the specs, I wish I had a larger capacity in both transfer and inverter and the higher solar input voltage is pretty much standard these days. I got my MPP solar over 3 years ago and made that decision because alot of people have used them for years on small off grid cottages and love the reliability however because it is so versatile it can be a pain to program but I have recently added the solar panels and went totally off grid so my settings have changed.
Thanks for the response, and enjoy the build
Chris
@@adventurezinrecovery It's funny you mentioned New Orleans as that's my hometown. I've seen RVs with dual alternator set-ups that work well if you move every couple of days. But if you sit in one place for 2 weeks at a time (the BLM and FS camping limit) it would get expensive running your big engine just to charge your batteries. A generator is much more efficient. It would really depend on your lifestyle and boondocking habits if using this method exclusively would be practical or not. I have a battery-to-battery charger, for charging off my MHs alternator when enroute, but I haven't had to use it much. Between my solar and my 80 amp Progressive Dynamics converter/charger they keep my battery topped off daily. I just recently experienced a week of overcast days while boondocking at the reservoir in Sutherland, NE, but even with limited solar charging, I was able to keep my battery at 100% just with incidental generator use - like running my microwave or making a pot of rice with my rice cooker. It's satisfying to look at my battery monitor and see 15 amps coming from the converter to power my coach while another 65 amps is going directly into the battery, knowing it's not going to overcharge it either, like a big alternator might.
I used to watch Will Prouse a lot. I learned how to top balance my battery from him. I think Peter's channel is funny. They do things a little differently down under, but lots of good stuff can be gleaned from his experiments too. From what I understand buying batteries online can be a crap shoot. Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you might get a couple bad cells - even from a reputable vender. I don't want the hassle of returning cells to China which is why I went with a company with USA stock - though I'm sure I paid for this convenience up front. It's tough if you're moving every couple of weeks to receive amazon deliveries, much less keep up with returns. It can be expensive (not to mention inconvenient) to sit in an RV park for a month or more paying for hookups because the batteries you live off of are in transit from China. I guess you've gotta pay to play.
Take care,
Chip