Hoo boy! It sure looks like I've got my work cut out for me ...
Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your host Marc Guido,
and while we're stationary in an RV park in Salt Lake City for the ski season we try to
get our major upgrades and other projects done. We wanted to share with you both the "whys"
and the "hows" of a major solar and lithium upgrade that we just underwent with our RV.
You may recall that around this same time last year we installed two 200-watt Renogy solar panels
to supplement the 190-watt GoPower panel that KZ installed at the factory. We then
paralleled all three panels together to generate 590 watts of solar power. At the same time
we replaced our two flooded wet-cell 12-volt lead acid batteries
with 300 Ah of Battle Born lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries.
We're now full-time RVers who use a lot of energy. Because we work full-time from the RV we're
running multiple computers, VOIP phones and more, all of which are energy hogs. And because it's
our home, many evenings we prefer to just sit and unwind on the couch in front of the television. On
our recent visit to Quartzsite we found that while boondocking we were losing 5-10% battery state
of charge per day, especially now that we have Starlink which draws 35 to 40 watts by itself. We
want to get back to 100% battery state of charge most afternoons so that our energy supply while
boondocking is basically unlimited. We therefore wanted to increase our battery capacity, but
with our daily loss we'd also have to increase our solar array even more to close that daily deficit.
So we'll add another 100 Ah of lithium with one additional Battle Born battery that we'll put
atop these two in our existing battery bank in our storage bay, where we've got plenty of room.
Lithium batteries can be installed anywhere, in any position, and don't need to be ventilated
as they don't give off noxious gasses. Here you can see the fourth 100 Ah Battle Born battery
installed atop two of the others, as we now have all four installed and wired in parallel.
We'll double our solar to 1200 watts. That means we'll have to add three more 200-watt
Renogy panels, and also replace this 190-watt GoPower panel so that we can wire three panels
each in series, then wire those two 600-watt banks of panels in parallel
with branch connectors before sending their energy to our solar controller. We've got
plenty of rooftop real estate still available for this. That also means replacing our inadequate
solar controller installed in our Durango at the factory by KZ, a 30-watt PWM GoPower controller.
We've opted to go with this Victron SmartSolar 150|100 solar controller. It's physically huge,
but this will accept up to 150 volts from our solar panel and deliver up to 100 amps
of charging current to our batteries. However, wiring the solar panels in series-parallel as
we're doing means a maximum potential current of 19.32 amps from solar panels to controller, which
means that we won't need to replace our 10-gauge wiring from rooftop to our battery compartment.
It also means a maximum 81 volts flowing through that wiring. Unlike a PWM solar controller,
an MPPT solar controller can convert those excess volts into charging amps to our batteries.
We've mounted the Victron controller as close to our batteries as possible.
This can produce up to 100 amps of charging current flowing into our batteries.
We've put a DC circuit breaker between our solar panels and our controller,
which will also function as a disconnect switch. We've also placed another 120-amp circuit breaker
between our solar controller and our batteries. It was difficult to cram everything in here
and make things perfectly level and straight, but we thankfully got it all to fit.
Our former GoPower solar controller was mounted in the wall within our RV's living space, which
left a gaping hole once it was removed. We've installed a Victron MPPT Control in its place.
This remote display provides everything we need to know about what's going on with our
solar controller at a quick glance, even though we could also pull out our phone and see the same
information displayed in the VictronConnect app via the solar controller's Bluetooth connection.
In order to fill the massive hole left in our wall by our old solar controller, we've fabricated
a bezel out of luan and stained it black to match, costing only a few bucks to complete.
This phase two of our solar power system cost us north of $3,000 bucks, and when combined
with last year's phase one we're now into solar and lithium for around $5,500. However,
this will allow us to boondock as we prefer to do on public lands while in the West, while still
silently meeting all of our power needs. When you factor in the cost of a paid campsite,
we should recoup this investment fairly quickly. Our final phase 3 of our power project, slated
for completion at some point this summer, will replace our 1200-watt DC to AC inverter with a
3000-watt inverter charger that unlike our current setup, will power every branch circuit in our RV.
If you'd like to replicate some of what we've done here, we'll put a link both here on the screen,
and down below in the video description to our Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon,
where we list all of the products that we use and love ourselves in our daily RV lives. It's
one-stop shopping for the RV products that we've tested and verified here at Grand Adventure.
But first, an important disclaimer. We're playing with a lot of volts and a lot of
amps of current here. We installed everything the best way we know how,
but we're not electricians. Do your own due diligence when installing a solar power system,
and consult a professional where appropriate, for installing things incorrectly, without using
the proper materials or implementing proper safeguards can have catastrophic consequences.
So we truly hope that you found this video interesting! If you liked this episode of
Grand Adventure please be sure to give us a big "thumbs up" down below! And while you're down
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