Sister shop to Motorhome Facts
TomTom GO LIVE Camper & Caravan
The ultimate Sat Nav system for your motorhome, pre-programmed with 20,000+ POI's from the largest European Motorhoming Websites including the Motorhome Facts Campsite Database.
Welcome to Motorhomefacts, we are a thriving motorhome community (Largest in Europe). Why Not JOIN NOW and get instant access to more of the website. It costs nothing to join and only takes a few minutes. We have 200,000 different people visiting our site monthly and this amount of motorhomers in one place guarantees a fast response to any questions you may have. We also have unique facilities not found elsewhere such as our Online Logbook, stopover tracker, Motorhome directory with Ebay type feedback and the largest repository of motorhome campsites reviews found anywhere
With that much power you could consider running your fridge off 12V on a sunny day. There is a discussion about that on a German motorhome forum..
Pieter
Hi Pieter,
Yes, it is a 24V inverter but my thought was to run the 2 x 150ah batteries in series (12+12) and use the inverter to get 240V most of the time so we can watch TV, use satelite receiver, microwave or/and fridge?? Is that possible or you have to stick to 12volt inverters with motorhomes?
Thanks,
Fernando
So is the plan to have the 24V system seperate from the rest of the motorhome eectrics? And just use the invertor to give you 240V from that 24V system?
Assuming all the soloar panels are 12V then you need to run the two matching ones in series to generate the 24V output and have a regulator for that. The third smaller panel will be able to feed the stock motorhome battery (again via a regulator)
Is that the plan?
Only problem I can see is you can't charge the 24V system while driving (from a 12V alternator) and you can't use the 24V DC to feed any of the motorhome 12V electrics.
Can't really see any advantage to going 24V? True the DC input to the inverter wil use half the current but the capacity of the system is the same.
Can I ask why you need an inverter to watch the telly? Why not get a 12v telly and satellite receiving box. We've got 2 110 Elecsol batteries and 2X85 Watt panels a "Batterymaster" and we've never had a problem with power. We have a 12V telly, satellite box, LED lights, 12v slow cooker and obviously the water pump is run that way.
Our inverter is a 2000/4000W one and is connected to the lvehicle battery. Ann can dry her 1600W hairdryer from the inverter for 5 minutes, more than enough to dry her hair, without it affecting the battery. If I want to charge the laptop I can plug it in to the inverter and fully charge the battery from empty to full and again it doesn't affect the vehicle battery because of the Batterymaster, and the panels take care of the leisure batteries.
If we need anymore 240V power, i.e the roof mounted aircon, microwave, or the VAX cleaner, we just start the engine and let it tick over for the time we are using the inverter. The alternator is a standard one on a FIAT Ducato and gives out 90 Amps so again we've never had a problem.
I'm not saying my way is any better than yours, why would it be, but just an alternative to loading the roof with heavy panels and paying for them! We've lived in the van for 5 months at a time, from The Western Isles to Morocco and since having the panels fitted in September 2009 have only needed to hook up when the panels were covered in snow this last winter. Infact the only reason we have to locate "civilisation" for water and to empty the loo cassette!
I must admit though I have wondered about bigger capacity batteries when these need replacing!
So is the plan to have the 24V system seperate from the rest of the motorhome eectrics? And just use the invertor to give you 240V from that 24V system?
Assuming all the soloar panels are 12V then you need to run the two matching ones in series to generate the 24V output and have a regulator for that. The third smaller panel will be able to feed the stock motorhome battery (again via a regulator)
Is that the plan?
Only problem I can see is you can't charge the 24V system while driving (from a 12V alternator) and you can't use the 24V DC to feed any of the motorhome 12V electrics.
Can't really see any advantage to going 24V? True the DC input to the inverter wil use half the current but the capacity of the system is the same.[/quote]
That was my idea, to isolate those 2 panels and the 2 150ah batteries to the inverter and then use the fridge, tv, satelite receiver, etc.. off it at 240V. With regards to the panels voltage, I thought the 12/24v MPPT controller will work it out. I have pasted the panel specification for you to check. How can I tell if they are 12v or 24V? Looking at the spec, I would say they are 24V but not totally sure.
Typical Electrical Characteristics -
[size=9]Maximum Power (Pmax) Nominal 185 W
Voltage at Pmax (Vmp) 24.8 V
Current at Pmax (Imp) 7.5 A
Short circuit current (Isc) 8.1 A
Open-circuit voltage (Voc) 29.6 V
Module efficiency 14.1%
Temperature coefficients
Isc 0.05%/°C Voc -0.36%/°C Power-0.46%/°C[/size]
After what you and Annsman said, I might have to rethink this option.
Annsman,
I appreciate your comments, that gives me a lot of information of what is required but my problem is that I was planning to use my 28" 240v LCD TV-DVD, SKY HD box and laptop and obviously I would not like to start up the engine every time I want to use them. I heard 12 v Tvīs and Satelite boxes are quite expensive although this might be the way forward and avoid running the inverter for longer periods.
We are a little similar to you with two 180w and 1 120w panels feeding a 10a regulator from the 120w and 2 Morningstar MPPT 15a each for the 180w into 3 x 110AH wet deep cycle maintenance free leisure batteries and a 1000w modified sine wave inverter.
We travel with the sun so we are only in the UK for the two Summer months (if we ever guess when they are going to be!) and wander South for the Winter. We are fulltimers/long termers.
We are fairly heavy users (3 PCs on the go almost all the time...) and we find that we can make enough during even overcast days to keep us going during the evenings.
We use the PCs on 12v but don't have TV as we use the internet a lot via iPcopter (Alden 90). We have Alde hotwater and 5 radiators but when off hook, we are using gas for that.
We have got rid of all halogen lights. We have 2 CFL tubes and everything else is LED.
Hope that helps
Patrick
We are a little similar to you with two 180w and 1 120w panels feeding a 10a regulator from the 120w and 2 Morningstar MPPT 15a each for the 180w into 3 x 110AH wet deep cycle maintenance free leisure batteries and a 1000w modified sine wave inverter.
We travel with the sun so we are only in the UK for the two Summer months (if we ever guess when they are going to be!) and wander South for the Winter. We are fulltimers/long termers.
We are fairly heavy users (3 PCs on the go almost all the time...) and we find that we can make enough during even overcast days to keep us going during the evenings.
We use the PCs on 12v but don't have TV as we use the internet a lot via iPcopter (Alden 90). We have Alde hotwater and 5 radiators but when off hook, we are using gas for that.
We have got rid of all halogen lights. We have 2 CFL tubes and everything else is LED.
Hope that helps
Patrick
That's so helpful Patrick. It sounds promising! Just a few questions:
Are all your batteries connected to the vanīs alternator so they get charge as you drive along.
Is your inverter connected to all the leisure batteries or just one? Whatīs best, modified sine wave or pure? Which one and which size should I get in your opinion if we are planning to use the 240v tv and sky box for a few hours a day?
I just had a quick look at the Ipcoster website and looks good although expensive. Do you think this is the best way to connect to the internet whilst on the move round Europe?
Have I asked you too many questions? sorry
Many thanks in advance
Yes, it is a 24V inverter but my thought was to run the 2 x 150ah batteries in series (12+12) and use the inverter to get 240V most of the time so we can watch TV, use satelite receiver, microwave or/and fridge?? Is that possible or you have to stick to 12volt inverters with motorhomes?
Thanks,
Fernando
Well, yes you can, but it makes things unneccesarily complicated, with charging, using 12V van equipment, etc. The only advantage would be slightly thinner cabling for the inverter.
I would spend a few pounds extra on cabling and standardise on 12V, seems much simpler and more effective.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
All times are GMT + 1 Hour Page 2 of 2Goto page Previous1, 2
Republic Of Ireland
