Solar and RV battery charger

[J J]

Hi all,,, for those that have a solar system in there RV I’m wondering if you have to ensure the RV converter charger is disconnected, if your running on shore power, when you have the solar system on. I would imagine the two chargers would be fighting each other….  Second question, anyone have any hesitation leaving the solar system running while the RV is unattended…. I shouldn’t expect so but just wondering what everyone does as a matter of practice..

J

[Eddie & Aileen]

Hi JJ, you should have your system set-up where your solar will be the master and the power converter will be the slave. Your solar charger will be set-up with a higher absorption charge (to match what is required by your battery bank) and your converter is set a point or two less so the solar will always take lead in the charging of your battery bank. The voltage absorption charge will be different depending on the type of batteries you have in use in your bank.

You can leave a system charging if you have good circuit protection on all sides of your solar power system and you have a good quality solar power charge controller that has HQ internal protection like the MorningStar TriStar controllers.

Happy Trails!!! 

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Eddie & Aileen.

[J J]

Hi Eddie;

 

Using the Morningstar Tristar MPPT 45 so I do have lots of built in protection. I have both the solar input and output to the batteries protected by breakers so I should be OK. Thanks for the advice on the power converter operation. I have the solar controller set to the battery manufacturers spec for absorption that is indeed above what my RV power converter delivers.  This has been a fun project thus far, we will see how things go with the inverter and sub-panel.

J

[John]

 

 

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by John.

[J J]

Hi John;

The disconnects are in the form of breakers, a 40A one on the positive side from the solar panels and the other on the positive output from the controller that goes to the battery bank. That breaker is 60A.

[John]

Eddie will forget more than I’ll ever know about this stuff. Good luck in finishing up your system. Make sure you research how to maintain your batt bank. Bringing it up to “float” every 3-4 days or so with a generator may be important.

[Author]

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