irony

[richard5933]

You guys are great! I'm really learning a few things here. It helps a lot in the advanced planning stages, for instance my genset has it's own dedicated battery and I'm hearing that it probably makes sense to keep it that way. Thank you.

Jim

Ditto.

Redundancy is great, especially when it can make the difference of being able to charge a drained chassis/house battery or not. We can bridge the genset start battery (deep cycle 8D) to aid our house batteries if needed, or the other way around. But, when we're operating on house batteries during dry camping we leave the genset battery isolated to ensure we have a failsafe.

[chessie4905]

For ones that have a toad, but no separate gen battery, have jumper cables for emergencies. GOOD jumper cables. Or, these new portable charger packs are nice.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/jump-starters/buying-guide/index.htm

[sledhead]

if everything fails I have one of these under the passenger seat of my Colorado and it works great just check it every now and then to see how the charge is . I used it to start my old ford 6 lt diesel and it worked every time . only down side is it takes a long time to charge the unit up 

https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GB70-UltraSafe-Lithium-Starter/dp/B016UG6PWE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548684823&sr=8-1&keywords=2000+amp+jump+starter

dave

[neoneddy]

Late to the party here, but with flat mounted solar in the winter expect 25-30%  output. Combine that with cold batteries having 50% or less capacity, any small power draw is magnified.

I've got nearly 2000w on the roof, and see barely 500 watts usable coming in now. In spring I'll see 1400+, summer well over 1800.

I love solar, but just be realistic about it.

[Fred Mc]

And if you really want to get serious about solar look at this fellows setup. He can run his ac off the solar.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtMV59ynKTI/

[DoubleEagle]

Slick, but how much did it cost, and what level of power is it actually producing? 

[Fred Mc]

If you go to his blog you can read all about it.But I think he has 4000 w of panels and has the batteries out of a Leaf electric car. He says the solar will run the a/c directly.

[neoneddy]

He (Juan) should be able to run the AC during most daylight hours from spring to fall with 4KW.   I can run mine now from 2-4 hours a day on straight solar on 1/2 that.

I have to more panels to try and fit on, we'll see how it goes.

[Jim Blackwood]

So one-upmanship means the next one gets panels sliding out to both sides right?

I love it! I think it's just slick as can be. If only the panels cost less...

Jim

[Fred Mc]

Ive been following this guy for a while.He bought the panels used  and got a pretty good price. He also bought the battery setup from an electric car(Leaf?) and reconfigured it to fit. If you look at the picture the bus is parked kinda crossways on his driveway and is only allowed to have it there 3 days a week due to regulations.Hell, I have 10 acres and sometimes thats not enough. He's quite ingenious.When he needed something welded he just bought a welder and taught himself to weld.

[windtrader]

We can bridge the genset start battery (deep cycle 8D) to aid our house batteries""

Richard - what sort of switch is used to connect/disconnect the batteries? I'm considering this rather than sorting out why the generator no longer charges to battery. Can get rid of the battery too and reclaim the real estate.

If all batteries go dead, I can jump start the generator with some jumper cables.

[richard5933]

https://www.bluesea.com/products/category/13/60/Remote_Battery_Switches/ML-Remote_Battery_Switches

This is what we are using. The remote is installed inside so I can work it without going outside when it's time to start the generator.

We keep it bridged whenever we're on shore power or after the generator is started. The only times we don't keep them bridged is 1) when starting the generator, and 2) when we're dry camping from battery only. I will bridge when we're on solar if there is enough charge coming in and the genset battery needs to be topped off, but usually on solar we leave it off.

A few reasons we don't bridge to start the generator: The shunt on the Victron BMS would nearly be at max current if for some reason the generator starter pulls from the house battery bank (dead genset, etc), to provide a backup (house battery bank) to start the generator in case there is a problem starting it, and most importantly because I'm OCD and it just seems wrong to start the generator with the batteries bridged for no good reason.

There is also a Xantrex Echo Charger in the mix for keeping the generator battery topped off, but it is usually off. That was installed before I decided to add the bridge between the battery banks. It can send up to 15 amps to the generator battery from the house battery bank when the charger is connected, but there is about a 0.2 - 0.5 volt drop in the Echo Charger, which means that during float charge the generator battery wasn't getting quite high enough voltage to keep things healthy.

I also use one of these remote switches for the house batteries. I have a manual switch first (so I can totally shut down when needed) and then the remote switch. This allows us to shut off the house batteries from the driver's seat if/when needed. Not just convenient - it also seemed like a good safety feature in case a device or appliance has a problem and I need to shut things down.

Also use one on the inverter so that when dry camping I can totally shut down the inverter. Otherwise ours has a small current draw just being connected.

Now that I've typed all that, even I can see the OCD coming through in the number of redundancies I've installed. But, they work so I'm sticking with my story.

[windtrader]

yep, you got all the bases covered multiple times. Gonna do the simple and correct option - drop it off at the generator shop. lol

[Geoff]

yep, you got all the bases covered multiple times. Gonna do the simple and correct option - drop it off at the generator shop. lol

I am my own "generator shop", and when I had a charging problem with my isolated generator battery, I switched over from a charge coil/rectifier to an automotive alternator.  My generator battery always lasts at least 5 years without a trickle charger.

[richard5933]

I am my own "generator shop", and when I had a charging problem with my isolated generator battery, I switched over from a charge coil/rectifier to an automotive alternator.  My generator battery always lasts at least 5 years without a trickle charger.

How often do you run your generator? Having an alternator on the genset is great for charging while running the gennie, but what do you do for the times in between?