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Old 01-17-2022, 06:16 PM   #1
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Any comment/reviews about htis battery ?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...GXN4H62H&psc=1
Ampere Time 24V 200Ah 5.12kWh Deep Cycle LiFePO4 Battery with Longer Runtime, Built-in 200A BMS, 4000+Cycles & 10 Year Lifetime, Perfect in Solar/Energy Storage System, RV, Marine, Backup Power, etc.

I'm about to pull the trigger on getting 2 for a 48VDC system.


Disinclination are my panels have a voltage at max power of 82VDC in series, and a lot of MPPT charge controllers won't work at that high an input voltage.


Any one recommend a good MPPT that does? Say 60A/hr minimum 80A/hr ideal?

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Old 01-17-2022, 07:21 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by TomDPerkins View Post
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...GXN4H62H&psc=1
Ampere Time 24V 200Ah 5.12kWh Deep Cycle LiFePO4 Battery with Longer Runtime, Built-in 200A BMS, 4000+Cycles & 10 Year Lifetime, Perfect in Solar/Energy Storage System, RV, Marine, Backup Power, etc.

I'm about to pull the trigger on getting 2 for a 48VDC system.


Disinclination are my panels have a voltage at max power of 82VDC in series, and a lot of MPPT charge controllers won't work at that high an input voltage.


Any one recommend a good MPPT that does? Say 60A/hr minimum 80A/hr ideal?
Judging by the cost of my battery (DIY purchased and built last summer) that sounds like a fair cost. Just my opinion.

You're saying your panels are 41 volts max output each? You can easily check to see what the recommendations are for solar charge controllers on the web.

If you know you will add panels in the future, of course you need to size the controller to accommodate, but remember there are a couple of ways to configure panels to manage both the max amps and max current the controller will allow.

I did NOT oversize my solar charge controller, one of the few components I just made sure was adequate for the current system plus a bit. Even though I placed my two panels (~480 watts total) so I could add two more, I don't expect to add more any time soon, and just stuck with 280 Amps of battery and a 40 amp controller.

I think if my usage demanded more solar I'd just upgrade the controller at that point. Plenty of other projects around the place where I could use the current one.
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Old 01-17-2022, 07:34 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by TomDPerkins View Post
Disinclination are my panels have a voltage at max power of 82VDC in series, and a lot of MPPT charge controllers won't work at that high an input voltage.

Any one recommend a good MPPT that does? Say 60A/hr minimum 80A/hr ideal?
The Morningstar Tristar TS-MPPT-60 is good for up to 150V and 60A. It's $665 from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun. I've put them in remote installations in India...some pretty remote and harsh environments...and they're super reliable.

The Epever 8420AN 80A MPPT Solar Charge Controller for $380, from SanTan Solar, handles up to 200V and 80A. I've had good experiences with these, too.
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Old 01-17-2022, 07:41 PM   #4
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Thank you Rucker...

They are at about 40.7 VDC at max power. I presume I need an MPPT able to accept 82VDC or more to get the best performance out of the panels. Should then be generating 48A.



I have a good deal on used panels which will at minimum be about 5.2kWh installed, I doubt I will add any (to the bus). What I am sure to do when I aim to be ready to full time it, potentially boon-docking a bit, is add batteries to 600AH total and a parallel inverter. Goal is to be able to be electric only for at least 1 day before I must run the generator. It seems like 48vdc and 600Ah will permit that.


In part because the sun shade and panels should keep direct solar gain off the skin of the bus and the panels should be at max output when most needed.


Winter heat (while docked for a while of course) will be wood heat, same as I use now.
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Old 01-17-2022, 10:09 PM   #5
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Victron 100v/30a times 2 (~$220 each) for charge controllers and redundancy.., They’re pretty great. They make 60a units too.
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Old 01-17-2022, 11:57 PM   #6
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Battery looks good. I'll add it to my consideration list when I'm ready to make a battery purchase! 5 year warranty, company looks like its been around for long enough to not worry about them being a startup that may go under next year. Overall pretty good reviews on Amazon... this looks to be a fairly new product, the oldest review on Amazon is less than a year old. If it were me I'd look at some of their other products on Amazon and see what the overall positive review percentage is and look for some older reviews to see how their products hold up over time.
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Old 01-18-2022, 12:36 PM   #7
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I bought them...

I will let you now how it goes.
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Old 01-18-2022, 02:55 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TomDPerkins View Post
They are at about 40.7 VDC at max power. I presume I need an MPPT able to accept 82VDC or more to get the best performance out of the panels. Should then be generating 48A.



I have a good deal on used panels which will at minimum be about 5.2kWh installed, I doubt I will add any (to the bus). What I am sure to do when I aim to be ready to full time it, potentially boon-docking a bit, is add batteries to 600AH total and a parallel inverter. Goal is to be able to be electric only for at least 1 day before I must run the generator. It seems like 48vdc and 600Ah will permit that.


In part because the sun shade and panels should keep direct solar gain off the skin of the bus and the panels should be at max output when most needed.


Winter heat (while docked for a while of course) will be wood heat, same as I use now.
Sounds like it might work. In my calculation the power needs for a fully solar A/C setup is about 1.5x the roof area of the bus. And while I still believe full solar A/C is beyond reach you make a very good point that shading is a major offset.

Especially with enough battery capacity to store/carry over.

I have a lot of roof area wide open to the sun. I've been noodling on a ripstop-based covering for the bus, something that shades it from direct sun (except the panels) that I can deploy when parked.
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Old 01-18-2022, 03:34 PM   #9
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While I have 200 amp hours of storage I'm not trying to go full time, I should only be camping for about one week out of the year then and usually on shore power.


To go full time I'm going to add 400 more amp hours storage at 48 V DC. With the current solar panels the full sunny winter day amp hour take should be 678ah hours on the low side. Might be 720ah. The best case sunny summer day take is a ridiculous 1600 amp hours. 1200 seems more likely.

I am thinking that if I have have 4 days out of 5 sunny I'm good and when I need to I run the genset.


Even with the mini split running 12 hours out of 24 it's not going to pull half my storage.


The question is with most of my windows deleted and the interior continuous spray foamed 2", with 34' of the 37' bus climate controlled, does the 12KW high efficiency mini split get the job done ? At 50% duty cycle ?


I dunno yet.


It's one of the inverter DC drive mini splits.
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Old 01-18-2022, 03:42 PM   #10
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i think one 12k BTU is going to be pushing it if parked in the sun for solar panel gain and it will really struggle to heat that space buy itself if for whatever reason you run out of fire wood for your stove
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Old 01-19-2022, 12:55 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by rossvtaylor View Post
The Morningstar Tristar TS-MPPT-60 is good for up to 150V and 60A. It's $665 from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun. I've put them in remote installations in India...some pretty remote and harsh environments...and they're super reliable.
I'm using a pair of them, one for each of my bus's two 1kW arrays. One reason I chose them is because they don't use cooling fans, so they'll be reliable in dry dusty conditions that I'll likely be in. I also like their optional remote control panels that I'll mount inside, next to my circuit breaker panels and the inverter's control panel. No problems with them so far!

John
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Old 01-19-2022, 07:17 AM   #12
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deleted, wrong spot for it.
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Old 01-19-2022, 07:18 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jolly Roger bus 223 View Post
i think one 12k BTU is going to be pushing it if parked in the sun for solar panel gain and it will really struggle to heat that space buy itself if for whatever reason you run out of fire wood for your stove

Thank you.


I completely agree about the winter heat situation, and have over 8 acres to pull firewood from. It is where I plan on wintering at least for the decade or so between being able to move onto the property and retirement. In summer, I think the elevation and attention to shading exposed metal and insulating will carry the day. If not, I have space for a 2nd mini-split set aside.
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Old 01-19-2022, 07:23 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iceni John View Post

Originally Posted by rossvtaylor
The Morningstar Tristar TS-MPPT-60 is good for up to 150V and 60A. It's $665 from Northern Arizona Wind and Sun. I've put them in remote installations in India...some pretty remote and harsh environments...and they're super reliable.

I'm using a pair of them, one for each of my bus's two 1kW arrays. One reason I chose them is because they don't use cooling fans, so they'll be reliable in dry dusty conditions that I'll likely be in. I also like their optional remote control panels that I'll mount inside, next to my circuit breaker panels and the inverter's control panel. No problems with them so far!

John

150V and 60A capable sounds like 9kw at max. I am curious about you having one apiece for a 1kW panel? I would think a bulletproof one would have far more conservative specs like 100V and 30A -- which is still 3kW for 1kW panel. Are you expecting to never be maintained (dusted off) and not fail for 10 years or so?
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