Re: Solar Upgrade Reply #25 – April 28, 2023, 02:33:47 pm Greetings,I managed to get all of my new Renogy panels attached to our 2014 MB roof - five 100 watt panels all the way along the passenger side, one 100 watt panel on the driver side next to the A/C hood, and two 200 watt panels in the middle, in front of the A/C hood. Things are a bit tight, but not too bad - and despite what the photo seems to indicate, I do have plenty of room the step onto/off of the roof when ascending/descending on the ladder.For attachment, I used aluminum strut channel (unistrut, low profile 13/16" high by 1-5/8" wide) held by 3M VHB 4950 double backed tape. Strut channel nuts, along with aluminum brackets for side attachment and small pieces of aluminum angle for end attachment, give me a strong connection to the unistrut. I used 1/4" stainless steel bolts with lock washers to attach through the bracket/angle into rivet nuts that I set into the panel sides (this requires some care to make sure things line up properly). By the way, I got the unistrut, aluminum angle and strut channel nuts from McMaster-Carr (thanks, Andy Baird) - I was able to visit their Santa Fe Springs distribution center for pickup. That's a huge operation.I've wired the panels into a temporary configuration. Two of the 100 watt panels (middle panel on the passenger side, and driver side) are connected to the existing SolarBoost 3000i and the existing AGM house battery (two 6V in series). The other six panels are connected via the refrigerator vent to our Bluetti AC200MAX portable power station. I wired these in series/parallel - three series pairs, the three pairs (two pairs of 100s and the pair of 200s) in parallel through a 3-to-1 branch connector.I've been testing with the AC200MAX, and so far so good. The AC200MAX's MPPT controller has a 15A ceiling, which at 38.4 volts I can sometimes exceed by 5 or 6 amps, but the controller just ignores the excess.We have several camping trips to do in this mode before we get to the downstream electronics replacement: new controller(s), lithium batteries, 3kW inverter, etc., but we will definitely do it. Although the AC200MAX has a generous layout of output ports (four 110V A/C, two 12V DC/10A, one 12V DC/30A, one USB-C 100W, two USB-A 18W, one USB-A SVDC/3A, and even a 30 amp plug), it gets tiresome messing around with extension cords.As usual, thanks to all for your sage advice.Tim 2 Likes
Re: Solar Upgrade Reply #26 – April 28, 2023, 02:35:36 pm Oh, and yes, I will definitely take care of the wiring mess before we head out next week!Tim 1 Likes
Topic: Solar Upgrade (Read 705 times)
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Topic: Solar Upgrade (Read 705 times)
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