Adding Solar power to my travel trailer
Solar power is essential to me in a trailer. I went with 2 175 watt panels and four 6v deep cycle trojan 105 batteries. I added a distro box for the DC and the ac is ran independant with the ability to plug it into the xantrex 2000 watt inverter if needed.
wiring coming along (wasnt done yet)
inverter mount and trimetric meter
after insulation
2×4 mounts to the steel girder underneath
the exposed black struts are what the mounts attach to for reference. my wood slats are to attach the insulation
mounts have hinges for future angle tweaking
mounted and 3 way splitters installed for a future panel addition. panels are lag bolted into the 2x4s on custom aluminum L brackets.
Next I'll do a post about Insulating the inside to survive burning man.
Vaxination
That's a pretty interesting project. Are you going to add a teansfer switch for a backup generator? I guess you could have a grid tie inverter to make it all seemless but I know that's big $.
so currently what I have is a seperate AC network for house power that my inverter powers if I plug it in or I just plug in to generator power. I also have a trickle charger interconnected for topping off the battery bank if I'm on gennie power or I disconnect it if on inverter power. I dont have one of those charge controllers that auto deals with shore power like the ones Xantrex makes, I have a simpler charge controller that just handles solar and then another trickle charge controller in case I need to top off the battery bank. I'll post more articles about the trailer project as I've done alot of custom build outs in it that DIY people might find interesting. Give me a follow if you want to follow along. thanks!
Sounds like a good setup. It seems like you could also use it for getting clean power for sensitive electronics on the go. Solar power on a high quality inverter is probably pretty stable but I probably wouldn't want to run a laptop straight off a generator circuit.
I used to own a propane backup gen and I loved it. Quieter and cleaner than gasoline and you can stock up on tanks and store them for a long time. Plus propane is useful for so many other things.
yea the xantrex I have is prosine so its clean for sensitive electronics. I also have a yamaha EF2400i generator that provides clean power for electronics so really my power is clean no matter where its coming from. Solar direct to inverter isnt a great solution but with the battery bank I have alot of watt hours to play with.
Nevermind I just realized that is exactly what you have. I need new glasses.
forgot to add the last shot with the panels on, updated!
Looking forward to it. I am following.
Thanks for sharing! I'm planning to add solar to our RV this fall. Right now we have one 100W panel we can put out when we're boondocking but that only extends the time we can be off grid by a few days.
I noticed you have a Trimetric meter, they come so highly recommended that I think I'll probably get one too.