Oh yeah, for the last few weeks I’ve been busy, focused, to the point of ‘Tunnel Vision’. Every opportunity I have been workin’ on our solar upgrade. I was gonna wait till a later time to do this but after doin’ the batteries, transfer switch, inverter & TriMetric meter and seein’ how well everything worked together and that great deal on solar panels from Sun Electric and seein’ as how we needed some way to recharge those new batteries, I just had to go forward.
I ordered a MorningStar TriStar 45amp charge controller with remote temperature sensor from EcoDirect and some 10-2 tray cable to wire to the solar panels from Northern Arizona Wind & Sun.
I spent several days designing & building the power panel for the system. All wires terminate here instead of running everything to the battery terminals, much easier and it keeps all those connections away from that corrosive atmosphere in the battery box. I also installed a fusible disconnect and used one side for the feed from the panels to the solar controller and the other side for the feed from the solar controller to the batteries. I have a 300amp ‘Catastrophic Fuse’ installed in the positive feed from the batteries and a 500amp shunt on the negative battery feed. Here’s what it all looks like put together,
The disconnect is the gray box on the left, the TriStar Solar Controller is on the upper right, power panel is where all the connections are made, shunt is to the right and 300 amp fuse is to the left. The black box in the foreground is our battery enclosure with the vent hose going out a louver at the front of the coach. The wire to the left of the disconnect and solar controller go through the basement , into a plumbing vent pipe up to the roof and into a 4x4 PVC junction box. The junction box is where all the wire from the solar panels connect.
Next up was to build the mount for the solar panels. I wanted the mounts to be able to tilt to raise the panels at an angle during the winter when the sun is lower in the sky. First the feet had to be cut on a angle for opposite sides of the panels.
Then the foot that is fastened to the roof attached.
Voila’ I now have a panel mounted flat that I can tilt up to 50 degrees to either side when required.
Next job was mounting the panels, this turned into a back up & punt. I was mounting the panels to the the front of the coach and had the wire length figured for that placement. So much for Plan A.
I just figured on parking facing west and always tilting the panels to the drivers side of the coach, south.
Linda said we should put the panels where we could tilt the panels either direction in case we couldn’t park facing west. Here comes ‘Plan B’.
Do you know how hard it is to find a location where the panels won’t be shaded by something else on the roof? Well we now have a new location but I don’t have enough wire for this layout so I’m at a standstill till I get more.
On another note Froggi Donna & Stu are stayin’ around the corner from us so we’re gonna try to hookup in the next couple o’ days.
Well I better get goin’ so’s I can get back in that tunnel tomorrow.
Hope to see ya down the road as we’re:
If you build the solar panel at the roof of your home, it becomes part of the house. You may need to sell it together with your house if you decide to move to a new home. And you need to reinstall the solar power system at your new home.
ReplyDeleteGreat post - lots of useful information, especially the great prices at Sun Electric.
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