Mobile Solar panels for home use..... mounted on Expo Camper.

Coachgeo

Explorer
Life mostly for me can't afford duplication....... and since most time my (under construction) semi po-mans Overland/Expo camper will sit at home... My plan is to OVER solar the rig cause it will spend most time plugged into the house to provide a portion of home power. Since renology 100w panels were on sale... I just ordered 10. Saved about 300$

Here is the idea (nothing else purchased but panels, Rusty LMTV and 14.5 footAmbo box)

. Affix to top of cab a panel or two tiltable up at an angle to act as aerodynamic wind deflector (kill two birds one stone) May be wise to put lexan over it to protect it. ( Loose little volts / save a panel) fold flat when off road.
. Affix to roof ambo box 4? tiltable panels (or reverse order with the below rack set up)
. on aluminum rack above roof's panels, affix 4? panels on a slide out "solid" awning. (awning with option when extended to have more legs under for use in "HOME mode" . Home mode need stronger support for snow loads winds etc.
. Rear awning? Instead of 4 as described above; in each put 3 and use remaining panels for an additional awning that slides out or flips up over rear doors?
(awning concept is also to overcome the reality that to get best solar use when camping...... you no longer get choice to park in the shade. At home I have large south facing backyard with unobstructed sun access

. Po-mans Power wall (Prius? Tesla, Volt, Leaf wall?) mounted on rear door? of ambo or in one of the huge outer compartments.
. have; my nearly micro-home sized home, partially rewired (generator bypass?) to where I can unplug it from utilities and plug it to camper to utilize campers solar system. (Plan to start remodel of home next summer anyway)
.... maybe always keep on utility the electric heat; used to maintain about 55degree in winter when not home and when sleeping. Rest of time, I fire up wood stove. This also leaves 220v available for welder and my 2cnd microhome used for guest?
.... for camping mode, install sun lamps or better yet mosquito chase away fans that go under awning to use when solar intake is larger than battery storage?

Please add your "valuable" .02 cents , recommendation on next parts to buy (controller, power wall, mounts etc.) construction ideas of awning(s) would be great too. Open to suggestions for modifications to the plan.
 
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rayra

Expedition Leader
If the home is on the grid it's not safe to have the panels plugged into the house unless you are somehow isolating things so it doesn't backfeed to the grid. For lineman safety in a grid power outage, if nothing else.
You could isolate a couple of your essential circuits and use a proper transfer switch or other interlock device so you can readily flip from using your panels as the power source to using the 'normal' source, thereby avoiding any backfeed danger outside the home.
 

Coachgeo

Explorer
If the home is on the grid it's not safe to have the panels plugged into the house unless you are somehow isolating things so it doesn't backfeed to the grid. For lineman safety in a grid power outage, if nothing else.
You could isolate a couple of your essential circuits and use a proper transfer switch or other interlock device so you can readily flip from using your panels as the power source to using the 'normal' source, thereby avoiding any backfeed danger outside the home.
this is something that I am completely aware of and to remedy that situation; was thinking of going with an interlock setup for they are massively less expensive. Thought is to add new panel. It would be only panel direct fed from grid. In it is breakers and feeds for only house elec. heat and the guest microhome. This new one also feeds a leg of full power to the Old panel which will keep all the rest of the typical home stuff already in it. Butttt between the two is interlock that cuts power from new panel from reaching old panel. Interlock would also expose a port to plug generator or solar panel's battery etc. into.

The interlock will prevent any feed back into New Panel...... and on into power lines etc. yet will allow what ever is plugged in there to power everything in the old panel be it via a generator or solar orrr nuclear device lol
 
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Coachgeo

Explorer
How about keep your home loadcenter simple & conventional ? Then when parked at home your supersize solar truck applies power into a grid tie inverter. Just like any other gridtie system, ”interlock” is automatic via the inverter and excess power produced credits against billing.
I know nothing about grid tie invertors..... will have to do research. What happens when the power goes out?
 

Coachgeo

Explorer
More on grid inverter etc. from Sunwizard of burnveg.com (ps he has a solar company as well if I am not mistaken)

coachgeo said:
Here is the idea (nothing else purchased but panels, Rusty LMTV and 14.5 footAmbo box)

. Affix to top of cab a panel or two tiltable up at an angle to act as aerodynamic wind deflector (kill two birds one stone) May be wise to put lexan over it to protect it. ( Loose little volts / save a panel) fold flat when off road.
Best to fold flat when on road, and tilt up when not moving, they can't take force of a bird hitting them at 60 MPH for example, and lexan does't protect much compared to the tempered glass they come with.
. Affix to roof ambo box 4? tiltable panels (or reverse order with the below rack set up)
. on aluminum rack above roof's panels, affix 4? panels on a slide out "solid" awning. (awning with option when extended to have more legs under for use in "HOME mode" . Home mode need stronger support for snow loads winds etc.
. Rear awning? Instead of 4 as described above; in each put 3 and use remaining panels for an additional awning that slides out or flips up over rear doors?
(awning concept is also to overcome the reality that to get best solar use when camping...... you no longer get choice to park in the shade. At home I have large south facing backyard with unobstructed sun access
Tilt is a good idea since it will increase the power output by 30-50% but may be tricky if you have them on 3 different sets each with different tilt.
. Po-mans Power wall (Prius? Tesla, Volt, Leaf wall?) mounted on rear door? of ambo or in one of the huge outer compartments.
It might be too heavy to mount on the rear door, you need to figure out what size battery pack you need. With 1000 watts of panels I recommend at least 10kw of batteries so on an average day you would take them to 50% discharge and have extra for when you need. Lead acid golf cart batteries are the cheapest, but last about half as long: 4 years of cycle life compared to about 8 years for Li-ion that car makers now use. Get your own Li-ion pack is probably the best option since the power wall still is not for sale to public.
.... for camping mode, install sun lamps or better yet mosquito chase away fans that go under awning to use when solar intake is larger than battery storage?
If you size the battery right, you wont have to worry about that much. Get a charge controller that has max power point tracking (MPPT), since they cost only a little more and you store a decent amount more power per day. I would build my own mounts out of angle aluminum since you have to custom fit.

One of the bigger items you need is an inverter that converts from the 12 VDC to 120/240 VAC. For your use one that can do both grid tie and battery would be best, since then you would not need to drain your batteries and use up their limited life while at home (most of the time.) This is because with batteries, the cost per kwh of power by just computing battery cost per life is about $0.20 to 0.50 per kwh, compared to your grid power at around 0.10 per kwh. So it doesn't make economic sense to draw from battery at home if you have grid.

Ps- Off this topic but something ya'll might like..... I hope to for Months long trips have a trailer to tow that contains a plastics pryolysis setup for creating a diesel supplement to add to fuel. Maybe a wvo centrifuge as well.... though wvo is wayyyyyy harder to find than plastic.
Around here WVO is easy to find, and I have 1000's of gallons if you ever head this way.
 

Coachgeo

Explorer
SunWizard said:
More info: you can get 10x golf cart batteries plus an inverter for about $2500, which will provide about 12kwh of capacity, similar to the power wall which would cost $6000 but last 2x longer lifespan. Powerwall is smaller and lighter weight since its li-ion battery but its still 276 pounds. Note the off-grid use of power wall still cannot be done, so you would have to grid tie only unless you make your own battery + inverter combo.
was thinking of something like the large bank of Li-ion's they sell on ebay that are pulled out of elec. cars etc for the power wall battery bank. They run less than a grand.

example https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lith-ion-C...469651?hash=item1a34c4e913:g:K-QAAOSwE9lZsEON

but if I need 10kwh minimum.... then that is way to costly. Granted except when camper at home....... camper will not always have all panels exposed. Often the awning is not out... so half the panels are covered up.

Thus so far sounds like best way to go is either; NOT a full power wall in camper along with way to burn up excess power production when camping. When at home..... grid tie it all in .

Or... sadly...... mount some at home permanent with grid tie. Some on camper permanent (awning only?) with matching smaller battery bank and have camper able to be plugged into the grid tie system when at home.
 
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dwh

Tail-End Charlie
With a grid-tie inverter, running off battery when the grid is down, is called "islanding".

A normal grid-tie inverter shuts down when the grid is down because it has nothing to sync to.

Grid-tie inverters are expensive. Grid-tie inverters with islanding even more. Either way they have to be permitted,installed according to code, and inspected.


For 1000w of solar I wouldn't bother. Just put an inverter in the camper and run extension cords when needed.
 

Coachgeo

Explorer
coachgeo said:
SunWizard said:
Note that battery you linked would not be good since those panels put out up to 15V when charging, which is needed for lead acid batteries to get full charge.

I agree about grid tie when home being the way to go, with a smaller battery in RV, and you could rig up some way to connect the solar on the RV to the house system when home.

My house is 8200 watts of solar that is grid tied, and I used to sell off-grid solar for 30 years is how I know this stuff.
Yeah I recalled that there was a reason you were "sunwizard". So your out of the biz now?? retired?

what is your thoughts on mounting it all on camper with some power burn devices and smaller battery bank..... compared to mount some to home and some to camper? both options with grid tie
SunWizard said:
I Retired.
Power burn devices make no sense if you are grid tied, since when you make more than you use it stores up as $ credits on your account, which is nicer than just 'burn' it up. So do a smaller battery on RV, and mount all panels on RV, since then wiring is simpler and you have max. solar when on the road. This way you also put the grid tie+off grid inverter on RV so you have 110VAC on the road too. Then all you have to run from the RV to house is a 110 or 240V cord which is easier and smaller than 12V wiring for distance. Note for grid tied you have the extra expense of the safety equipment needed for that, and that all depends on the power company, and you need a licensed electrician to do it. You also may be able to get some rebate credits on your solar, I got a $4500 rebate back on my panels from my power company.
 
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Coachgeo

Explorer
coachgeo said:
SunWizard said:
...
Power burn devices make no sense if you are grid tied, ....
nooo no no.... your misunderstanding ( cause Im not explaining well) Power burn is ONLY for "camper mode" cause battery bank would be undersized for all the solar on it. Thus (and Im assuming) excess so elec. produced has to go somewhere requiring power burn off items.

...Had no thought of Power burners being in place at all when grid tied to home.
SunWizard said:
Produced power does not have to go anywhere. Even completly disconnecting the solar from the battery does no harm, and thats what some controllers do once the battery is full. No burn device needed on RV when off grid either, the charge controller tapers off the charge as the batteries get full, never overcharging.
Sweet..... ok that makes it easier
 
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