School me on Solar

[syncro surf]

A buddy of mine just installed a solar system on his Sprinter. When I went to check the progress I was fairly blown away by the complexity of his set up.

Powered by 400 watts of panels. Can some of you experts tell me if this a crazy install or is this just what it takes? I have gathered that most vanagons run about 200 watts. Is 400 watts the issue here?

[E1]

Gadget Kings will love that.

I'm simple-minded so do not.

The more crap you have, the more issues you will have — an eternal and unavoidable truth in almost everything.

We have a 120-watt portable (highly recommend a portable if you're parked much) charging two 100aH AGMs, wired to GoWesty's 1100-watt inverter for the times we run a blender. If never needing that level of power, I'd buy a smaller inverter of maybe 400 watts to save power.

Here in the sunny West, it's enough to keep a laptop charged all day while running a 27" monitor and have enough left over to crank tunes and/or watch a movie or two on said monitor when pitch black.

Not a tech guy but have run this setup full-time for nearly five years. I paid a good installer with more cerebral capacity than I (small feat, that), and paid extra for big cable and a great isolator. I also let the alternator charge all three batteries, which saves a ton of solar time though totals an alternator every couple years.

If doing this all over I'd do it exactly this way again, though I might add a charger on those two weeks a year we have shore power.
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[0to60in6min]

[E1]

The 90 isn't unless you wanna climb a hill.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[shagginwagon83]

I don't think the wattage is any relevance in this situation. More wattage, more need for bigger controller to handle that.

That being said, if it is a lithium battery setup. This setup probably also charges through the alternator. I don't think lithium batteries like being over charged. So I would imagine there is some sort relay there that shuts off current once that battery us fully charged.

That being said I'm sort of new to solar and would love to see the wiring diagram for that bad boy.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan

[Yellow Rabbit]

[E1]

83? WOW, mine's only 82!!!

(probably 70 now…)

Edit: Not in a hurry at all, the only time I'd like more hp (torque, really…) is for heavy off road action.


Panel is from Zamp Solar in Bend. 25-year warranty, not cheap but worth the dough in my experience.

Probably has 1,000 days' use now, I'd buy another one in a minute.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[RichBenn]

The smart move on solar is:
1. Reduce consumption first. LEDs are WAY cheaper than solar. You also do not probably need 110 volt appliances. Plenty of DC and hand crank appliances. nverters cost the batteries, even when there is no load.

2. Figure your needs in a 24 hr. period, then in a weekend. Typical big draw items are DC fridges, propex heater fan, followed by big hifi subwoofered audio.

3. Use an MPPT controller to eek out extra so you don't need as much panel.

4. Plan on draining your batteries only 50% down if you want them to have a normal life.

The short rule of thumb- 60 watt panel/55 amp battery- if you have no power big draw items (see number 2). 100 plus watts panels/100 aH if you have one big draw item. 200 or so watts/2 6V 200ah batteries if you have 2 or more big draws. Naturaly this will vary some, but a good starting point for what works reasonably in the small vanagon.
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Rich

[jmillsj]

That’s a very nice set-up. Those are Victron Energy lithium iron phosphate batteries and they have an external battery management system, which is a lot of what you see. It’s nicely done.
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia EJ25
Vanagon owner since 1995

[r39o]

Your buddy's system is loaded for bear.

Some of the items I can not identify.

Without a system diagram it is hard to say what all is going on BUT,

it looks like a system with more and bigger bells and louder whistles than you can fit in a Vanagon!

A lot looks networked and who knows all the charge paths and discharge circuits and not forgetting the manual (red) switch combinations.

400 watts of panels may or may not be enough for this rig.

I am impressed (depressed?) seeing all that hardware in there.

it is not inexpensive and likely way overkill for a Vanagon.
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"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!

1990 Multivan EJ 22, Rancho trans 0.82 4th, Small Car front AC, CLKs w/ 215/65-16, homemade big brakes 303mm, Konis, Recaros, etc....

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[RichBenn]

[syncro surf]

[r39o]

#MeToo

I have been happy with 110ah provided by two golf cart batteries and 60 watts of panels for many years now.

That on the cheap system was like $600 added up.

That person spent kilo bucks on all that electro bling.
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"Use the SEARCH, Luke" But first visit the Vanagon FAQ!

1990 Multivan EJ 22, Rancho trans 0.82 4th, Small Car front AC, CLKs w/ 215/65-16, homemade big brakes 303mm, Konis, Recaros, etc....

Click to see my ads for Cup holders, Subaru clutch fix and CLK wheels (no wheels currently)

[erste]

your buddy's setup is awesome and looks very well done, but don't let the complexity scare you away from adding solar to your syncro.

Here's a picture of my more modest setup for reference (in the middle of a stereo install so some stuff is unhooked / unfinished):

- Optima yellow top
- Solar Epic 10A MPPT charge controller
- Solar Epic MT-50 remote display (mounted in the side panel behind the driver's seat)
- Blue Sea Systems ACR
- Blue Sea Systems Fuse Holders
- Blue Sea Systems Fuse panel
- Kingsolar 120w flexible solar panel (not shown / mounted on roof rack) this panel gets returned a lot on amazon for minimal damage to the plastic where it cracks at the ferrules, so you can get a pretty good deal on it. Flexible panels won't have the same longevity of rigid panels though.

As you can see, everything pretty much fits under the driver's seat. If I were to add another panel I'd probably need a 20A charge controller, which is larger and wouldn't fit under the seat with the fuse panel there.

The yellow top probably isn't ideal, but I've been happy with it and it meets my needs so far.

I would point out that the MT-50 will shut everything down to preserve the battery at only like 11.5v, so you really only have 1.5-2 volts to play with, which was not the impression I got even after tons of research.

If you search this forum you'll find a lot of solar threads with wiring diagrams that will help point you in the right direction.

The one special tool that I didn't know about or have was this lug crimping tool:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X51S00/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

good luck with your system!

[E1]

Very cool build!

Are you saying your Optima holds 13.0-13.5 volts, or shows that as a surface charge in daylight?
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[erste]

[E1]

Thanks, Erste. Our inverter has an alarm at 11, but it hasn't gone off for two years. We watch it closely and shut down at 11.5 as a bottom. But we use a Yeti and block ice so no draw there (and why we bought a Yeti to focus power on a monitor).

I see mid-13s in the sun, too, but it drops with the sun even with zero load. My understanding is a battery can't store much above 12.7 volts for long. Even if we do a full day of blinding charge and no load, the next morning the batteries are still only at 12.72. Ours are AGMs, seems lead acid holds either slightly more or slightly less, not sure. Our controller is a simple, on-panel unit to prevent overcharge.

If I need a long day's power and it's pouring, maybe once every 30 days, we resort to firing the "big generator," all 1.9 liters of 'er. We use very close to one gallon's gas for an hour's idle and that gets us roughly 0.7 volts of charge. Only used in moments of desperation.
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[RichBenn]

[E1]

Great stuff Rich, Thanks.

One side benefit of a portable is immediate charge gratification. If I wanna know what the actual charge is, I just unplug the portable and check the inverter readout. It tends to read a few hundredths of a volt below testing the batteries (four feet of cable away), but gets me in the ballpark.

Stupid-simple can be bliss.
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Abscate]

That Sprinter install has at least four major workmanship flaws in the installation. This is an area best left to the pros if you don’t want your Bus or Van burned up.

You cannot acquire expertise By reading the internet or looking at pictures
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.ssS!