House/Solar/Electrical layout help

[physast]

I am about to upgrade my house/battery/solar setup and wanted to get some input/feedback from the group. The diagram shows what I am in the process of doing.

Setup:
House Battery: 200AH Renogy battery with bluetooth
Controller: Renogy DCC50 with a BT-2 (bluetooth attached)
Battery charger: Noco geniuspro25
Solar Currently installed: 100 Watt
Battery monitor: Renogy battery monitor
Fuses: ANL (see diagram)
Fuse Block: Blue sea 12 circuit
Busbars: 300 Amp

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1967 L633 VW beetle (currently being restored...slowly)
1991 Orly Blue Vanaru 2.5L

[dobryan]

I would recommend running the pos and neg from the 'controller' directly to the house battery rather than through the blocks as shown. My understanding is you want no places for voltage drop between the 'controller' and the house battery.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[fxr]

I wouldn't use the Noco battery charger, especially connected to the Alt input rather than direct to the battery. 'Smart' chargers just don't work in that configuration for lots of reasons, I can expand if you really want to know.

Better to use a power supply (the ones suggested for LiFePO4 top-balancing work well) connected directly to your 200Ah battery. This is what I use. With the output voltage limited to 14.4V, and current unlimited, this will happily fully charge the battery when connected to shore power. If this remains in the van permanently, it'd be a good idea to replace the multi-turn variable resistors with presets, to prevent accidental changes to the voltage output.
_________________
Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[physast]

Dave,
I will have to do some test on the voltage drop with and without the busbar. Would be interesting.

fxr,
I am not a electrician by trade. Not sure what the difference would be to connect directly to the starter battery and then have another wire directly from the starter to the controller. I know the controller charges the starter battery first then sends current to the house battery. Not sure the NOCO would know to keep charging after the starter is full.

The controller would be set to lithium battery if I read the manual correctly. I am still reading up on all the different devices.

Some questions:
1) If I go with the NOCO, does it matter if the NOCO uses the chassis as a ground, or should it be tied with the House ground busbar?

2) Would the battery monitor work in this configuration? Nothing is on the left side of the shunt, so I assume it will (never used one before).
_________________
1967 L633 VW beetle (currently being restored...slowly)
1991 Orly Blue Vanaru 2.5L

[fxr]

I repeat, the Noco won't work except intermittently at low current when connected to the starter battery (Alt input) with the DCC50S in circuit and the same (but for slightly different reasons) if connected to direct to the house battery. It's an 'intelligent' charger - it doesn't expect your battery to be connected to anything else at all, whether other charging sources or loads. It'll get confused with what the battery needs and although it will eventually charge the house battery it'll take absolutely ages even with no load.

Get a proper voltage limited high current power supply, such as:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M9N73YQ

Also, the DCC50S may suck too much current for your setup. You need a high output alternator, capable of 140A continuous to be able to both power your van and to charge the LFP battery when there's no solar at night. Even taking just 25A from the alternator (as when driving in sunlight) can tax 130A alternators. The DCC30S is a better bet.
_________________
Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[physast]

[Sodo]

If you don't have an electric fridge what are you going to do with all that battery power?
Electric blankets?
Air conditioning?

I have:

Renogy 60a DC-DC charger
Subaru Tribeca alternator (130A)
150Ah of LiFePo4 laid flat under the driver seat.
Iota 30A shore charger
100 watts Solar panel

Main draws are truckfridge, Propex and a few LEDs.
The BMS shows the alternator charging at 56 amps.
I've nothing to report WRT the alternator being over-stressed.

I added a switch to turn off the 60A DC charger because after a few minutes the batteries were always full.
I rarely switch the DC charger to “on” because its kinda “no fun” when there's nothing for the solar panels to do.

I never got around to hooking up the Iota 120v shore charger.
Now I can’t imagine when I’d need it.
Don’t worry too much about the Noco for now.

150Ah + 100w would last about 10 days in the summer with solar.
There some days where it would go down 7-8% at night and come back 7-8% in the daytime.
150Ah seems to last about 5 days in the winter sun.
That 200A Li battery solves a lot of charging problems.

But trouble is brewing with my batteries.
Its been 20 months using this system, and one of my cells is leaking.
I’m top-balancing the set today.
Tomorrow if the cells are all fully charged I will do a battery capacity test.
Prob better to discuss that battery problem in its own thread---->150Ah LiFePo4 flat under driver seat + swivelectomy
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[space]

Do you have a ground to the fuse block? (not sure why you would need one)
Also, what is the shunt controlling?
looks like the grnd
If so why the Pos connection?
Shouldnt the monitor have a pos connection?
Not familiar with individual components, but looks like you have a couple short circuits
_________________
82 westy
w:
2.5 JDM Subie
Rear discs

[physast]

I am powering a truckfridge led lights and charging mainly.

THe monitor has a pos+ connection which is through the shunt. The diagram does not explain that very well.

The fuse box is grounded with the battery to the Chassis.
_________________
1967 L633 VW beetle (currently being restored...slowly)
1991 Orly Blue Vanaru 2.5L

[fxr]

[DuncanS]

You say you are not a super buddy with electrons. Whether or not you own some piece of gear, if some one says not to use it, then why would you say you will use it anyway. There has been a ton of stuff posted on this very topic. Read everything listed under FAQs. And here are some from a Google search. Made a screen shot, but for some reason I can't add it to my gallery photos. In any event, try https://www.google.com/search?q=aux+vanagon+batter...nt=gws-wiz and scroll down to see a bunch of Samba options.

Remember, you can weld with a battery and if you get it wrong things can get red hot in an instant and the car can become a military burn pit before you know it. A 100AH battery has the energy equivalent in it of about a third of a gallon of gas. If a third of a gallon of gas in uncontrolled energy is released inside a vehicle it can get quite interesting.

Duncan

[crazyvwvanman]

I have no experience with it but a quick look at it shows it described as thus:

"The GENIUSPRO25 is a 6-volt,12-volt, and 24-volt fully-automatic professional smart charger, maintainer, power supply, and battery-desulfator all in one units. With temperature compensation rated at 25-amps for all types of automotive, marine, and deep-cycle batteries including 12V, 12V AGM, 12V Lithium batteries."


Since it claims it can be a charger and power supply I can understand how the OP might think it could do what he wants.
Maybe there is a detailed manual for it that explains the details and limitations. I don't have time to look.

Mark

[DuncanS]

Reading Mark's post got me to thinking as he is the best for electrical advice.

The Noco does seem to be quite a piece of gear. The PRO50 has a battery capacity of 2000AH for $900. The OP has a 25, which they say has 1000AH. If true, that's a hell of a lot of available LiPo juice for the price. Also, if true, you shouldn't need any house battery at all. One unit should do all the charging controlling, monitoring and supplying by itself.

So this leads me back to the diagram he first showed us. There is a 200AH Battery as well along with the Renogy50S which is also a battery charger.

It's hard to know exactly how this all fits together, especially because of the mystery shunt. And I don't see any 110 shore power, so are all three batteries charged from the alternator?

In any case, although I'm on decent speaking terms with electrons and some of their buddies from back in the prehistoric before the island continent of India had crashed into the Tibetan mainland, all this new fangled stuff is beyond any help I can contribute, so I'm bowing out, but wish him well as he has a ton of great gear from what I can tell. Sound good enough to hit the Darien Gap and never run out of juice.

Duncan

[jocoman]

How often would you want to charge your starter battery? probably not often as that's what the alternator does.
So, If you need to charge the starter battery, disconnect the pos cable and put your charger on it. simple!
_________________
'86 Westfalia 2.0L Zetec
'97 Volvo 850 AWD Turbo
" The fun never stops"

[physast]

Thanks everyone for the help so far. Most of the equipment I was lucky enough to be gifted to from a friend who decided to bail on his campervan project.

The NOCO is charged from shore power only. Not charged or used during any other scenario.

The service and house battery are charged through the alternator while driving. Solar and/or shore (through NOCO) if camping.

When my buddy had the equipment hooked up in his van the NOCO connected to shore would charge the house battery (He had a 100AH LI) very fast I think it was under 3 hours and keep his service battery topped up. This was also through a DC-DC charger, however not the same unit I have.

I contacted both Renogy and NOCO and they have both told me the setup I have should work fine, but I always like to get user feedback from the samba and hopefully connect with someone who has experience with the products.

What got me asking in the first place was during some initial testing seeing current discrepancy between the battery monitor and the Renogy battery+charger using the renogy app. In my line of work this usually means something is not right and can cause a bigger issue later on.

I am in the process of reading the NOCO manual now.
_________________
1967 L633 VW beetle (currently being restored...slowly)
1991 Orly Blue Vanaru 2.5L

[physast]

[fxr]

Re-reading the Noco specs, you could connect it directly to the LFP battery - but it's pointless connecting it to the starter battery. Just turn it on in charger mode, NOT 12V power supply mode, as that will be too low a voltage.
_________________
Jim Crowther
1984 1.9l EJ22 Westy Wolfsburg Edition
Vespa GTS 300

[tillhebel]

Hi guys,

I am about to install my Renogy 100W solar panel and was looking for some help regarding the wiring to my auxiliary battery.

I currently have a ProMariner ProSport 12 onboard charger installed as well as an inverter. The Renogy panel comes with the charge controller.

The question i had is whether I connect the solar charge controller directly to the house battery or if i need to connect it to the onboard charger? This might be a stupid question but I'll admit that I am no expert and I want to careful

Thank you for your help!

[jimf909]

You posted this same question in a different thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=718824&start=60

Posting the same question in different threads will lead to multiple responses that can be hard to track and runs counter to samba dos and don'ts:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4
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- Jim