Recommendations for house electrical

pbansen

Active member
I'm revising and adding to an existing SMB build, so I have a Group 4 battery mounted under the floor, a Blue Seas automatic charging relay and a Progressive Dynamics charger that I may or may not incorporate in the new work. I want to add solar charging and an inverter - although not a huge one - enough for charging a laptop or some other occasional AC requirements.

Looking for recommendations on solar panels and a charge controller, battery monitor and direction on coordinating all of those charging methods (solar, charging from the Sprinter charging system and potential shore-line use when needed). I've been reading everything I can on electrical systems and poring over the schematics posted on here, but I'm coming up with varying conclusions on how to proceed and what components to acquire, so throw some more ideas out there, if you would, please!

I can see how it would be advantageous to go with one brand of battery monitor/charge controller (Victron seems to be an especially designed/manufactured brand), but help me out with the advantages/disadvantages of buying a solar package (like the Renogy packages sold by Amazon) where one manufacturer provides the panels, charge controller and inverter. Are the controllers in those packages significantly less capable than other on the market? There's a lot of gear out there and it's a confusing and complex prospect to try to assemble a capable, flexible system.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

Pete
Reno, Nevada
 
Go with Victron. The equipment is well built, firmware upgradeable, and well integrated. Protocols and some firmware are open. You can add a Venus GX to complete integration. Victron support is also excellent, you can actually speak with an engineer. Pkys.com is a good place to buy from, also offers good support.
 

Kevsuda

Active member
Wiring in your solar could be as easy as wiring in a light, a water pump, or any other accessory. I wired it strait to my fuse block that distributes power to my light, pumps, etc.. Wiring in the shunt/batt monitor is simple too. It just becomes your new neg. terminal.

For your panels, you need to determine what you want them to do. Just supplement your current system where 100 watts may do or become your main charging source where 200+ watts will be more appropriate.

For a charge controller, I went with a generic MPPT tracer ($125) that's sold on amazon under about 4 different brand names. They got pretty decent reviews and I haven't had any issues. It's probably one of those things, I just don't know what I'm missing from the controllers that costs $100-$200 more than what I paid.

Other than the shunt, I can't think of an absolute need to change the way anything else is hooked up just to add solar.
 

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