First 220RK Solar / Lithium install

[Flanaganjk]

Great info. I especially like the suggestion to use a tank heater pad to keep the lithium above 32. I do camp in the cold (Thanksgiving camping in Utah) and added a heating pad to my shopping list. Hoping to do a similar install this weekend on my solitude 377mbs. Did you run into any snags I should look out for, or have any “if I did it again” advice?

[DaveMatthewsBand]

Adding a few pics here...
Took these yesterday, sitting in the middle of a field (boondocking) pulling in 30a at the time, about 45a earlier, we were watching movies using the ac tv, Xbox and sound bar, charging 2 laptops and 2 iPhones simultaneously, while keeping all 4 batteries topped off.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

Great info. I especially like the suggestion to use a tank heater pad to keep the lithium above 32. I do camp in the cold (Thanksgiving camping in Utah) and added a heating pad to my shopping list. Hoping to do a similar install this weekend on my solitude 377mbs. Did you run into any snags I should look out for, or have any “if I did it again” advice?

My advice... would be to wire your hot water heater through your inverter even though most folks don’t... because it pulls a massive amount of electricity, about 125a from what I saw on my panel, so our installer didn’t wire it up that way but we had him go in afterwards and do it anyway, because these Battle Borns can handle it and our solar replaces that electricity very quickly.
If we had your standard set up with AGMs, I definitely would not wire it up that way. We run our water heater about 10 minutes a day so it really is not a problem for this setup.
Also, I’ve been saving propane during the day by running the frig on electric as well, which pulls down 28a according to my panel, again no issue since the solar replaces it almost immediately, then at night we switch the frig to gas. Thus far we are waking up in the mornings with our batteries between 86% and 93% depending on how much tv we watched the night before. They are at 100% by 10am.
Also, as you can tell from the photos, the inverter is mmassive and actually puts off a small amount of heat for that space, so it would have to be well below freezing for several days for that compartment to get anywhere near freezing, plus the batteries when they are being discharged produce heat as well. However if a situation did arise it’s not a big deal, we simply turn those two big switches on the wall there in the compartment and that disconnects the solar controllers from the batteries, so they cannot be charged. BUT we can still use all that glorious stored energy for days, while it’s below freezing.


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[Flanaganjk]

Most folks don’t wire the electric water heater through the inverter because it pulls a massive amount of electricity, about 125a from what I saw on my panel, so our installer didn’t wire it up that way but we had him go in afterwards and do it because these Battle Borns can handle it. We run our water heater about 10 minutes a day so it really is not a problem for this setup. We can replace that power in a few minutes on a sunny day, we haven’t figured out how to make propane yet. [emoji3]
Also, I’ve been saving propane during the day by running the frig on electric as well, which pulls down 28a according to my panel, again no issue since the solar replaces it almost immediately, then at night we switch the frig to gas. Thus far we are waking up in the mornings with our batteries between 86% and 93% depending on how much tv we watched the night before. They are at 100% by 10am.



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That's amazing! I'm getting super excited. I'm hoping I can find some time this weekend to get the project rolling. My wife will be happy to see the boxes of stuff moved out of the living room

[DaveMatthewsBand]

That's amazing! I'm getting super excited. I'm hoping I can find some time this weekend to get the project rolling. My wife will be happy to see the boxes of stuff moved out of the living room

Oops
I edited my comment above and added some additional information for you, but you posted a reply before I was done editing. LOL


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[Flanaganjk]

Oops
I edited my comment above and added some additional information for you, but you posted a reply before I was done editing. LOL


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That's helpful advice. I especially like the idea of putting the water heater on electric - it's nice to have the option.

[Rwj5000]

Well I’m impressed!! Who did your install if you don’t mind my asking?

[Wizbangdoodle]

Very nice. We are full timing on solar and a generator ourselves. I have the same inverter and remote. The question I have for you is, what settings did you use for you LiPo batteries. The ARC-50 gives you the choice of lead acid, AGM and custom. I assume you had to set custom and set all your charge parameters manually? I currently have 890ah of AGM batteries and was curious about your comment that 400ah of LiPo is like 800ah of AGM. Do you have data on this? How do LiPos recharge so fast? In full sun I can get over 1200watts from my ~1500 watts of panels, however I have to throttle that back when charging so I get a max of about 80-90 amps when on solar.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

Well we made it to Lubbock!

Heading to New Mexico tomorrow morning, We just haven’t figured out exactly at present. Here’s a couple of photos I took yesterday when we stopped at a rest stop. It was overcast, but I was pleased to see how much power we were pulling in. We don’t run the fridge on gas when we are traveling, instead we leave it on AC so the solar powers that and charges the batteries, you can see in the photo the fridge is using 32a but the solar is pulling in 46a.

I prefer posting using my laptop but I am trying this app while traveling, I hope these photos are showing up correctly.






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[DaveMatthewsBand]

Well I’m impressed!! Who did your install if you don’t mind my asking?

Brian Boone, he’s been traveling the country doing installs for 17 years.






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