Was sitting here bored watching it snow and websurfing and I ran across this interesting web-site. This guy seems to be an experienced solar and battery guru with an electrical background and real world solar living off the grid and without a gen-set......
The RV Battery Charging Puzzle « HandyBob's Blog (http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the-rv-battery-charging-puzzle-2/)
I found it interesting and informative.
Dean
Handy Bob used to spend most winters in the Quartzsite area doing a lot of solar installations and upgrades for RVers. I met him when we first started full timing. He was not very a happy camper when someone ran a generator near (within hearing distance, and he has excellent hearing) his "camp site". I think this is the first winter that he is staying at his Montana home-site. He is now in the process of building his off grid dream sticks and bricks home in Montana.
Roland
Yeah I gathered that he has a certain disdain for the sound of a generator running. Also that he is a self admitted grump. But I did glean some good information from his blog.
Dean
I had not seen this article before but after reading most of it I did at least learn that I have the same controller and Trimetic he is recommending to use and my wire sizes are 8 and 6 which is ok. I will read it again at home after holidays and maybe change them (were possible) to the next larger size as it does make sense to me in a dc setup. he is not a fan of AGM batteries and I also did consider Trojan's but hated the wet idea. As I use solar to charge 75% of the time and the controller is set up as Lifeline told us to I am sure my batteries are getting as good a full charge as possible-we will see. We also manage to live off the batteries most of the time as we have learnt how to manage usage. Our genset is also never on, just to exercise it once in a while. Maybe I should take it out and sell it, less weight to carry around!!!
John H
He is a bit arrogant, but I don't know anyone that knows more about RV solar systems than Handy Bob. When it comes to RV solar systems Bob is an expert. I have seen some of his installations, he did a great job charged less than the folks in town (Quartzsite) AND the systems he installed worked.
Roland
John H and I are on the same page. I live off solar for weeks and run the genset just to exercise it.
I plan to sell the 10 K PowerTech and replace with a 5 K quiet diesel.
I also learned quite a bit from Bob a few years ago, and found it refreshing to read info that was actually mostly correct.
While I agree with most of what Bob says (including preferring not to hear gensets), I do have some differences.