Finally getting started on the solar install for my GV. To save time I had Dan Heming at RV Solar Consulting (https://rvsolarconsulting.com/) design the whole system for me. I've known Dan for a number of years now and trust him. He prepared the schematic attached below, the entire parts list (including tools), and saved me about $400 on my parts compared to what I could l have purchased them on Amazon for. His service is $300 so it paid for itself with the savings. I highly recommend it if you're going to DIY a big system.
I'm still waiting on the roof rails for the panels so I got started on the hardware inside yesterday. Because of how the storage compartments are in these OREDs, I had to put all the hardware inside. This not only gives me the room I need but also solves the problem of keeping the LifePO4 batteries warm during cold weather. These are the batteries I chose: Amazon.com: Redodo 12V 300Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery, Built-in 200A BMS,... (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09DY2L5CX)
Once I removed the OEM icemaker, the first major hurdle was figuring out how to hang that much weight on the wall in the closet. I built a weight distribution board and if you look closely there are some #14 tappers holding it to the metal studs at the roof line and one vertical stud as well as a bunch of smaller wood screws holding it to the wall.
I plan to run the wires from the panels down the fridge vent and also put my own 12v fan in the closet that pumps out of that same fridge vent to help with excessive heat.
P.S. The last picture is what it looked like before I took out the ice maker and cabinet door.
How do you get your 12v systems to work with 48v system?
Victron makes a device that'll "dumb" it back down to 12v but my configuration will be native 12v
I use 2x2 screen room square tube for mounting.
Also. A structural windshield glue as well as some screws into the frame rails.
I've said this before. But. When removing the ac on the flat roof buses. There will be a low spot where the ac sat on the roof and be prone to leaks.
If you can. Add some height to that area with wood, foam and glass to raise it above the surrounding area.
More notes. I have noticed water pooling on my flat mounted panels . I cant imagine that water aids the solar wattage numbers. maybe a slight pitch would be better overall . ??
I tip my bus up a little , 2x12 under the front tires to help with water pooling, but it is not enough for the panels to shed water.
I have water pooling on the panels after pressure washing the roof. It blows off before I get to where I am going. Never worried about after a rain any wattage loss.
If slow and steady wins the race I'm going to have more gold medals than Michael Phelps. I'm not super happy about how the wire runs look, should have found a better way to hide them.
Another day of running inside wires and I think I'll be done with this part of the project
You could make a thin panel that goes over top of the whole setup with cutouts so the components stick through, but it hides the wiring. Then just attach it with a spacer and some thumb screws. That would hide the wiring while still allowing you to see all the components. It looks great!
That's a great idea. Maybe even a smoked panel type thing.
I wasn't sure how to get the AC wiring to and from the inverter without going down and under the coach. Given how much 6/3 Romeo costs, I opted for the shortest run possible, which meant putting it in the floor, so up came the new flooring that we had just put down. I cut a channel in the wood and the foam with my wonder saw and will fill it back in with expanding foam. Not a fun process.
Elliott,
Not to invade your thread, but I wonder if you parted with the 4-button thermostat yet?
Jim Frerichs
No four button tstat on this coach. I have the old school coil ones with a slider on this bad boy
What surge protector are you running? I have a Hughes watch dog and I asked about the incompatibility with the Multiplus II. I picked up the same inverter as you. I'm just trying to figure out how to wire this all up. I could put the inverter between the transfer switch and the surge protector, but then the inverter is unprotected. Just wonder what your plan was.
My surge protector is upstream from the inverter at the pedestal. That's how it's been with my last two Victron Multiplus units as well
Elliott, It's always a challenge in these installations to have neat wire installs. Your install looks pretty good to me!
My only thought I have for improvement is the wire angles on the second MPPT controller. It appears from the view angle that the DC input and output cables look like there is a hard 90 degree bend in the conductors as they enter the MPPT. This is a situation that should be avoided. A wire bend radius like all your other DC connections, with the copper conductors coming straight into the device connections would be safe and recommended as "best practices" for electrical connections.
Great job on the restoration of this 87 ORED, LOOKING REALLY GOOD!
Best, J & K
The inside is all done and wired up. Just waiting for some more hardware to ship early next week so I can get the panels on the roof.
NICE job Elliott....looks fantastic!
Kevin
Thanks, it's turning out ok :))
Here are some pictures of the two thermostatic computer fans I put in to move hot air out of there and up through the fridge vent
I'm successfully running one AC unit off the batteries without the help of a soft start ^.^d
Edit: OK the AC was impressive but I turned on all the old 12 V lights at the same time which are still incandescent and draw about 30A accumulatively and it kept up. 160amps out in the second picture
But for how long. And what's the ambient temp. Just wondering.
I only tested for 15 minutes. The batteries, without any solar input, should be able to run the AC units for about 5 hours before they are run empty.
At the time of testing, the ambient temperature wasn't much higher than anywhere else in the coach. The fans were keeping up on their lowest setting. I had the closet doors off though.
That's my goal, get my rear A/C wired into the inverter. How many amp hours of batteries do you have Elliott?
Kevin
We get about 5 hours on 600 AH with the Softstarts, so I think you are right on. Its a little wonky using the auto-gen start with the existing relay. One of these says I want to do what you did and add the Cerbo. Its a rare day we run AC on battery anyways, so not a lot of urgency on that one.
My two 9k btu mini splits pull less than that at full blast if you are looking for a way to increase efficiency. I was camping yesterday and they used 5kw overnight keeping things warm with a 45°F outdoor temp. The mini splits are also inverter drive compressors, so they "soft start" just by the way they work. You can turn them on and watch the load ramp up as it speeds up the compressor. They also vary the load as they are running and only pull a few hundred watts once the temperature is stable. I only have 2 8D lead acid batteries and I haven't tested the run time, but the Victron runs them both without any issue.
Several questions here relative to our GV. We're the heck did you put the inside units and for that matter, where are the outside ones also. Or.. are your mini's run off a single unit outside like our home is ?
And relative to the wiring thing. When you change over to running ACs off the inverter. Doesn't that mean that now everything in the coach now runs off the inverter. ( that's probably a no brainer ) I have thought a lot about switching the LR AC to the inverter but haven't pulled the trigger yet.
I started marking out the roof studs today and laying a plan of attack. The roof studs are typically 25 1/2 inches on center and the ones that run lengthwise of the coach on either side are 7 feet apart I think.
I bought some 8 inch wide, 1/8 inch thick aluminum that I am going to run the length of the coach in two separate runs. This will allow me to attach that to the studs as well as the luan underneath and then I Will drive #14 tappers through it all to secure the feet of the rack. That will give me a lot more holding power than if I were to just run the mounts right into the roof. It will also help with zipper affect. I have 10 feet for each side of the rack.
I am also going to run some steel cable diagonally from each side of the rack to help with crosswinds.
Racks are up and not going anywhere. I can rock the entire RV by pulling back-and-forth on one of the rails and they don't budge an inch.
This is awesome. What's your estimate of the weight of the whole array? Any concerns about running into axle capacity constraints?
I'm always concerned about axle weights but think I'll be fine. The panels add at extra 320lbs and the batteries are only 116lbs total. I've managed to save a bit of weight here and there on things like furniture too Won't know till I've weighed her but I'm optimistic
How are you attaching the 8 inch wide aluminum to the roof?
What is the height of the rail above the roof?
Thx
Tim
#12 tappers and enternabond tape along all edges
Thank you.
Rail height?
Tim
Sorry, rails are 14" high
Well that's all she wrote. Panels are installed and I just need to wait for the sun to come out tomorrow to test everything. I ended up not trying to shoehorn an eighth panel up there because there just wasn't as much structural integrity on either end as I would have liked to support it so I have four of them in series and three of them in parallel for a total of 3185 watts.
There's just enough and at the end of the coach for me to hop up there from the ladder and I plan to use some of it for my Starlink dish. I'm beat both mentally and physically, and have no desire to ever do this at a professional level.
If you don't do this professionally, how do you expect to make a small fortune from a large fortune?
Panels look great!
I know what you mean about doing that project again, my neighbors all think, I now live on the roof.
But I am getting closer to the end
Looks great!
Question for you.. I believe you said in an earlier comment that the rack did not move much, if at all, when pulling on it. Are you planning to brace it side to side/ front to back? Structurally, triangles are best, as squares/rectangles can collapse. Even a cross-member from the top of the passenger side to the bottom of the driver's side works great to prevent sway.
Another note.. while I have a different brand of rack, re-torquing has been a necessity. Almost lost the front panel due to a clamp coming loose driving through Pagosa. I ended up adding some lock-tite to each clamp bolt to, hopefully, prevent the bolt from loosening.
I have given the cross bracing notion a tremendous amount of thought, and have decided to wait and see what I think after our trip to Vegas. It would take a tremendous amount of force to make this rack budge at all in its current form since all of the legs Are secured into the roof studs+ the runners. It would be a pretty extreme scenario where crossbracing saves the day I think but we will see how it holds up over time.
I used Loctite on every single nut and bolt but will definitely be checking them periodically after hearing your story from the wife.
Well it's 11:30am here and I'm pulling in about 2100w. I have one AC unit running and I'm still charging the batteries at about 12amps.
With the help of the awnings, I think this rig should be able to go into 100° temps and still be comfortable with just one AC unit going.
Just enough room and materials left over for the Starlink bracket. I was able to configure it in such a way that the bracket I made for my jeep also fits on the coach so it's just for nuts when I want to swap back-and-forth
Looks fantastic....I was curious about how much power you would be cranking through with that number of panels. Thanks for the update and the info!
Kevin
It all looks very nice . Yes, you should have some sort of triangulation... If the vertical struts are tipped a wee bit, that could be enough.. If not, some gussets should do it.
Looking closer. a short strut from the rail to the panels to form a triangle will suffice. Might consider just on one side , so that the thermo change wont push the rails apart and wiggle on the roof screws.
Very Kool project. The little Starlink dish looks like a small fixed aileron at the trailing edge of your "wing". It will help hold the rear of the coach down at speed.
I've done some rough paper napkin aerodynamic calculations and predict that the lift created by your panels at 75 mph will reduce the weight load on your tires resulting in a 0.00658% decrease in tire wear. Driving into a stiff headwind will, of course, enhance this economic benefit (but will also adversely affect your MPG). See diagram below:
Who needs Saturday morning cartoons when you can do some light aerodynamics calculations instead?
here are some better photos of the full structure. Thank goodness for the rear spoiler, now if I ever need to race an old beat up tractor, I might take them in a quarter mile.
Elliot. What type of starlink dishy do you have. Is it the smaller one or the $2500 Mobil one.
I went ahead and added some crossbracing on both ends of the rack where I had room.
Just out of curiosity. What is your finished height now?
Our '89 GV measures 11'4" to the top of our storage pod above the bedroom.
Better safe than sorry.
One of my concerns with this racking system is redundancy for securing the panels down. Even though these rails are rated for 160mph winds, I hate not having a backup way to keep them down if the t bolt pulled out of the channel. I've attached a picture so you can see what I'm talking about.
Since two is one and one is none, I decided to add 4 band clamps on each panel. They aren't the primary means of securing the panels but they're there incase of an oh-shit moment.
@nitehawk ill get you overall measurements. Still definitely under 12' but maybe even 11
10.66' at the front most panel. Coach is off right now so it may come up a bit but the front airbags are still pretty full from driving it yesterday.
Well, we hit some of the gnarliest wind I've driven a coach through near the solar farms between Kingman and Las Vegas. Ventusky said 50+ mph gusts. The panels didn't move an inch and everything is still secure up there. It was trial by fire but she held up well.
One of the things we learned this summer is that in hot weather the little pie fans I put in the closet do not move enough air out when we are running heavy loads like the air conditioner going down the road. We were constantly battling overheating issues with the inverter so today I finally got around to installing a much bigger fan to move air out of the closet.
The is a 4" hvac fan meant for moving air through duct work that I put on a switch.
Elliott, that fan moving 280CFM should clear out the heat quickly.
If needed, a simple louvered register on the closet door with a 4" hole behind it will really get circulation going through that closet.
Of course on a really hot day, it might also pull the cool air out of your coach while sucking hot air in anywhere that's not sealed up good.
I mounted my hot electrics in the ceiling of the front lower compartment.
Cut an inlet hole and added an auto on exhaust fan .
Good idea to vent the hot air.
Be interested in how well the dryer vent louvers hold up while going down the road, both with the fan on and off. If its a problem then next time you are in Nac, Xtreme makes a good sized dryer vent cover that will not restrict air flow (much).
Elliot this project inspired a lot of what I did on our U270. Minus the massive solar install. Ours is just a measly 2060 watts. Thanks for documenting it so well. Tom