Van Electrical System Designed

[bdosborn]

I've got my electrical system laid out, I've got it designed around an Electrodacus BMS system, Victron Energy Products and 200AH CALB SE LiFePo4 batteries.


Bruce

[saltydawg]

Are you getting shunts, fuses and fuse boxes at a bulk discount?

I would run each solar charger to its own fuse on the fuse box, by math 30 amps each. This would save a few fuses, and put the power in where your using it. IE if the solar is producing 20 amps and your using 10, it would just send the extra 10 to the battery. Why bring it to the battery first, feed it in where its being used. You can still use a 60amp main fuse to protect the fuse box, as the most you could have going back and forth would be the solar charge current anyway. I know you have a switch going to the fuse boxes, but you could still have it.

Other wise it looks good.

[tony.latham]

Why two solar controllers?

Asking for a dumb friend.

Tony

[saltydawg]

Why two solar controllers?

Asking for a dumb friend.

Tony

If I had to guess because each panel is maxing out on what each panel can put out. I mean he does have a little room but not a lot,if he put both panels on one of those he would be close to what one could do.

[lfhoward]

Being in Colorado, do you need to build in a way to heat the battery so it stays above 32°F when charging? I have read that charging LiFePO4 at below freezing temperatures causes permanent battery damage.

[bdosborn]

Why two solar controllers?

That's a like to have as opposed to a must have. I like redundancy in power sources and two controllers lets you motor on if one fails. And, two Victron 75/15 are only $10 more than one 100/30.

Bruce

[tony.latham]

And, two Victron 75/15 are only $10 more than one 100/30.

Gotcha. I'll let my dumb friend know.

Tony

[bdosborn]

Being in Colorado, do you need to build in a way to heat the battery so it stays above 32°F when charging? I have read that charging LiFePO4 at below freezing temperatures causes permanent battery damage.

Yeah, you can't charge LiFePo4 below 32 and you can't store or use them below -4F. The Electrodacus and Victrons (redundancy again) won't allow charging below 32F. I'll either bring them in the garage for the winter season or rig up a heater using bee heaters.

Bruce

[bdosborn]

Gotcha. I let my dumb friend know.

P.S. Dual controllers handle shading issues better when compared to one controller with the two panels in series. It also keeps the array voltages below 48V. Last I checked, there weren't any recorded electrocution deaths from voltages below 48V. Horrible burns, but no deaths.
Bruce