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  • New house bus

    Hi, i recently bought a house bus.
    It has 7 solar panels totalling 465watt, a new Epever 40 mppt controller and 4 x 6volt 225ah batteries in series/parallel to give 12 volts and 450ah.
    I expect the panels are reasonably old as they are probably low wattage.
    Im wondering what the best options are to balance the system? I'm expecting there are not enough panel wattage. The bus has a diesel heater, gas fridge, toilet fan, gas hot water, led lighting, and rechargable vaccum cleaner. So all pretty low usage. Phone charging and laptop at times. Electric water pump too so thats a reasonable drain but only when running water. One person living in it.
    Thanks

  • #2
    Even with 465watts of panel I doubt they are producing anywhere near what that battery system requires. If the panels were mounted so they point directly at the sun the might produce 38amps of charging which is barely enough for a 450Ah system (or C/11.8). My guess is that the batteries will die unless you can get at least a C/10 charge rate which would be 45amps and that CC is only rated for 40amps max. which is barely enough to keep the batteries happy.

    My suggestion is to either get more panel wattage and a bigger CC or reduce the battery system Ah rating which would also reduce how much power you can get out of them. So try to determine how many daily watt hours you need and then size your batteries from that and your panel wattage & CC based on what the batteries need.

    Whomever sold you the bus did not set up the solar pv system with the correct values.

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    • #3
      Geez it's not that bad. The bus can provide charge via the alternator, right? Given your low power needs, you have more than enough battery capacity and a decent amount of watts to keep you coasting along happily without running out of power. Since you're living in the bus, then yes you're going to be better served with more solar and bigger capacity CC to get you through tough times.
      I'm an RV camper with 470 watts of solar

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