Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Off-grid system for a bus build

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Off-grid system for a bus build

    I didn't see a category specific to off-grid only systems, so I figure this is best asked here.

    I've done a good bit of reading on this, and am having a hard time synthesizing the information into a good answer, so here it is:

    I am building a bus into an RV. Its about 30 ft long and its going to house me and my lady.

    I am getting the sense that my ideal is a bit ambitious for the amount of solar panels I can fit on the bus, so I'm going to try to give you a sense of what my electrical draw would be like and see what knowledgable solar people think.

    Standard stuff like lights, fridge, electric cooktop, water pump, laptop and phones will be charging on this system, but thats not the ambitious part.

    I want to be able to do a bit of music production in there as well, which means I'll have a digital piano (12W), an audio interface (~12W variable), a set of monitor speakers (80W ea.), an LCD monitor (40W) (some of these wattages are very estimated and possibly very wrong)

    Then a few fancy things like LED light strips for partying when the need arises.

    Based on my back-of-the-envelope excel calculations, it would be about 3-3.5 KWh/day when used irrationally liberally.

    I have been looking into a Lithium-ion setup and I think 4 panels would be a manageable number, is it possible?

    Any advice or insight into any part of this would be greatly appreciated.


  • #2
    Originally posted by DJShamykins View Post
    Standard stuff like lights, fridge, electric cooktop, water pump, laptop and phones will be charging on this system, but thats not the ambitious part.
    So you think an electric cook top on battery is NOT the ambitious part??
    OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

    Comment


    • DJShamykins
      DJShamykins commented
      Editing a comment
      not anymore!
      Last edited by DJShamykins; 11-23-2016, 05:37 PM.

  • #3
    Electric cook top = big red flag. Use propane.
    2.2kw Suntech mono, Classic 200, NEW Trace SW4024

    Comment


    • #4
      Okay, so something like an electric cooktop is unreasonable. The good thing is, I don't believe anything else will draw anywhere nearly as much as one of those apart from the speakers. Assuming I'd be using the monitor speakers at 80W each while working, they'd run alongside the production gear. That would include the piano and my MPD, the laptop and a display (maybe), and the interface. None of that will amount to much apart from speakers.

      With that one obvious adjustment, do you guys/girls have any other comments?

      I'm pretty to new to this solar thing and its all mostly conceptual at this point (except the bus itself, she's a beast).

      Comment


      • #5
        Originally posted by DJShamykins View Post
        Okay, so something like an electric cooktop is unreasonable. The good thing is, I don't believe anything else will draw anywhere nearly as much as one of those apart from the speakers. Assuming I'd be using the monitor speakers at 80W each while working, they'd run alongside the production gear. That would include the piano and my MPD, the laptop and a display (maybe), and the interface. None of that will amount to much apart from speakers.

        With that one obvious adjustment, do you guys/girls have any other comments?

        I'm pretty to new to this solar thing and its all mostly conceptual at this point (except the bus itself, she's a beast).
        no resistive heat (cook top, electric heaters, etc) they are way too much draw for battery operation, and much simpler and cheaper to do with gas.

        get an LED monitor and cut that 40w down some too.

        are the monitor speakers self powered or getting power from an amp? is that 80w each the ratting of the speaker or the power draw??

        make sure that fridge is low energy as well.

        OutBack FP1 w/ CS6P-250P http://bit.ly/1Sg5VNH

        Comment


        • DJShamykins
          DJShamykins commented
          Editing a comment
          They are self powered, the 80W is from the amp circuit within the speaker.

        • ButchDeal
          ButchDeal commented
          Editing a comment
          So they likely draw considerably less than that. You might want to invest in a plug in watt meter and measure things.

        • DJShamykins
          DJShamykins commented
          Editing a comment
          Will do, good call

      • #6
        You are going to want to consider something larger than a 12V battery bank for this, at least 24V, and maybe 48V.. And you may as well plan for a small generator for the cloudy days. Something like a honda eu2000 can drive a modest charger, and save you from running the vehicle engine to spin it's alternator.
        Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
        || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
        || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

        solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
        gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

        Comment

        Working...
        X