I've just started to learn and consider solar panels for Electra Glide and could use some input from you guys. I would like to go with 2 panels, probably the Sun 210's giving me 420W total off my dingy davits.
The current system:
I have 144V pack of 12 AGM's but plan on a LiPo4 pack in the future as my propulsion bank. I also have 3 AGM's for my house bank at 12V. The Propulsion bank charges the House bank through a charger/converter (144V to 12V). The shore, regeneration, and genset charge the propulsion bank.
Ideally I would love to charge the Propulsion Bank but if my math is correct I'll only get about 3A at 144V to the bank from solar. The same 2 panels will give me about 35A at 12V if I connect to the House Bank.
Most of the loads during sailing come from the house bank but I don't think I'm using 35A worth of electricity at any time so a lot would be wasted.
Questions:
Does it even make sense to consider going to the Propulsion Bank?
Most solar panels I've seen in the higher Wattage are 24V or higher, does the MPPT convert this to 12V output?
If the MPPT does load diversion (diverting power to a device such as a water heater or frig (Load Dumping?)) is this normally a connection at the MPPT of the device or does the device know not to get power from the house bank at the same time? This part is really confusing to me, I guess with a HWH you can control the device power input with a thermal switch but if I wanted to run a frig it has no such shut-off switch. For that matter what happens when you don't have sun for a few days and the wife just used up the 11gal tank?
Like I said I'm just know getting into this and think that the solar panels are the way to go it's just confusing on some issues.
Thanks in advance,
Steve in Solomons MD
Lagoon 410 SE
No comments:
Post a Comment