400: Domestic Battery Capacity

[StuM]

Originally Posted by tuskie

Not sure that an extra 100 AH of storage would solve our issue of never having to run engines or genset for charging. As Bob on Casablanca points out; he has similiar power hungry appliances and twice our battery capacity yet still needs to periodically burn diesel to top up charge.

Or to put it another way. Doesn't matter how much you get. If you've got it, you'll use it

[Quarter]

Thank you to all who have contributed to this discussion. Clearly there are as many solutions as there are opinions.

Going with Outback Marine in Arundel, QLD to engineer and install our new system.
Old gear to come out:
4 x 140Ah Lead Acid Batteries
2 x 40A factory Cristek chargers, both are dead
3 x 120 W panels that were never hooked up
DC bus bars
Mastervolt Battery Monitor

New gear to install:
540Ah LiFePO4 battery w/balancing
Outback Marine DC distribution board/bus with integral voltage protection
Victron 3000W/120A inverter charger
Outback Marine Battery Management / Battery Monitor System
Victron MPPT 150-70 solar charger
5 x 260W Trina panels

We have a Honda i2000 generator, which hopefully will gather dust.

Special thanks to Scottster for the videos, drawings and email exchanges. Also to Tuskie for having us aboard to look at his panels, LFP batteries, nacelle drainage and all of the little mods and ideas. Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt

[careka]

Originally Posted by Quarter

Thank you to all who have contributed to this discussion. Clearly there are as many solutions as there are opinions.

Going with Outback Marine in Arundel, QLD to engineer and install our new system.
Old gear to come out:
4 x 140Ah Lead Acid Batteries
2 x 40A factory Cristek chargers, both are dead
3 x 120 W panels that were never hooked up
DC bus bars
Mastervolt Battery Monitor

New gear to install:
540Ah LiFePO4 battery w/balancing
Outback Marine DC distribution board/bus with integral voltage protection
Victron 3000W/120A inverter charger
Outback Marine Battery Management / Battery Monitor System
Victron MPPT 150-70 solar charger
5 x 260W Trina panels

We have a Honda i2000 generator, which hopefully will gather dust.

Special thanks to Scottster for the videos, drawings and email exchanges. Also to Tuskie for having us aboard to look at his panels, LFP batteries, nacelle drainage and all of the little mods and ideas. Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Matt

we have 570 watt solar Victron panels, and the Victron 150/70 MPPT, and how are you going to run your 5 x260 watt on the same ?,
i get on good days 35amp/12V out of this and the Volts in are close to maks. (150)
we have 780 amp bank(Trojan) led, and Victron 2000/80-30 , Victron CCGX,

[PaulinOz]

Looks to be a very well thought out bit of kit Matt, congratulations you will reap the benefit of your research and investment in years to come.

What I think careka is alluding to is the fact that the controller can only output a max of 70 amps from a max 1000 watts of solar. You are going with 1300 watts but the controller will limit you to 70 amps even thou your array may in some instances be able to supply more. This may well be over the max usable in full sun 100% conditions but should yield better performance in lower light conditions.

The only rule is however much you make you will use it and want more, a bit like money and good red wine you can never have to much.

[Quarter]

Hi Careka and PaulinOz,
I will check with the engineer and confirm, but it looks like you are right. 1300W could produce peaks well above 70A. I would hate to miss out. 2 x 150-70 MPPT would give redundancy too.
Thanks for the heads up, much appreciated.
Matt