solar question

[treichelt]

I'm still fairly new to using solar. this is my current setup. 4 x 100 watt panels, 2 each in series and both sets in parallel, connected to my ecoflow 1800 watt solar generator. i plug the shore power cord into the generator and the other end into the trailer.

this charges my generator and supply power to my trailer. i've noticed that something is really eating my lunch when I have everything connected like this to my trailer. i turned off all the breakers and back on , one by one and it is the CONV labeled breaker that eats anywhere around 230 watts. i understand that this is my converter and if that is off, it won't charge my batteries? Why would that converted take that much power?
Could i hook up one separate panel to the furion port and leave the breaker off or is that a dumb idea? I have 2 - 6volt batteries in series on this trailer.

Thank you

[rootusrootus]

It makes sense that the converter is pulling the most juice by far, it's a battery charger. Is that not what you want to have happen? If you turn it off, then yes it won't charge your batteries (or provide any 12V power to your trailer). If you want a power supply only (no charger), AFAIK you need to buy a separate unit.

[huntindog]

I'm still fairly new to using solar. this is my current setup. 4 x 100 watt panels, 2 each in series and both sets in parallel, connected to my ecoflow 1800 watt solar generator. i plug the shore power cord into the generator and the other end into the trailer.

this charges my generator and supply power to my trailer. i've noticed that something is really eating my lunch when I have everything connected like this to my trailer. i turned off all the breakers and back on , one by one and it is the CONV labeled breaker that eats anywhere around 230 watts. i understand that this is my converter and if that is off, it won't charge my batteries? Why would that converted take that much power?
Could i hook up one separate panel to the furion port and leave the breaker off or is that a dumb idea? I have 2 - 6volt batteries in series on this trailer.

Thank you

230 swatts is pretty low for a converter. They can draw over 1000 watts if the battery is low depending the size of the converter.

What is a solar generator, and how/why are solar panels hooked up to it?.
The reason I am asking is solar panels produce DC, which usually goes thru a controller which regulates the DC current to properly charge your battery. There should be no generator involved with the solar system,
A generator provides AC current which can run the converter that converts the AC to DC to charge the battery


OK I just googled it.I do not think it should be called a generator as it doesn't produce any power. It is simply a battery in a fancy package that stores power.
You are trying to charge it with 400 watts of solar, but your loads far exceed that. It will supply up to 1800 or 15 amps AC watts AC, but can only replace it at 400 watts DC. (which equals 3.33 amps ac) with full mid day sun)

It is a simple math problem. The numbers just do not add up.

Your solar panels would fare better charging the RV battery directly with a solar controller, as any time electricity is transformed from AC to DC or the reverse, some energy is consumed and lost in the process.

What you have now is Solar panels feeding the eco gen DC power which inverts the DC into AC, which feeds the RV AC that supplys the converter with AC that it converts to DC to charge the RV battery.
Two needless electricity transformations., both of which waste power.

[rootusrootus]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]What is a solar generator, and how/why are solar panels hooked up to it?.

Fancy name for a battery/inverter combo that can be charged by hooking solar panels to it. Do a search on Amazon, you'll see what I mean.

Using PV->battery->inverter->RV->converter is probably not how I'd go about it. Better to just get a solar charge controller and wire it with an Anderson plug (or similar) and hook the portable PV directly to it.

[treichelt]

thank you all for the feedback. I think I have my answer. to some of the answers from others, you are missing the fact that the solar generator,that is what they call it, produces the 110v which is my goal when off grid. hooking up the solar panel to charge the batteries won't allow me to run the microwave tv etc. it helps to now understand better the amount of juice the converter can eat up and how to work around it.
I guess what didn't make sense to me is when the batteries are fully charged why the converter would consume much of anything if nothing else is running

Ted

230 swatts is pretty low for a converter. They can draw over 1000 watts if the battery is low depending the size of the converter.

What is a solar generator, and how/why are solar panels hooked up to it?.
The reason I am asking is solar panels produce DC, which usually goes thru a controller which regulates the DC current to properly charge your battery. There should be no generator involved with the solar system,
A generator provides AC current which can run the converter that converts the AC to DC to charge the battery


OK I just googled it.I do not think it should be called a generator as it doesn't produce any power. It is simply a battery in a fancy package that stores power.
You are trying to charge it with 400 watts of solar, but your loads far exceed that. It will supply up to 1800 or 15 amps AC watts AC, but can only replace it at 400 watts DC. (which equals 3.33 amps ac) with full mid day sun)

It is a simple math problem. The numbers just do not add up.

Your solar panels would fare better charging the RV battery directly with a solar controller, as any time electricity is transformed from AC to DC or the reverse, some energy is consumed and lost in the process.

What you have now is Solar panels feeding the eco gen DC power which inverts the DC into AC, which feeds the RV AC that supplys the converter with AC that it converts to DC to charge the RV battery.
Two needless electricity transformations., both of which waste power.

[huntindog]

thank you all for the feedback. I think I have my answer. to some of the answers from others, you are missing the fact that the solar generator,that is what they call it, produces the 110v which is my goal when off grid. hooking up the solar panel to charge the batteries won't allow me to run the microwave tv etc. it helps to now understand better the amount of juice the converter can eat up and how to work around it.
I guess what didn't make sense to me is when the batteries are fully charged why the converter would consume much of anything if nothing else is running

Ted

An RV ALWAYS consumes some power. Just as your house does.
The fridge requires 12V for its control system, as does the Tstat. Lights are 12V, various safety alarms are as well. If you turn off the converter, all these things will then run off of your battery until it is drained. Then the RV is effectively dead. What this so called generator really is just another battery.
The power source that is replenishing it is the solar panels. So ultimately you are try to run the RV off of 400 watts of 12V DC power. It is a simple math problem. 400 watts is just not enough, to keep it going for long.

You state that the converter is using 230 watts.... If that is true, then the battery is not fully chharged, or it is weak. Your convertor supplies 12 to power the 12V items AND to charge the battery if needed.

230 watts is about 19 amps @ 12v. That would be a LOT for an RV to use. So it is likely a combination of charging and loads. If you have a typical RV battery, it will have a capacity of 85-90 amp hours, of which 50% is usable. So 45 amps. That would mean that the battery would be dead in a little over 2 hours without the converter charging it, if the RV is actually consuming the 230 watts. It likely is not, but those watts are going somewhere. likely to the battery because it is weak, or not charged fully. This doesn' make the deficit go away, it just hides it. Makes it impossible to calculate when the RV will die if the convertor is turned off.

On to battery charging. With the present setup your 400 watts of solar is not all usable.
it charges the ecogen which then inverts it to 120V. inverters consume some power doing this, It is stated as efficiency. Say 90%. That means 10% of the 400 watts is wasted. If you use the ecogen to run the convertor because the RV battery is low, it will consume another 10% in the process. So you will have lost 76 watts of the 400 your panels produced. These are average figures but they will be pretty close. Look at your specs for an exact number.
The eco gen stores around 1800 WH, if I see the specs for your particular unit. That means it can produce 1800 watts for one hour.

[treichelt]

Thank you,
I stand corrected. I thought I had those batteries charged last time I worked with this.
I plugged in the rv yesterday to charge the batteries and cool down the fridge. with everything on like this I was consuming 65 watts using the solar generator plugged into the rv.

Thank you again for all the information.

Ted

[huntindog]

Thank you,
I stand corrected. I thought I had those batteries charged last time I worked with this.
I plugged in the rv yesterday to charge the batteries and cool down the fridge. with everything on like this I was consuming 65 watts using the solar generator plugged into the rv.

Thank you again for all the information.

Ted

Was the circuit breaker for the converter turned on or off during this test?

[rootusrootus]

FWIW, I don't know of many (any?) solar generators that are going to run a microwave. You need a lot more inverter for that.

TV, though, is easy. 30W for a typical 32 inch LCD. We just use a little inverter in the trailer that feeds only the TV, and the rest of the trailer happily runs on 12V. Panel on the roof, portable panels outside the trailer wherever there is a patch of sun to catch. YMMV, but less batteries and inverters to worry about has it's upsides.

My trailer runs on about 6W of power if nothing is turned on. That's probably just the draw of the propane detector. I also have some other full-time loads that I have running (a couple Raspberry Pi servers), so it's 8-9W steady. Any more than that means something is running, e.g. a kid's tablet is charging, or a phone, something. If you have a 12V fridge it should pull between 70-90W while the compressor is running.

[Redapple63]

Lots of good comments here. Just to make sure the OP has context of a Solar Generator. As has been pointed out a Solar Generator is a marketing name for a battery coupled with a small inverter. I don’t believe the intent of these devices were ever meant to run an entire rv. You would be better served to couple your solar panels through a solar charge controller direct to your batteries. You can use your Solar Generator to charge devices such as laptops, cell phones and other items, and can use the built in inverter to say watch tv with a DVD player, maybe run a router or other WiFi device.

I have a Jackery 500 and we use it exactly as described above. We can get nearly 6 hours on out 40 inch tv and DVD player.