28BH Solar / Inverter Install

[Country Campers]

Very nice job and write up. Glad you posted this and sure it will help others (me in the future).
Thanks

Brian

[Nomado]

Try posting the crooked pics again as I cannot figure out how to fix them.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

It’s a little late now, but I just thought of this... Did you happen to leave some slack in the roof cabling in case you decide later on to tilt the panels?




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[Nomado]

It’s a little late now, but I just thought of this... Did you happen to leave some slack in the roof cabling in case you decide later on to tilt the panels?




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Good point! I don’t have tilts and currently not planning on getting tilts. However, I did leave enough slack just in case. I cut a piece of wood about 17” and wrapped it with a towel to protect the roof. I then used it to tilt each panel to attach the cable to the roof and leave some slack. This also made it much easier to Dicor the mounts on both sides.


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[howson]

I can officially say I am done!

Congrats, Damon! You've set the bar high--hope I can do as well.

Is pic #1 the Smart ATS?

[Nomado]

Congrats, Damon! You've set the bar high--hope I can do as well.

Is pic #1 the Smart ATS?

Thanks! I am sure yours will turn out great with all the planning you have done!

It is the Smart ATS. I was a little intimidated by this as I couldn't find any others that had installed one but it was not to difficult. A couple tips is I would start from the inverter first and work your wire back to the ATS securing down both lines as you go. You might want to check the distance from your inverter to the ATS as I didn't have enough for two lines and needed to pick up more wire from Home Depot. I then would remove the existing shore wire from the main panel and attach the new wire. You will then have all 4 wires (inverter in, inverter out, shore power and main panel) at the ATS. One other tip is to leave a little extra wire for the main panel so it is easy to pull out if needed. I have mine a little short and wish I had left another 6 inches or so. I also built a mount and mounted my Smart ATS on its side. There is only one side you can mount on as the other side has two fuses sticking out. If you do mount on the side be sure to have it forward about an inch so you can easily tighten the cover screw (it will be on the bottom). Attached is a picture of my mount and a close up of the Smart ATS wired.

Edit: I forgot to mention how I wired the Smart ATS. I did the shore power first (except the black splice line) since this is very stiff wire. I then did "inverter in" line and probably the most challenging part was hooking the two neutral wires (shore and inverter in) in the "Gen In" location. I still held off on connecting the loose black splice and did the "inverter output" wire next and then spliced the to loose black wires together. The panel wire I did last. Hopefully that makes sense. This process seemed to work really well.

Let me know if you have any other questions as I am happy to provide as much info as I can.

[DaveMatthewsBand]

Good point! I don’t have tilts and currently not planning on getting tilts. However, I did leave enough slack just in case. I cut a piece of wood about 17” and wrapped it with a towel to protect the roof. I then used it to tilt each panel to attach the cable to the roof and leave some slack. This also made it much easier to Dicor the mounts on both sides.


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Hey it’s good to have options right?
If you spend any time dry camping in the Winter, you’ll probably end up tilting them.
(If you’re power hungry like us)

This is our first RV and first solar setup.
With so much solar and only 4 batteries I just didn’t think it would ever be necessary to tilt the panels.

This past December and January we learned that our 1155 watts of solar that had previously been putting out 75 amps had dropped down into the low 20’s range.

Tilting all of them isn’t really necessary. Simply tilting 3 or 4 panels makes a substantial difference in output.

Once we got into the month of February, we were back up to about 45 amps (non-tilted) which is plenty, it just takes a little longer to get our 400ah of lithium back to 100%.

We typically use between 100-150 amp hours each night. (We’re night owls.)
But we’re fully charged by Noon, 2pm on a cloudy day.

That being said, I’ll have our panels setup with tilting capabilities by next Fall.


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[Ditchdigger]

Thanks! I am sure yours will turn out great with all the planning you have done!

It is the Smart ATS. I was a little intimidated by this as I couldn't find any others that had installed one but it was not to difficult. A couple tips is I would start from the inverter first and work your wire back to the ATS securing down both lines as you go. You might want to check the distance from your inverter to the ATS as I didn't have enough for two lines and needed to pick up more wire from Home Depot. I then would remove the existing shore wire from the main panel and attach the new wire. You will then have all 4 wires (inverter in, inverter out, shore power and main panel) at the ATS. One other tip is to leave a little extra wire for the main panel so it is easy to pull out if needed. I have mine a little short and wish I had left another 6 inches or so. I also built a mount and mounted my Smart ATS on its side. There is only one side you can mount on as the other side has two fuses sticking out. If you do mount on the side be sure to have it forward about an inch so you can easily tighten the cover screw (it will be on the bottom). Attached is a picture of my mount and a close up of the Smart ATS wired.

Edit: I forgot to mention how I wired the Smart ATS. I did the shore power first (except the black splice line) since this is very stiff wire. I then did "inverter in" line and probably the most challenging part was hooking the two neutral wires (shore and inverter in) in the "Gen In" location. I still held off on connecting the loose black splice and did the "inverter output" wire next and then spliced the to loose black wires together. The panel wire I did last. Hopefully that makes sense. This process seemed to work really well.

Let me know if you have any other questions as I am happy to provide as much info as I can.

What brand of ATS did you use? I am looking for a good one, I need to install a second one, I have gen set.

[Nomado]

What brand of ATS did you use? I am looking for a good one, I need to install a second one, I have gen set.

It is not your typical ATS. AM Solar designed this to provide full pass through so that you do not need a sub panel. They call it a Smart ATS. My understanding is that they are in the process of getting it patented. Here is a link to the wiring diagram and a description on the Smart ATS.

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...TS+Diagram.pdf

https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...+Explained.pdf

Edit: I am not sure if AM Solar sells just the Smart ATS but my guess is they would. It was part of the kit located in the link on my original post on this thread.

[orbiker]

Very nice work all of you.

What is the recommended fuse for the main line coming from the batteries to the battery selector switch?

How do you figure out what amperage is needed?

Thanks, KEN