24V solar system - 12V DC question

[tonygoncalves]

The Schwintek slide motors on his trailer, if it's the same as on my Imagine, has a 30A fuse on the line, so it shouldn't pull that high of a load. I would think the 70A converter would be more than enough.

[jbartee7]

Thank you guys so much for the advice and basically validating what I had been thinking before I got discouraged about using the orion. The slideout motor does have a 30A fuse so I think I should be good with the 70A orion.

The main thing I'm unsure about with using the orion to go from my 24v battery bank to power the DC fuse box is that the tongue jack and breakaway cable are not connected to the dc distribution panel, they are connected directly to the 12v battery. How should I power these two things?

I was also told if I used the orion, to place it as close to the breaker box as possible so that I can run smaller gauge wire across the 24v side and very short wire from the 12v side of the converter to the distribution panel. Would this be the best option for installation? also would I need any fuses on the lines for the converter itself? Can I wire the converter from the lynx distributor to the dc fuse box or does it need to go directly from the battery?
For context, I am placing my whole system in the passthrough storage and the ac/dc distribution panel is on the other side of the rv about 25 feet away.

[Lane Hog]

Can I ask why you're going with 24 volts instead of 12?

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[SolarPoweredRV]

Thank you guys so much for the advice and basically validating what I had been thinking before I got discouraged about using the orion. The slideout motor does have a 30A fuse so I think I should be good with the 70A orion.

The main thing I'm unsure about with using the orion to go from my 24v battery bank to power the DC fuse box is that the tongue jack and breakaway cable are not connected to the dc distribution panel, they are connected directly to the 12v battery. How should I power these two things?

I was also told if I used the orion, to place it as close to the breaker box as possible so that I can run smaller gauge wire across the 24v side and very short wire from the 12v side of the converter to the distribution panel. Would this be the best option for installation? also would I need any fuses on the lines for the converter itself? Can I wire the converter from the lynx distributor to the dc fuse box or does it need to go directly from the battery?
For context, I am placing my whole system in the passthrough storage and the ac/dc distribution panel is on the other side of the rv about 25 feet away.

OK, in theory, you can just connect the cables that are coming from the coach to the wires that are going to the jack and break-away cable together and both devices will be powered by 12 volts from the Orion. My guess is that you have three wires connected to the battery terminals (one from the coach/Converter, one from the jack and one from the break-away cable), you can simply connect all three wires by using a buss bar and you have the same electric circuits as you currently have, you are just missing the battery.

Electrically speaking, the 24v batteries feed the Orion, the Orion feeds the 12v breaker panel, the breaker panel feeds a 12v charging circuit to the (now missing) battery and the new buss bar feeds both the jack and the break-away switch. Your only issue would be if you were to ever turn off the batteries then your Jack and Break-away switch would not have power (this would probably never happen because you would always need power to the jack to hitch your trailer).

Powering the break-away switch is one of the reasons I chose to have a 12v battery in my 12v circuit, I wanted to be able to point to a battery that was connected to the break-away switch in case I was ever stopped and inspected or had an accident/loss of trailer situation.

As far as placing the Orion close to the 12v Fuse panel, that is a good idea. The reason is that 24 volt circuits have less loss over long runs and you can easily oversize the wires to reduce the loss over the longer distance. As far as getting the Orion as close to the Fuse panel as possible, this is not necessary, reasonably close will be just fine (say within 5 to 10 feet). FYI, getting your batteries as close to a very high amp draw like a 3000 Watt Inverter is very important (less important with a 24 volt battery bank than a 12v battery bank).

Regarding fusing...

You should fuse every circuit as close to the source of the power as possible (battery banks should be fused within 6 inches of the positive terminal), this protects the wires from short circuit. For example: you will be running a 24v wire across the coach, if this wire rubs on something then a spark could start a fire. You want to make certain that if that wire rubs on something the fuse blows and not have the whole coach go up in smoke. You can check, but I think the Orion has fuses built in, If not I would probably fuse the wire coming out of the Orion (remember you are going to need at least an 80 amp fuse, if not a 90 amp [the Orion can supply 85 amps as burst energy]).

You can wire the Orion from the Lynx.

[Sprice1386]

Hello all,

I am working on a new solar system to replace the furion system that came with my rv. I am having trouble figuring out the best way to power the DC side of the system since I am going to run a 24v battery bank. I have run through multiple options including using a 24vto12v dc2dc converter, just using the existing ac2dc converter and using a victron orion-tr smart charger. I have been given advice from the diysolarforum that none of these are efficient and I am at a loss at this point on how to power my 12v dc side of the electrical system.

Current solar package:
Furion 165W solar panel
Furion solar charge controller
12v FLA battery

New solar system main components:
4* 250W santan solar panels = 1000W solar (theoritical)
victron smartsolar 100|50 scc
lynx distributor
2* 12v 200ah ampere time plus batteries wired in series = 24v battery bank
victron 24|3000|70 multiplus
Victron smartshunt

What have other people who have installed 24v solar systems/battery banks done to power their dc side?
Should I power everything from the 24v battery bank or keep the existing 12v battery for dc side?

Any opinions/critiques on the components I am using are welcome.
I would just like to figure everything out so I can proceed with the install.

Thanks!

I upgraded to the Victron SmartSolar at the start of the season and could not be happier. I really enjoy being able to monitor the performance of my system from my phone and view the power and energy history. I have two 255 watt solar panels and the Victron MPPT allowed me to reconfigure them to a series connection, thereby increasing the output voltage and decreasing current losses. I am running a 24volt system and use a 70amp DC/DC for the 12v bus. The 70 amps has proven to be sufficient for the hydraulic pump for the stabilizers and slide-outs.

[jbartee7]

Can I ask why you're going with 24 volts instead of 12?

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I did all the research for all this before buying anything and ended up believing that 24v had more benefits for my situation than 12v. I also then found a deal on the multiplus on craigslist for half the price on amazon so that kinda chose 24v for me lol

[jbartee7]

OK, in theory, you can just connect the cables that are coming from the coach to the wires that are going to the jack and break-away cable together and both devices will be powered by 12 volts from the Orion. My guess is that you have three wires connected to the battery terminals (one from the coach/Converter, one from the jack and one from the break-away cable), you can simply connect all three wires by using a buss bar and you have the same electric circuits as you currently have, you are just missing the battery.

Electrically speaking, the 24v batteries feed the Orion, the Orion feeds the 12v breaker panel, the breaker panel feeds a 12v charging circuit to the (now missing) battery and the new buss bar feeds both the jack and the break-away switch. Your only issue would be if you were to ever turn off the batteries then your Jack and Break-away switch would not have power (this would probably never happen because you would always need power to the jack to hitch your trailer).

Powering the break-away switch is one of the reasons I chose to have a 12v battery in my 12v circuit, I wanted to be able to point to a battery that was connected to the break-away switch in case I was ever stopped and inspected or had an accident/loss of trailer situation.

As far as placing the Orion close to the 12v Fuse panel, that is a good idea. The reason is that 24 volt circuits have less loss over long runs and you can easily oversize the wires to reduce the loss over the longer distance. As far as getting the Orion as close to the Fuse panel as possible, this is not necessary, reasonably close will be just fine (say within 5 to 10 feet). FYI, getting your batteries as close to a very high amp draw like a 3000 Watt Inverter is very important (less important with a 24 volt battery bank than a 12v battery bank).

Regarding fusing...

You should fuse every circuit as close to the source of the power as possible (battery banks should be fused within 6 inches of the positive terminal), this protects the wires from short circuit. For example: you will be running a 24v wire across the coach, if this wire rubs on something then a spark could start a fire. You want to make certain that if that wire rubs on something the fuse blows and not have the whole coach go up in smoke. You can check, but I think the Orion has fuses built in, If not I would probably fuse the wire coming out of the Orion (remember you are going to need at least an 80 amp fuse, if not a 90 amp [the Orion can supply 85 amps as burst energy]).

You can wire the Orion from the Lynx.

So in terms of the connections up on the hitch, I don't know yet where everything is coming from but there is a negative bolt with negative wires going to the battery, tongue jack and a couple back up into the underbelly which I haven't traced back yet. There is also a small busbar with 2 bolts for the positive connections with 2 wires going to the breakaway cable, positive for the battery, positive for the tongue jack and a couple more positive wires which I haven't traced either. I'm hoping to be able to just run wires from the 12v end of the converter to the negative bolt and main positive bolt on the hitch.

I don't really have any intention of shutting the batteries off unless doing maintenance so not worried about that for the tongue jack and breakaway cable. I have a 12v fridge so always need power to that. I will only really shut off the inverter at night or when not in the RV.

For placing the orion converter close to the breaker panel, I have an ac2dc converter in there right now, could I replace that with the orion or would I still need both?

I plan to fuse the battery right next to it so definitely within 6in of wire is doable. also wouldn't I want to fuse the orion at the lynx? that way any issues would trip the fuse before power is ran across the length of the wires going to the converter on the other side of the RV?

oh and the inverter will be right next to the batteries as well as the charge controller and lynx. The converter and ac/dc distribution panel are on the other side of the rv.

[jbartee7]

I upgraded to the Victron SmartSolar at the start of the season and could not be happier. I really enjoy being able to monitor the performance of my system from my phone and view the power and energy history. I have two 255 watt solar panels and the Victron MPPT allowed me to reconfigure them to a series connection, thereby increasing the output voltage and decreasing current losses. I am running a 24volt system and use a 70amp DC/DC for the 12v bus. The 70 amps has proven to be sufficient for the hydraulic pump for the stabilizers and slide-outs.

is this the converter you got? theres lots of options from amazon and I can't seem to pinpoint the right one to get.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BF5BQLA...J2HS9JSSXNDVWX

also how did you wire the converter in to your system?

[Sprice1386]

Yes, that is the DC/DC converter I am using. I connected the 12 volt positive output of the converter to the same bus bar that the original 12 volt battery connected to. I left the original 12 volt battery cables in place (but protected from shorting) in case I need power and don't have the 24 volt system installed. I bring the batteries (8 total) home during the winter and thought there may be times when I only want to haul one battery to the trailer to service something.

I placed three on/off switches between the 24 volt battery bank and the inverter, the DC/DC converter and the solar charge controller so that I could isolate each one as needed.

[SolarPoweredRV]

is this the converter you got? theres lots of options from amazon and I can't seem to pinpoint the right one to get.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BF5BQLA...J2HS9JSSXNDVWX

also how did you wire the converter in to your system?

Yes that is the 24v to 12v DC Converter I used.

I simply removed the 12v wires from the OEM Converter (AC to DC Converter) and connected them dorectly to the 12v output of my Orion DC to DC Converter (I then removed the OEM Converter).