| Author |
Message |
Steve Zona (Highwayrunner)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 1:47 pm: | |
Hi guys, my wiring is coming close to midway and would appreciate some opinion on this, the bus "mci9" system is 24vdc, and the house system is 12vdc. i have a fully automatic 24volt charger for the bus starting batts. and an 80 amp charger/converter" and a three thousand watt inverter. I don't plan on using 24volt except for a few lights. and twelve volt for the rest of the lighting. other than the toilet. which usues ten amps at twelve volts per flush. the rest of the bus will be 110 volts ac off the inverter or shore power. would you consider this a reasonable system or would you recomend i make changes |
TWODOGS (Twodogs)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 2:02 pm: | |
sounds good to me |
Steve Zona (Highwayrunner)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 2:25 pm: | |
sorry ,, on my last post i meant to add that the 80 amp charger and 3000 watt inverter would be used on the twelve volt house system |
TWODOGS (Twodogs)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 2:40 pm: | |
excellent |
Brian Brown (Blue_velvet)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 2:47 pm: | |
Steve, do you have dual alts., or do you have an equalizer for the 24v to 12v conversion?
A 3000 watt 12 inverter draws HUGE amounts of amps. Have you bought it yet? Size your wiring appropriately.
I'm curiuous about the toilet that uses 12v power. What's the unit? |
Steve Zona (Highwayrunner)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 2:56 pm: | |
In response to Brian "Blue VElvet" the toilet that uses twelve volts dc, is a thetford aria deluxe II. great toilet. as far as the twelve volt wiring I am using stranded ten gauge for all individual runs and six gauge for the mains to the twelve volt breaker panel, okay? or overkill? |
Steve Zona (Highwayrunner)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 3:24 pm: | |
going to have to go with dual alts. as i don't know of an equalizer that will put out enough current, and yes I already have the 3000 watt iverter, it came from my last stick and staples unit, i had it installed in it for about six month and it worked fine, using the same setup. with eight six volt trojan batts
Steve |
TWODOGS (Twodogs)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 3:37 pm: | |
a little 'overkill'...but...you won't be sorry.. |
Geoff (Geoff)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 7:24 pm: | |
I don't see that you have a "24v vrs 12v" question at all, you have both systems and they will work quite nicely independent of each other. You 12v wiring does seem one size too big, but if you don't mind I don't mind!
--Geoff
'82 RTS CA/AZ (also with both 24 and 12v systems) |
TWODOGS (Twodogs)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 10:38 pm: | |
how are you planing to charge the 12 volt system? |
Jim (Jim_in_california)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 - 12:54 am: | |
Here's an interesting tidbit I ran into:
My rig is all-12v right now, house and starter. I'm going with a fairly major solar array, currently four 170watt BP panels at 24v run through an Outback MX60 solar charge controller, which is widely considered the best one available.
It will turn the 24v panel array into 12v for the house battery no problem, in fact it'll do any combination from 12v to 72v on either side, up or down.
BUT: it's max output amperage at 60amps forms a limit when the house battery array is 12v: I've found I'm limited to a max of six 170watt panels or I risk exceeding 60amps of output (at 12v) under (admittedly rare) ideal conditions.
If the battery bank had been 24v, my solar charger could have run at half the output amps, allowing up to 12 170w panels of exactly the same type.
This same increase in efficiency happens on the inverter and AC charger side: you can run higher peak output/input on a 24v battery bay because amps to get the same thing done drops in half.
Look at the Outback inverter/charger catalog. You'll realize that a model at 12v that puts out 2800w of AC power will do 3500w of AC in the 24v flavor - at the same price!
http://thesolar.biz/OutBack%20Inverters.htm
With ALL that said, I'm still glad I'm running a 12v house battery setup because small 12v accessories like lights and whatnot are far easier to score, and in my case I can't imagine needing more than six 170w panels. I won't need more than a 2800w main inverter. Plus with my "drivetrain electrics" on 12v, a 12v house battery setup is just easier.
But I think people should still understand drawbacks of 12v house battery banks, what the tradeoffs are, etc. In some circumstances a 12v battery bank will really screw you as opposed to a 24v or even bigger (as this efficiency gain as the voltage goes up doesn't stop at 24v either...). |
Brian Brown (Blue_velvet)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 - 3:26 am: | |
Steve, I think you're wise to err on the side of oversizing DC wires. Voltage drop at 12v can happen pretty fast.
You'll need a pretty big alt. to drive that inverter. Like 250A. I'd look for a Leece-Neville unit, externally regulated, that you can hook up a three-stage regulator to, like the one from Xantrex.
You'll also need welding cable-sized wire from the alt. to the batts., and the batts to the inverter. 4/0 would not be overkill. |
Buswarrior (Buswarrior)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 - 10:02 pm: | |
Hello Steve.
Sounds like you are having fun, and understand the over-engineering concept.
I might add that spending the extra money on ship-board cable for those big cables Brian recommended might be a consideration. It is tinned its entire length to combat corrosion. See your local commercial wire supplier.
happy coaching!
buswarrior |