We did the installation our selves. Because we travel through remote countries and regions we opted for an A brand installation; Victron. So our installation is Victron only. In some years we are going to find out if that was a good decision (it is 2018 at the moment of construction)
Solarpanels
We started with two solar panels but found place for one extra later.
The panels do 300 Watt each at 40 Volt is 5 Amp times 3 is 15 Amp. The panels run an average off 200 Watt so total per hour is 600 Watt divided by 24 Volts since the Solar regulator, Victron MPPT 100-30 turns 40 V into 24 V to charge the batteries.
Therefore I estimate solar charging brings only 25Amperes per hour.
Charging batteries with the truck
We replaced our alternator for an heavy duty alternator, 130A/24V. Therefore we can charge our batteries fast during a drive.
We never use the public grid to charge.
Batteries
We choose AGM batteries because they are good on ruff roads. We expect to have to replace them in 5 years from now. It is very probable we will go for Lithium by then.
4 Batteries, 12 Volt 220Ah each make 880Ah. Our truck is 24 Volt so we run a 24 Volt system is 880/2 = 440 Ah.
AGM batteries can only be discharged 50% which leaves us with 220Ah at our disposal.
The batteries are mounted as a pair on top of each other. They are L522xW238xH240 cm and 65 kg each.
Cooking on a electrical induction plate
When we cook on 1 plate at full power we use 1850 Watt at 230V.
The Victron Color Control shows 2100 Watt usage. This means that the converter uses 150 Watt at this power level.
2100 W / 24V = 88 Amp. So we can cook for 220Ah/88Ah = little less then 3 hours before our batteries are at
Charging the batteries
So after cooking on 2 plates for 20 minutes we use approx 70Amp. To recharge in full sun the solar panels need 3 hours. Since we cook at the end off the day the batteries won’t charge. If the fridge and the cooler run whole night the 50% warning alarm might sound. 😉
The center of our system is the Victon Color Control GX. Here we can see the status of our system, solar charging, engine charging, use of 24 volt and 230 Volt usage. The Color Control is via GSM and Starlink connected to internet and so we can control and check the system remote.
Color Control GX
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Live insight
Our truck installation is connected to internet and below you can see how we are doing.
Since middle October 2024 I disconnected to batteries because they were degraded. At the moment we have only 110Ah 24Volt available.