I have an isolator charging both batteries off of the alternator. Wondering if I can hook up my solar controller to the second battery while still hooked up to the alternator with no damage to the solar panel or controller?
Don't have the panel yet. Looking at 50-60 watt. Looking to run the fridge and the stereo all day without starting the truck everyday on long stays at camp. This truck will be home real soon.
There should be no issues hooking it up to your house battery.
Also I'd look at your electrical use other than the refrigerator, add a bit more and size to handle that also.
A MPPT type charge controller will get the most out of the panel. Anywhere from 10% to 30% more charge out of it. Running a refrigerator like that I'd get the MPPT because it can better supply power to it. When the battery is fully charged and the refrigerator switches on the MPPT can provide the needed current to run the refrigerator immediately. With lesser controlers they would wait until the battery gets down to X volts, then kick on.
There should be no issues hooking it up to your house battery.
Also I'd look at your electrical use other than the refrigerator, add a bit more and size to handle that also.
A MPPT type charge controller will get the most out of the panel. Anywhere from 10% to 30% more charge out of it. Running a refrigerator like that I'd get the MPPT because it can better supply power to it. When the battery is fully charged and the refrigerator switches on the MPPT can provide the needed current to run the refrigerator immediately. With lesser controlers they would wait until the battery gets down to X volts, then kick on.
are there any "pre-packaged" solar charging/controlling/inverting (if best method) systems out there ideal for powering a fridge and radio (as desired in this thread?
What is everyone using for their applications (I'm starting from zero...) but want to do exactaly as desired in this post.
but if it were me, i would put a seperate fuse box together for the solar stuff, and have a manual switch to engage it to the second battery so that the solar panel and alternator aren't overcharging the (or both) battery(ies).
basically it could be done, but to lower the risk of electronic failure, you would want to do a seperate fuse set up for accesories, and have a manual isolator switch so that EITHER the alt is charging the accessory battery, or the solar is charging the accessory battery.
you would also want to probably seperate the two batteries with an isolator switch, if they are linked together to the alt. right now (to avoid meltdown in the middle of NOW-HERE).
also you could get a deep cycle battery, keep it linked to the other battery and alternator, and just run a low voltage/watt power inverter for you stuff, depending on how many accessories you have (and plan on running at the same time).
as i understand it those refrigerators draw alot of electricity....
marine and RV stores/suppliers have all sorts of this type of stuff for fairly cheap($200-300 or so for electricals)
If you are going to spend a couple hundred bucks, get a Hellroraring Isolator. Let it do the isolating and combining automatically. That way you don't forget.
PS, don't mix starting and deep cycle batteries without an isolator. If two batteries are paralleled without any isolation they need to be of the same type, size, age, and preferably same manufacturing run. There is one exception. That is if the batteries are ALWAYS being charged or discharged, never allowed to sit idle. What happens is the newer or one with the higher voltage chemistry will try to charge the other one and will exhaust it's self much faster than normal.
you don't need to BUY an isolator, if you isolate the circuts yourself in the fashion i stated above...
also, if I enginered a system like this I likely wouldn't be "forgetting" about how my dual setup works.
the whole point of isolating them in their engineering is so that you aren't dependent on ONE "automatic" isolator in which the relay may or may not burn out after 6 months, a year, 5 years...when you least expect it.
$30-$50 charge controllers burn out in a year or less usually...
The Hellroaring isolator is a well designed and built electronic switch. No contacts to burn out. It is also a bit more than $50...
The reason to go automatic is forgetfulness. I'm sure many of us suffer from it from time to time.
My plan, if I get to that stage, is to replace my air conditioner compressor with a second alternator.It would only charge the house bank of batteries. The original alternator would only run the truck's normal electronics. I may put a knife switch between the battery banks for easier jump starting, but that is it for connecting them. The other part of this change would be to replace the air conditioning system with one powered by 12VDC, but that is still a bit expensive. So far my factory AC system is still working so I haven't been forced to do this yet.
Bogo- also, if you are not in an emissions city/county/state, you can put another alternator where the smog pump is after a desmog...
and yes that looks like a good part to be sure and worth a try, then again MOST OTHER (read:not me) people with their "expo" rigs have plenty of change in their pockets...
again, my personal experience and expedition experience tells me that I want parts that I can fix if I am broken down in the middle of NowHere...
Do anyone follow through on this? I was thinking about getting the Brunton 26 Watt Foldable Solar Array which folds up nice and small but can still be used to recharge a battery. Like to hear from anyone who is using mobile solar out in the wild places.
My long winded and perhaps not so helpful answer:
I use 2 batteries. A starter and a deep cycle group 31 as a "house" battery, I have them isolated from each other when the truck is not running by using a manual marine battery selector.
I use a SunPower 90watt solar panel (20"X41") connected to the house battery through a Morningstar charge controller. The house draw comes from an Engel 45, some lights at night and on occasion we use a fan. With decent sun exposure we can go for an unlimited amount of time with no battery issues, but realistically we don't always get ideal exposure for the panel and we can hang out for up to 4 or 5 days until battery needs some charge lovin'. I have not had any problems using this set up, yet...
I'm sure many of us suffer from it from time to time.
