My Electrical Update

-
Well my DC setup recently had water damage due to old silicone around the antenna on the roof of the canopy allowing rain water to enter my DC setup. 

The most affected was the hybrid charge controller which manages the wind generator and the solar panel it has many protection devices on the controller but water was not one of them. 

Water corroded the printed circuit allowing short circuit across certain point to be affected.  Well after trying to recover the controller and failing it went into the bin. 

As this mppt hybrid controller was a very good performer I choose to replace it with a new one. My other solar charge controllers which are mppt 30amps are not performing as expected so I decided to upgrade and install an 80amp solar charge controller.  

The fuse box upgraded as it has a positive and negative bus bar built in to run the wires to a central point and fusing all the connections instead of all the leads being connected straight to the battery terminals.

I will reroute the solar anderson plugs at the present you must open the door of the rear canopy to get access, my idea is to drill a hole through the tray of the truck and have the Anderson plugs go to the rear of the truck for more easier access. 

I am currently running 870W of foldable solar panels to the truck battery bank 4 130a batteries in parallel making a 520ah battery bank, with another 2 130a batteries in the camper trailer. I also have a 120W 24V foldable solar panel I use to keep the truck batteries full. 

I use a Dc to Dc charger 40a/h to charge the batteries while driving which keeps the batteries full. I also use another Dc to Dc charger 40a/h running from the battery bank into the camper trailer battery bank to keep it charged at night which eliminates the voltage drop off of the wiring. 

I have a diesel heater which is voltage sensitive and a Waeco fridge 80l that is voltage sensitive.  Before with the diesel heater it would work alright in the evening but next morning when you turn it on would set off  an under voltage error,  this has been eliminated with the Dc to Dc charger.

My wind turbine generator is rated 500W I have this mounted on a tripod stand and use guy ropes to stabilise the stand it has been through 80klm wind no problems. The wind turbine is three phase ac supply this allows an 240v extension cord to be used with less voltage drop off than a dc wind generator.  

The extension cord goes to my hybrid charge controller which uses mppt technology to charge battery with low wind speed.  The hybrid charge controller also has a big dump resistor to off load excess power to protect the battery bank.  So far it has been working fine. 

Unfortunately the hybrid charge controller is not waterproof, mine was in a canopy unfortunately as the rain water leaked in it tracked the water drips into the controller while power was still on , no it did not catch fire as it has a lot of electrical protection including from lightning.

I also use two, 60amp battery chargers via a generator in times when no sun no wind and battery levels low but only had to use no more than 5 times in 3 years.

We live totally off grid with luxury 12V and 240v via an inverter for these appliances. 

Also yes a 12V, 8,000W  power with a 32,000W surge pure sine wave inverter. This is handy for the 240V appliances. 
We make bread with a bread maker, watch outdoor movies via a projector and 100 inch screen, use a nutribullet blender, fruit ice cream maker, washing machine, run a computer for medical dictation, power the satellite dish vast box and network box for satellite internet when no mobile signal.

I have a 3.5kw generator and portable air conditioner 2.5kw for the really hot weather most times it 12v fans and evaporated air coolers to help with the heat.

I have also installed 12v work light on the center boom rail and rear boom rail of the truck which operates via a remote control on the truck key ring from as far away as 50mts no to trip over in the dark getting to the truck. 

The canopies on the back of the truck also has lighting, I also use a voltage converter to reduce 24V down to 12V to run the Dc to Dc from the truck power supply.

Yes I hear you, it sounds a lot but living full time outdoors off grid is not the same as holidaying as if things go wrong you can pack up and go home, but this is home.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Carcoar Dam.

-
We stayed a few months at Carcoar Dam, many things happen we came down from our Nephew Andrew's Wedding, then got caught up in Covid19 pandemic state borders closing at the same time as Gay-Maree father passed away, couldn't get over the border, then about another 2 weeks later they open the state borders, Gay-Maree mother took sick, Gay-Maree caught a flight to Coolingatta airport 3hours before the state borders closed again for a 3days lockdown of Brisbane and surrounding areas. Know Brisbane a hotspot area there was a worry Gay-Maree might not get back to me without a 14 day quarantine period, but luckily they eased everything for Easter, Gay-Maree got back without issues. Over the time here many high wind events rain events, chilling cold events in summer and autumn. In April nights down to -1.0°C daytime 11°C very cold. So we had a great position of the Carcoar Dam from the door of our camper trailer many morning viewing, and sunset viewing.  Boats on the water most weeken
Read more

Nephew's Wedding.

-
Image
We left Mary Kathleen township and headed down to the border going into NSW at the same time the QLD Government lifted restrictions with NSW. It was a very heated journey as we followed the heatwave into NSW where we saw on the truck outside temps between 46 - 48°C. The plan was to go to Carcoar Dam and setup camp. Gay-Maree would go to the Lithgow train station and take the train to Sydney Central and stay about 4 days while I stayed at camp with Jools our pet Maltese who is our baby and suffers from separation anxiety. Jools would be too disruptive at the wedding.   Jools in daddy's chair, very cheeky isn't he?? Carcoar Dam is a lovely place to camp, not that busy for this time of year. Our Campsite.  Wind turbines on the hill I drove Gay-Maree to the train station and off she went to Sydney. Her Nephew Andrew collected Gay-Maree as he was preparing to marry his lovely wife to be Emma. Gay-Maree stayed 4 days in Sydney meeting Emma's parents and joining in the celebration
Read more

Uranium Mine - Mary Kathleen.

-
Image
Still camping at the old Mary Kathleen Townsite, my friend Graeme wanted to checkout the old Uranium Mine he has already been there before, but he decided to re check the old site out and invited me and jools along. It is only 7klms down the road which is bitumen so far with lots of deep potholes, and gravel road to the entrance. On entry you can see old concrete areas where boom gates for security would have been.  There is lots of concrete kerbing you can see, where old buildings once stood. Driving around there is plenty of evidence of dump areas were big rocks being dump when the mine was operating.  We found huge concrete stands where the rock  crushers would have stood. Early pictures from a billboard  in the township area demonstrates what it is like. The mine and mining  equipment  that was used, in the days of mining operations.  Many tracks and the one that leads to the Uranium Mine. Driving up to the mine site. The water is so blue from copper oxide and maybe it is also a ra
Read more