Upgrade

SquirrellCook

Forum Member
Some of you may have gathered I've been going through an unplanned upgrade with "Murky". Somewhat frustrating as I have a new build in process "Betty"
Reading some of your posts should have warnings of seduction, as they make you question what your doing.
Murky in the early days was battery and generator powered. Constructed from the Trevskoda view point.
My must haves were, a cooker, a fridge, toilet, hot water and shower. Hot water was a carver thing. Cooker a domestic propane one. Fridge domestic running from a 200watt inverter and two second hand six volt Bank UPS standby batteries. The fridge ran for a good four days before the batteries needed charging based on the fact that it would not start.
All was good in the world, until one night the inverter exploded. First the noise, then the smell. Not a good bump in the night.
So we upgrade. New inverter, won't start the fridge! New bigger inverter, just starts the fridge. New Fridge, inverter won't start it. New bigger inverter, batteries not lasting very long now :( Well the were at least 5 years old when I got them. Two new 100 Ahr ecocel leisure batteries and it's running again for a day or so without charge.
Water heater had been replaced with a newer higher spec carver, that was more trouble than the first. Calorifier, running from the engine hot water and 1000kw heating element. Bigger generator needed for that. Too much noise so a 500watt heating element. 1kva silent generator anything but heating water and charging batteries!
By now it had ducted air heating with a 2kw eberspacher. Water upgraded too with a 12kw eberspacher.
All good in the world until one morning we found we'd had a fire. Somehow the one of the ecocel batteries had caught on fire. Burnt through the pressurised water pipe which extinguished it. We were shortly to go away for a week :(
Anita makes a new kitchen area and plumbs it. Batteries have been evicted and a carrier made to attach to the chassis along with an access door.
Two 6 volt yuasa batteries fitted. Soon to be followed by a lesun 100watt solar panel. Not happy with the charge controller. New charge controller and another solar panel. First panel dies and is replaced. So another saga starts with adding panels replacing panels and getting very annoyed with sunshine meters.
Having joined Motorhomer, I'm reading about Victron stuff. Yes I've looked at it but it's sill money. So the first item was a MPPT controller. Played around with panel configuration and found that my morning and evening performance was markedly improved if I raised the voltage by going series and parallel, even though I lost a panel due to needing an even number. Much happier with the solar, though at times did not perform as I'd like.
BMV fitted and I've got a better idea about what is going on. This may have helped with the short life of the Yuasa batteries, which had now been replaced with a pair of Trogan T105's.
Jumping back a bit all the batteries were being charged with Ring 16amp smart chargers. 1 each for every 12volts three in total. They explode when connected to a traditional generator. Though the loading on the 1kva smart generator was too much if the water heater kicked in too. So 3 Tecmate 7.5 amp chargers that were generator safe replaced them. They were also designed to be wired in too.
Still not happy with battery life. Engine start batteries that looked after lighting and eberspachers were varta lfd90's. First set had to be charged all the time, just after a few days the volts were down to 24 just parked up. I purchased some 18 months ago and they were not much better from day one. One battery also outperformed the other. Battery positions changed, chargers swapped around. Duff battery followed.
Two cheap panels purchased, existing panels rearranged so that I had three panels in series running down one side of the curved roof. Some did cross the roof. So the theory being and not tested would be I'd have some kind of low sun performance increase depending on my direction.
So far I've noticed 1amp of charge on dull days without direct sun alignment. Every little helps.
Another BMV fitted to the engine start batteries and I can no longer charge the 12volts sets individually. Not the end of the world as the chargers could be set to 24 volts and used in parallel. Yes the power drain I always suspected existed. I was unable to measure it easily due to a huge current surge when reconnecting the supply. The BMV allowed me to fiddle and experiment. I found that the batteries chargers also placed a load on the batteries whilst connected and not working. They would have to go.
So now I have a Victron MPPT, two BMV's and two chargers, all Bluetooth. Does help so see what is going on. Quickly back to the fridge, I finally got reliable starting from a 800 watt Victron inverter. Though I'm sure they lied about the fridge efficiency. My cheap "Husky" fridge worked best.
To charge my engine start batteries from the leisure side cost me twice the number of Watts that I was putting in.
Now with the Victron the ratio is much better on bulk charge, but gets worse as the current drops in absorb.
Watching the charge characteristics whilst on mains of the Victron chargers, I feel if they are left on until they go into maintain the battery is better charged.
The engine start batteries I'm using now are the first set of varta's I was going to weigh in. Yes the capacity is not good, but after a few charge discharge cycles they are now performing better than the ones I've sent back.
Many conclusions can be made from this. I'm not trying to say I've now found the right way, it's early days. Or what kit to use. All that I purchased in this saga was supposed to be up to the job.
Thank you all for your inspiration, but with all your ideas I expect I would still be on the fence wondering what way to jump.
 
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wildebus

Forum Member
Sounds like a lot of fun!

One thing I will say is that I found the quoted Fridge Efficiency to be spot on. Obviously you need to add to that figure the Inverter overhead that can, depending on Inverter and how it is configured, add a lot of extra overhead or just a little.
 

trevskoda

Forum Member
Thats why i spent 6 mths drawing and reading before one tool was brought into action,only thing i had to change was the el chepo solar regulator,again not as good as this which im fitting because its mppt and charges service and engine start battery,always better to measure twice and cut once as they say in the trade,next van you build should be the bogs dollocks.
 

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SquirrellCook

Forum Member
Thats why i spent 6 mths drawing and reading before one tool was brought into action,only thing i had to change was the el chepo solar regulator,again not as good as this which im fitting because its mppt and charges service and engine start battery,always better to measure twice and cut once as they say in the trade,next van you build should be the bogs dollocks.
Yes Trevor, the new build spec has changed a bit already. Demolition is greater than construction still. I’m sure there will still be major mistakes/regrets.
 

MarkJ

Forum Member
Thats why i spent 6 mths drawing and reading before one tool was brought into action,only thing i had to change was the el chepo solar regulator,again not as good as this which im fitting because its mppt and charges service and engine start battery,always better to measure twice and cut once as they say in the trade,next van you build should be the bogs dollocks.
Encouraging, I’ve spent about 2 months so far and keep coming across things I hadn’t thought of.
 

SquirrellCook

Forum Member
Dang, I would have gone bankrupt half way through that lot. Hope it gets better
Wasn't so bad as most of this was over 10 years. Getting a fridge to do what I wanted was annoying for a few months. This years expenditure does seem daft, considering it will be up for sale soon. On the plus side I'm more confident about the new build.
 

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