Revamped the Solar Setup

[Jafo]

My battery bank was aging a bit, so I decided to upgrade to the AGM type and to upgrade the system to 24 volts from 12. I still have some 12 volt equipment such as some LED lights and a couple of ham radios, so I also had to purchase a step down for those to work. Here is a list and links of all of the equipment:

• Two AGM Batteries (Sun Extender PVX-2580)
• Step down converter
• Distribution block
• 24v inverter
• 2 dual terminal fuse blocks
• 2 single terminal fuse blocks
• 2 - 30amp fuses
• 4 - 100amp fuses
• Toggle switch

If you have followed my posts at all, you know that I already have a couple 100 watt solar panels.

Here is the basic setup. I know the wiring isn't pretty, but it works:



A closer view:



Basically the setup is like this: The two panels are wired in series and come in at 24v to the charge controller which dumps to the battery until full.

From the series tied battery bank, I have mounted the terminal fuse blocks. 30 amp fuses hold the wires going to the toggle switch -> step down converter -> distribution block -> various 12v load. The second fuse in the terminal block is 100amp to the 1500 watt pure sine 24v inverter.

This provides me with ample capacity. In fact, I haven't been able to draw the battery bank below 25.4 volts yet, and that included a night we were there when it was raining so we stayed inside and watched 3 movies on a small computer monitor while also having a couple different laptops charging.

If I were to use this every day, I would probably buy 4 more panels. But since we use this only every other weekend and the occasional week straight, I probably will leave it at two.

Anyway, just thought I would share.