Solar installation has started

We used the van with the blind shut on that skylight and on a sunny day didn’t make much of a difference, it was a little darker today as it was a grey day but needs must as we use a lot of the C&CC temp holiday sites and if Christine had no power for her scooter my life would be hell

I am hoping too fit the wiring today and have to drill threw the roof , has any body fitted there own panel and drilled threw the roof on the WXL,  I have managed to remove the small wood panel in the wardrobe roof but it’s limited access will not work how I thought, I would sill like to bring the wires in this route as it limits the length

FreelanderUK wrote:I am hoping too fit the wiring today and have to drill threw the roof , has any body fitted there own panel and drilled threw the roof on the WXL,  I have managed to remove the small wood panel in the wardrobe roof but it’s limited access will not work how I thought, I would sill like to bring the wires in this route as it limits the length

Not on a XL, but did drill through roof on our Duo, make sure you get the position right!!  I thought I had and came out the wrong side of the cupboard. Still after time you get used to the extra hole, which I covered with an screw sticker patch.

Best of luck.
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Richard

Thanks Richard ,I have measured and it will come out somewhere in the wardrobe, No turning back once started

FreelanderUK wrote:Thanks Richard ,I have measured and it will come out somewhere in the wardrobe, No turning back once started

Yes that's what I planned
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Richard

Measured 4 times and drilled once, came out in the place I wanted between the wardrobe top panel and the roof, cables installed and the junction box stuck down ,I have to cut a hole in the wardrobe rear panel and base panel, install the plastic trunking and thread cables to the under bed storage area to make final connections [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Is it dry down there Fl, it's still teaming down here in Bridington,none stop for 4 hours.
Boaby

rgermain wrote:

FreelanderUK wrote:I am hoping too fit the wiring today and have to drill threw the roof , has any body fitted there own panel and drilled threw the roof on the WXL,  I have managed to remove the small wood panel in the wardrobe roof but it’s limited access will not work how I thought, I would sill like to bring the wires in this route as it limits the length

Not on a XL, but did drill through roof on our Duo, make sure you get the position right!!  I thought I had and came out the wrong side of the cupboard. Still after time you get used to the extra hole, which I covered with an screw sticker patch.

Best of luck.
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Richard

Good selling point Richard.  
Boaby

burlingtonboaby wrote:Is it dry down there Fl, it's still teaming down here in Bridington,none stop for 4 hours.
Boaby

Drizzle on and off whilst drilling the hole ,raging now but working inside the van now

Completed and all working ,we have power , 250w Panasonic hybrid slim line panel, Victron MPPT 100/20 regulator, 30 amp trip installed on the + panel to regulator wire 
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Looks great, well done.

Does the 100/20 also charge the vehicle battery, excuse my ignorance but I am still trying to get my head around these controllers and do you still get voltage displayed on the original Sargent panel?
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Richard

The 100/20 is not a duel charge regulator, I fitted a Van Bitz mastery master a few weeks ago to charge the vehicle battery from the leisure battery ,  the Sargent panel will show the voltage but not the amps going in to the battery as I have wired it totally independent from the Sargent system Richard

FreelanderUK wrote:The 100/20 is not a duel charge regulator, I fitted a Van Bitz mastery master a few weeks ago to charge the vehicle battery from the leisure battery ,  the Sargent panel will show the voltage but not the amps going in to the battery as I have wired it totally independent from the Sargent system Richard

Thank you, I will have to look into it a bit deeper to make sure I get the result I want.

Cheers 
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Richard

All the charging information is available from the VictronConnect app ,and I found it easier to install the battery master than run extra cables to the vehicle battery, all the connections for the battery master are in the box containing the Sargent 500 Richard

FreelanderUK wrote:All the charging information is available from the VictronConnect app ,and I found it easier to install the battery master than run extra cables to the vehicle battery, all the connections for the battery master are in the box containing the Sargent 500 Richard

Thank you
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Richard

Does anyone have an opinion on this solar panel? It looks good for the money but they don't say 'made in Germany' but it does say monocrystalline cells.
It looks cheap, they say it's 50% off till 14th Oct.
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They look good for the money, there is no efficiency ratings listed which I always look for, don’t let the not made in Germany put you off my Panasonic panel was not made there and is one of the leading brands. If buying a panel always put the largest you can fit in the space you have and I would recommend using a MPPT Regulator 

Compare the specs against other panels of same size and rating

Thanks Chris. I do have the Victronic MPPT regulator from another camper I had and a top quality new Duracell LB.
I think I will go for this one, as I can't find one narrow enough for the 'directly over the top of the battery' location, it will have to add an extra metre to the cable length. The watts per pound looks good and I have had Photonic panels before. It comes with 2x5 metres of cable, which is a bonus compared to others.
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The length of cable from panel to regulator are not as important as the length from regulator to battery ,these need to be as short as possible

What size is the space you have

Hi, I'm new to this forum and have just ordered a new Fairford van with delivery next month from Marquis. I asked if they could fit a larger solar panel instead of the 80W and I'm waiting for an answer. I have quite a bit of experience with retrofitting / upgrading solar systems as I have done this on my last two boats and now will be doing this on the new van. I like Victron gear and especially the Bluetooth as you can check on performance and adjust settings from the App. If they can fit the larger panel (I'd like 200W but it may be too big as I've got the Aircon and this uses up a lot of roof space) I would like to bypass the Sargent system also and use the Victron MPPT that I already have from another project but I don't want to void my warranty if things go wrong. I'm about to write a note to Sargent to see if there are any issues with using an indepenent solar controller. 

One thing I did note is that you have the solar controller mounted horizontally (I think) which is bad for cooling as the finned heat sink should be vertical on a bulkhead to allow air flow to rise wth convection off the heatsink and pull cooler ambient air in. it's probably not a big deal with low power solar but with a few hundred watts the losses in the controller will need to be dissipated and you may have some overheating of the controller especially in an enclosed space which may have other heat sources. 

I'm keen to follow this project and learn from it and if and when I get started on my upgrade project I will add my experiences also.

Dave
after your sunday lunch and you have made your self a cup of tea if you do a search ec700 by Marconi this will take some time to read but covers most things about the solar system and problems with the solar system your van comes with and what myself and others have done .there was also a post on the ec500 system with nearly the same problems

Dave, if a single large 200w panel wont fit, perhaps adding a 2nd panel (say 100-120w) might be feasible, giving the total youre looking for?

I am not really to bothered about the placement of the regulator and space is limited and with the heater and water heater near by it would have been just as warm in the vertical position, I have felt the regulator a few times and it's no warmer than anything else under the seat

FreelanderUK wrote:I am not really to bothered about the placement of the regulator and space is limited and with the heater and water heater near by it would have been just as warm in the vertical position, I have felt the regulator a few times and it's no warmer than anything else under the seat

That's fair enough. The Victron is one of the more efficient solar controllers and certainly my favourite.

I've just spent a full 2 hours reading many posts about the EC700 and the many issues that users have experienced with failures and there aren't many that consider the solar performance to be adequate. So it seems unless Sargent have made some serious improvements to the solar controller I will be definitely fitting my own controller even if I end up initially staying with the standard 80W panel. I was looking at increasing battery storage and changing battery type possibly to LiFePO4 but this then raises the question of ac charging compatibility using the Sargent PX-300 charger.

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Extract from data sheet of charger.
The charger is configured to work with standard lead acid leisure batteries, and in most cases is also compatible with the latest range of Absorbed Glass Matt (AGM) batteries. Before fitting non-standard batteries please check that the charging profile described above is suitable for the type of battery by referring to the battery documentation or battery manufacturer. The recommended battery capacity is 85 to 220Ah.


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The reason for upgrading the battery is so I can fit a decent sized inverter and use this to run the microwave, toaster, kettle etc. which we do on our current van which has a 140AH AGM and a 2kW inverter. Ideally I would add a changeover switch to feed the inverter output in to the EHU (internal to the van) so be able to select inverter or shore power. Again I did this on my current van and it works well. You just need to make sure that you don't switch the battery charger on while running from inverter. 

I will be writing to Sargent to decribe my requirements and also keep A-S informed as I don't want to void my warranty by making changes that are not agreed by either of them. 

I must admit I wasn't expecting to read such a tale of woe regarding the EC700 and especially the very poor solar performance. I've paid £2k deposit on the van so can't easily back out now!

Hi Dave
the  sargent system is used on other makes of van so please don't get put off your new van. when I was having warranty work done and said about the lovely sargent system was told to fit a mppt and direct to the batteries I then showed him my epever daulracer twin batteries now 180ah  and inverter note pure shine wave and the Bluetooth on my phone to set the charge controller and see the readings of my system  I had done .i have put new wires from the roof as what was fitted and the connections to small as you will have read  for the 80w panel with out putting an extra panel .the solar panel  plug going into the  sargent control is just unplugged at the back of ec700 in your case and the old solar panel wire  left in the roof space.at first I had fitted my epever tracer to do some test and was going to fit a bat to bat. but this is not as good as the mppt daul controller will control the voltage. some forum members did not like the ec700 post that you have read but I hope this was  good help to yourself .thanks to the great team work by forum members on the ec700 post has helped make peoples solar system perform as they require now