[Nebster]

So, you are using a different inverter?

Yes, you got to my thread too fast for me. 

And, what are you doing for 12VDC power for lights and what not?

Newells with incandescent lighting have absolutely enormous DC draws.  Upwards of 1200W on my coach!  I am slowly replacing with LED, but I don't like the performance of most 12V LEDs on the Spyder (voltage-based) dimming system.  I started with one 1500W DC power supply, but I decided to add a second one on standby so we can handle peaks better, degrade gracefully when the inverter bay gets super hot in the summertime, and so that we don't lose most of the coach if one of the 12V supplies bites the bullet.

What other systems are you using for battery protection and battery monitoring?

Primarily just bottom-balance and conservatism.  I am using a custom Zeva cell monitoring solution that can trigger start and stop charge as well as pack disconnect on cell-level low and high voltage.  I actually haven't even finished wiring it up on all the strings, but the system is intrinsically pretty safe as it is, even without the extra protection.

Love your project !

Thanks; me, too -- most of the time. 

Nice!  So with a 52 volt  system how are you getting down to 12 vdc?  And how will you charge back up to 52 vdc?
And is that 31Kwh at 52 volts?

Good catch, we use the aforementioned 12VDC supplies to re-generate 12VDC.  That makes for an inefficiency (inverter is ~93% under decent load), but (a) it's kind of a rounding error in this system and (b) a lot of the design of the system is greatly simplified by having a single, unified, controllable load.  Other than the emergency contactors and the control computer, nothing else runs directly off the DC pack.

I did a simpler system with 4 1000amphour cells which are still going strong in one of our gurus coaches.

Cool, are those Winston cells?  I didn't even discover their huge cells until well after I'd placed my order for the ones I'm using.

Yeah Ben,

I have the system that Forrest built.

So, I am going to ask you a zillion questions. Hope you don't mind.

I've heard about that system, I think.    Send me all your questions!