[Jack Houpe]

Morning Forest, thats a good idea aqua hot compartment normally warm, cut a hole and put a 12v fan on a thermostatic switch.  They make the rubber heated mats for lithium batteries to sit on thats another way to heat also. I buy my batteries from China and make what ever configuration by series and parrallel individual cells its much cheaper that way and add a BMS (Battery maintenance System). I built this one for my nephew in Surprise AZ it was a tight squeeze, its 200 amp hour @ 48Vdc, he wanted a battery for his golf cart that would last for miles. The other image is 600 amp hour at 12VDC we had in our Class B RV.

[Jack Houpe]

All the rails and hardware will be here next week I went with heavy duty rails just in case we have some crazy snow loads so it cost more than Unistrut I've used in the past but should look and perform well and the height is adjustable, I need to cover a couple vents rather than work around them, they will still vent properly just will be under the panels.

Still not sure on what system we will be using, I can purchase on Growatt 6000w split phase inverter all in one system for the price of one victron 3000w single phase inverter only and I would need two of them. I have installed both victron and growatt and there is no doubt the victron is the best of the best but haven't had a problem at all with the growatt system thats been running in our home now for almost a year. #504 has been eating money like a slot machine for half a year now but it will be a gem when its done.

[Jack Houpe]

I'm finally on the roof getting things ready for the rails to be installed for the solar panels. I found this dohicky thing with no knowledge of what it is or does. Is it a temp sensor or part of something broke off like a wind sensor.

[Latitude 28]

Morning Forest, thats a good idea aqua hot compartment normally warm, cut a hole and put a 12v fan on a thermostatic switch.  They make the rubber heated mats for lithium batteries to sit on thats another way to heat also. I buy my batteries from China and make what ever configuration by series and parrallel individual cells its much cheaper that way and add a BMS (Battery maintenance System). I built this one for my nephew in Surprise AZ it was a tight squeeze, its 200 amp hour @ 48Vdc, he wanted a battery for his golf cart that would last for miles. The other image is 600 amp hour at 12VDC we had in our Class B RV.

Nice setup Jack!  What BMS have you been the most happy with?  Also, in you battery box, what is that black spacer material around the perimeter?

[Jack Houpe]

Morning Steve,  totally happy with Daly BMS, has programmable low and high temperature protection and I can verify it works, last year we had -10 F and it turned off the battery bank when it got to 38 F that I had it set at. Also has a blue tooth app that you can check what individual cells are doing. Has many parameters that you can program to keep the batteries safe.

The thick black material is 3/4 inch rubber horse mat from tractor supply and the black plastic box is a musical instrument carrying case for shipping instruments. You build your own batteries you have to improvise but there's a tremendous savings in doing it yourself more than 50%.

[Latitude 28]

Morning Steve,  totally happy with Daly BMS, has programmable low and high temperature protection and I can verify it works, last year we had -10 F and it turned off the battery bank when it got to 38 F that I had it set at. Also has a blue tooth app that you can check what individual cells are doing. Has many parameters that you can program to keep the batteries safe.

The thick black material is 3/4 inch rubber horse mat from tractor supply and the black plastic box is a musical instrument carrying case for shipping instruments. You build your own batteries you have to improvise but there's a tremendous savings in doing it yourself more than 50%.

Jack,
Thanks for the horse mat tip....been looking for something like that for a project that is in the works.  I have been a Will Prowse You Tube viewer for several years now and his DIY battery packs are all about robustness and savings.

[Gnawrocki1]

Jack, 

How are you attaching the solar bracketry to the roof?  

I ended up using aluminum rivnuts that went through the supports under the skin of the roof then bolting unistrut mounted with 1/2" aluminum spacers.  

I ended up adding epoxy to the rivnuts so that it would prevent them possibly turning as I assembled.  I also added self leveling sealant at the spacers and on top of the unistrut bolt heads.

They seem to be holding up very well, and the spacers help keep water from pooling up under the unistrut.

[bikestuff]

Jack,
That weird unidentified thing on your roof *was* a wind sensor for your main awning. It looks like someone put a schedule 40 cap on part of it. On 653 the controller was located hidden in the cabinet by the mid-entry.

Bill

[Jack Houpe]

Removed the satellite mounting and the TV ant, drilled and riveted the screw holes and put a dab of 3m 5200 on each rivet. Started drawing lines to identify where to put the 5/16 inch rivnut to secure the solar panel mounting rails. The only gap in the panels will be the generator exhaust pipe, just beside the pipe is where I will run the solar panel wires down to the inverter.

[Jack Houpe]

Glenn sounds like you went the extra mile I might follow your lead on the epoxying the rivnuts. Did you use 5/16"? We have a heat wave now and its hot as all get out so I'm off the roof by 9-10 AM on it soon as the sun comes up. I took the vent hoods off and removed the old fans, the new low profile fans will be in tomorrow along with PWM speed control, the fans are for radiator and the CFMs are very high which will make them nosey so I hope the speed control will keep them quite when in use. I will put some small net wires to keep the birds out then cover them with solar panels. I will also cover the 2 vents the only thing that will stick up off the roof is the exhaust for the generator.

Thank you Bill! I had an idea that might be the case, I'll pop that 1 inch cap off in the morning. I found two other antenna bases toward the front, one is an old CB antenna and I assume the other is for the AM FM radio.