Just looking around

[eLectricLarry]

Yes I’m a CA. Electrical Contractor, Semi Retired who sets people up with Emergency Battery BackUp options to use whatever new Power Supplies that come along. I’m tired of giving out bids to people for things they don’t want to pop for. People want to be off grid but they don’t want to spend $23,000. They don’t want automatic transfer switching, they just want to plug their Generator into the Electric Dryer Outlet to back feed their Panel. So I enlighten people to how to run 2- 17.5 amp Inverters to run their whole house on a Maximum of 35-amps. The key is separating the neutrals for each Inverter, to run the whole house on 1-set of batteries for 4 to 6 hours of unlimited use or just 2 Refrigerators and a limited amount of lights all night for emergency purposes.

What I need help with right now is to know how far I can run my Solar Panels from my charging system. So someone please guide me to the right place to see what others have done.

[CampNBrew2]

Hi Larry,
I'm not quite clear on your question, or maybe just your situation. Can you elaborate a bit?

The distance your panels are from your load, and how much amperage you want to move will determine which wire size to use for said distance. I'm unsure of the maximum distance, though I can see it getting very expensive over several hundred feet.

As it relates to RVs, I have a 200w panel system that I move around camp to chase the sun. (I like to park in the shade so did not roof mount my panels). I have about 50' of #12 wire between the panels and trailer, and would likely get better charge with #10 or even #8 at the low charge voltage we are after.

[flybouy]

Welcome to the forum.

I don’t quite understand the equestion or perhaps what end result you are attempting to achieve. With such a vague question the answer could vary widley. From your introduction about home systems I would think you have a working kjowledge of Ohms Law and how to calculate appropriate wire size. Asking for "what others have done" will result in someond replying with "I connected my 15 watt panel to my grp 24 battery" to someone else with " I connected my 1,500 watt array to my 8 lithium battery bank".

Clarifying what end results you wish to achive will result in more applicable answers.

[eLectricLarry]

Well I retired my Komfort 26’ 5th Wheel, it is now in my backyard until I move it cross country to Carterville GA where most of my kids and grand kids live between Springfield, MO. Cincinnati and Franklin; that trailer is now a workshop with Landline power, water, A/C and propane heat. I will probably run it off some thing like a Titan in the future. Right now I’m locked into 2 or soon to be 3 Nexus Power Stations, 2 of them to have 180-watt Solar Chargers. I’d like to keep one inside 20’ away from my Solar Panels, the other outside within 10’. I remember hearing from Will P. that distance is a killer. I have not purchased any Solar Panels yet, I will purchase a Solar Charger next, after I recover from my last $720 purchase that ended up being $831 from a bid I won on eBay.

I eventually plan to get a large Solar Generator charging at 1200-watts so whatever Panels I get now, I want to expand in that direction. I want to build 2-directional Platforms for smaller 12-volt Solar Panels and Servo motors to track the Sun, then later I’ll expand from 4-tracking Solar Panels to 6 and 8. Right now I’m concerned about distance from the Panels to the small 180-watt EGO Solar Charger I’m stuck with for another year or two

[eLectricLarry]

Unfortunately I’m stuck with a particular type of Battery that only works with my Nexus Power Station. Fortunately that Battery Style utilizes Lithium. I went with this set up to be used for Emergency Use, not to get off the grid. Portable to be used out on the road where I have used my Nexus to run my very heavy duty Milwaukee Demolition Hammer. I know it has limits, but it is portable and we rent a house in an area where we have received notices from SoCal Edison that when Fire Season arrives and the Santa Ana Winds come up they will shut our power.

We 4-adults sharing this 2200 square ft home have 2 Refrig’s that were on the same Circuit until I changed it. One is on my Main Panel and the other at the back of the house comes from a Sub Panel, so I built a control Panel at each location for 2 separate Nexus Power Stations that each give me 17.5 amps that will last for 3-hours or 6-amps for 6-hours and 90 percent of the time I operate at 300-watts for over 8-hours. So with 2- Stations operating one controlling the 15 & 20-amp breakers in my Main Panel on my A Leg and the other controlling the 15 & 20-amp breakers out of my Sub Panel on my B Leg (of a Split Phase system) I’m ready to employ a third Nexus Unit just to charge what will eventually be 8-10.0 amp hour batteries and their 8-7.5 amp hour replacements while 4-additional batteries will be recharging on Solar.

Now my limitation is the EGO batteries themselves being charged with 180-watts maximum. I will eventually sell one of those Power Stations after buying a much more powerful Solar Generator, but right now I’m spending it on Batteries I can resell on eBay once I have enough Panels to go 1200 watts. I already employ 2-Rapid chargers that can recharge a battery in an hour, which is much faster than taking all day to recharge 4 batteries. I will eventually have 2 Nexus Units charging from 4- Panels so I can recharge all my Batteries on one good Summer Day here is SoCal.

[eLectricLarry]

I tried replying to 2-different people, it went somewhere after I was told I could not do what I did. You will probably see my reply to you as something else I posted

[spicercars]

Welcome from northern MN.