Solar Panel Setup: Springdale 1800BH

[msctech]

Hello. I bought an 1800BH last year and I see that it's pre-wired for solar. I purchased 3 Heliene 72M-380 370w 40v solar panels. I have the real estate to mount all 3 however I don't know if the existing wiring is able to handle that kind of wattage. I would like to have at least 2 panels wired in parallel. What max wattage that you would put up knowing that you're using the existing wiring that Keystone provided? So far I have a Blueetti 2000w power bank that I'll feed into and I believe my model can handle 1,000W Max., 12V to 60V, 20A Max therefore it might be tricky anyhow to have the third panel installed regardless (if all 3 are operating at max output of course).

 

[NH_Bulldog]

Keystone models that include the factory SolarFlex as a standard feature, the wiring was designed for double what they installed at the factory. So a SolarFlex 220W system could be upgraded to a 440w system by connecting two 220w panels in parallel using the one existing roof port. The SolarFlex 440w system could be upgraded to a 880w system by connecting two sets of two 220w panels in parallel using the two existing roof ports.

The SolarFlex Ready has a 30A roof port, and 10ga wiring installed. This means that using what is there right now without modification, you can add a single 220w panel. If you upgrade from the 15A solar charge controller to a 30A solar charge controller, you can move up to 440w of solar. If you want to add more than that, it will require another roof port, another run of wire and a larger solar charge controller. Here is a link to the Keystone webpage that explains what your system is and isn't: SolarFlex Ready

 

[RacerX-KEY]

What NH Bulldog said is correct. In your situation if you are avoiding the charge controller and using the one built into the Bluetti you will be limited by its specs AND also the limitations of the 10 awg wiring (30 amps). With Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) of 46.2v on your panels you will should not wire in series if going to the Bluetti as you will exceed its limits. (I think you realized this already.). In parallel the wiring will handle all three of the panels at 9.2 amps Short Circuit Current, but barely. This also means you will be disconnecting the existing panel and bypassing the existing Victron charge controller to accomplish this.

Assume you have the Solarflex 200/220 installed not a 440 system. I believe this means only one port (and wiring to the roof). You might consider running a second set of wires to the roof to accomplish what you want to do.

 

[msctech]

What NH Bulldog said is correct. In your situation if you are avoiding the charge controller and using the one built into the Bluetti you will be limited by its specs AND also the limitations of the 10 awg wiring (30 amps). With Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) of 46.2v on your panels you will should not wire in series if going to the Bluetti as you will exceed its limits. (I think you realized this already.). In parallel the wiring will handle all three of the panels at 9.2 amps Short Circuit Current, but barely. This also means you will be disconnecting the existing panel and bypassing the existing Victron charge controller to accomplish this.

Assume you have the Solarflex 200/220 installed not a 440 system. I believe this means only one port (and wiring to the roof). You might consider running a second set of wires to the roof to accomplish what you want to do.

My unit is SolarFlex ready (sticker outside my camper showing this) however I do not have a charge controller that came with the 1800BH. I was thinking of either using my Bluetti as the charge controller or to go with a Victron however with the Victron I couldn't find a proper unit that proper unit for 3 panels. All my 1800BH had were the solar ports (one on the roof and one on the side) and bare wiring ready to wire a controller from inside the access panel under the bed.

 

[RacerX-KEY]

Hmm. I thought all keystone models came with Solarflex 2xx as a minimum but that may have changed. What year model 1800BH did you purchase last year?

Either way, yes in a 12 volt system you would need a very large (150/70 or larger) charge controller and larger wires. Or you could build up using two smaller charge controllers networked together. This is a common approach. One of these could be the Bluetti CC. It all depends on what you want to charge: Bluetti or house batteries or both eg. Either way with the wattage and number of panels you have you might need to pull a second set (or bigger wires.).

 

[RacerX-KEY]

Hmm. I thought all keystone models came with Solarflex 2xx as a minimum but that may have changed. What year model 1800BH did you purchase last year?

Either way, yes in a 12 volt system you would need a very large (150/70 or larger) charge controller and larger wires. Or you could build up using two smaller charge controllers networked together. This is a common approach. One of these could be the Bluetti CC. It all depends on what you want to charge: Bluetti or house batteries or both eg. Either way with the wattage and number of panels you have you might need to pull a second set (or bigger wires.).

Ok you made me look. I didn’t realize they had a so,ar flex ready package now.

Here are the specs of what you have

SolarFlex Ready

Designed with the owner in mind, SolarFlex 200 is a versatile base system that can be easily expanded to fit many different energy needs.

www.keystonerv.com

Basically one port with 10awg to the roof and a pre wired inverter loop. (And the side port. ).

 

[msctech]

Hmm. I thought all keystone models came with Solarflex 2xx as a minimum but that may have changed. What year model 1800BH did you purchase last year?

Either way, yes in a 12 volt system you would need a very large (150/70 or larger) charge controller and larger wires. Or you could build up using two smaller charge controllers networked together. This is a common approach. One of these could be the Bluetti CC. It all depends on what you want to charge: Bluetti or house batteries or both eg. Either way with the wattage and number of panels you have you might need to pull a second set (or bigger wires.).

I've been so far feeding the main line into the Bluetti and going to use the solar lines to feed back into my Bluetti. I think 3 380w 40v panels may be too close for my comfort for the 10 AWG lines so I could have 2 panels comfortably unless I added lines. Otherwise, a suggestion for a good Victron MPPT charge controller would be great as well as either adding a second 12v battery to my bank (it came with one battery already) or some electricians swear that I should use 2 6V batteries instead wired in series.

It's a 2024 Springdale 1800BH purchased in March 2024. I didn't have many pictures of the entrance side but here's one with the solar ready sticker beside the door.

 

[RacerX-KEY]

Not sure what you meant by: “

I've been so far feeding the main line into the Bluetti

Do you mean you are using the AC charger to charge the Bluetti or are you using the dc power loop to charge the Bluetti through its solar charge controller port? Or is it the opposite where you are using the Bluetti inverted circuit to apply 120v power to your rig via the trailer’# 30 amp shore power connection?


Yes with your 10awg cabling and no changes I would also choose to limit the panels you have to just two given their specs. The Bluetti charge controller specs you reported could handle that. If however, you chose to wire into the rigs battery instead of the Bluetti, a Victron 100/50 charge controller would be my choice for those two panels assuming no additional wiring or heavier gauge wiring is installed. This would not be needed if everything goes thru the Bluetti, but in that situation, my concern would be Whether the Bluetti has a big enuf inverter to allow your converter to charge your rig battery and supply dc power to the rig

With the Bluetti as the main supply of ac current and being charged by solar this means your coach battery will be charged by the converter which takes its 120v supply from the shore power to supply 12v power to the rig. This could work depending on the expected loads and the size of the Bluetti inverter and could avoid the addition of a separate charge controller since you would be using the one in your Bluetti

The Victron 100/50 could handle the two panels in series or parallel but would limit the 12v output to 50 amps and safely clip your production if you actually exceeded that. I your Bluetti can actually handle 1000 watts of solar, it would not clip but I am unfamiliar with that model. It may have two inputs of 500 watts or some other configuration so I would dig into that more

 

[msctech]

Not sure what you meant by: “

Do you mean you are using the AC charger to charge the Bluetti or are you using the dc power loop to charge the Bluetti through its solar charge controller port? Or is it the opposite where you are using the Bluetti inverted circuit to apply 120v power to your rig via the trailer’# 30 amp shore power connection?


Yes with your 10awg cabling and no changes I would also choose to limit the panels you have to just two given their specs. The Bluetti charge controller specs you reported could handle that. If however, you chose to wire into the rigs battery instead of the Bluetti, a Victron 100/50 charge controller would be my choice for those two panels assuming no additional wiring or heavier gauge wiring is installed. This would not be needed if everything goes thru the Bluetti, but in that situation, my concern would be Whether the Bluetti has a big enuf inverter to allow your converter to charge your rig battery and supply dc power to the rig

With the Bluetti as the main supply of ac current and being charged by solar this means your coach battery will be charged by the converter which takes its 120v supply from the shore power to supply 12v power to the rig. This could work depending on the expected loads and the size of the Bluetti inverter and could avoid the addition of a separate charge controller since you would be using the one in your Bluetti

The Victron 100/50 could handle the two panels in series or parallel but would limit the 12v output to 50 amps and safely clip your production if you actually exceeded that. I your Bluetti can actually handle 1000 watts of solar, it would not clip but I am unfamiliar with that model. It may have two inputs of 500 watts or some other configuration so I would dig into that more

I'm actually using the main AC power line from the 1800BH and plugging it into the Bluetti. I haven't spliced or added any new lines yet however I would like to eventually have it reside under the bed. Currently when I use the Bluetti, I have it chained under the camper and then I would have the solar lines to go into the Bluetti. So the Bluetti is plugged into the main power right now acting more like a uninterruptible power supply for the camper.

As my solar panels are 40V 380W per, I don't think the The Victron 100/50 will handle them unless you want the Victron to cap max voltage around 28V.

 

[RacerX-KEY]

I typed up a long reply and just lost it….so fortunately for you a short reply here. The 100/50 is limited by 100 volts and 50 amps. In parallel your panels will be a total of 46.2 V. Well within the limits. The Victron caps Amos not voltage. The 100 is the never exceed limit of voltage

 

[msctech]

I typed up a long reply and just lost it….so fortunately for you a short reply here. The 100/50 is limited by 100 volts and 50 amps. In parallel your panels will be a total of 46.2 V. Well within the limits. The Victron caps Amos not voltage. The 100 is the never exceed limit of voltage

Okay. I didn't realize that. I was reading the wrong lines on the specs only seeing 12v and 24v on the data sheets.

 

[RacerX-KEY]

Yes that was part of the long reply I lost. From the spec sheet you will see the 100/50 can deliver up to 700w Nominal PV power in a 12 V system. Your two panels will at theoretical max deliver 850w at the open circuit max but are rated more for like 740 w max. This means that the Victron “might” clip the amperage on perfect sun days for a short time if your two panels actually get to 740w but not by much. You could spend a lot more for a bigger charge controller but I personally wouldn’t. As long as your volts don’t exceed the 100 max it is perfectly ok for the charge controller to limit amperage and “clip” the amount it is over paneled.

 

[mikehoyt]

What NH Bulldog said is correct. In your situation if you are avoiding the charge controller and using the one built into the Bluetti you will be limited by its specs AND also the limitations of the 10 awg wiring (30 amps). With Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) of 46.2v on your panels you will should not wire in series if going to the Bluetti as you will exceed its limits. (I think you realized this already.). In parallel the wiring will handle all three of the panels at 9.2 amps Short Circuit Current, but barely. This also means you will be disconnecting the existing panel and bypassing the existing Victron charge controller to accomplish this.

Assume you have the Solarflex 200/220 installed not a 440 system. I believe this means only one port (and wiring to the roof). You might consider running a second set of wires to the roof to accomplish what you want to do.

Hello. I bought an 1800BH last year and I see that it's pre-wired for solar. I purchased 3 Heliene 72M-380 370w 40v solar panels. I have the real estate to mount all 3 however I don't know if the existing wiring is able to handle that kind of wattage. I would like to have at least 2 panels wired in parallel. What max wattage that you would put up knowing that you're using the existing wiring that Keystone provided? So far I have a Blueetti 2000w power bank that I'll feed into and I believe my model can handle 1,000W Max., 12V to 60V, 20A Max therefore it might be tricky anyhow to have the third panel installed regardless (if all 3 are operating at max output of course).

Two things. The Bluetti requires a minimum voltage to charge so possibly in series will work well for you. We have AC200Max. Maximum input is 900 watt solar (your three panels will likely not exceed that most days). The charging voltage is 10 - 145 volt. Charging amperage is 15 amp. I use my Renogy 200 watt suitcase panels to charge the Bluetti often. You have to bypass the solar controller that comes with the panels as the Bluetti has an internal MPPT controller

On our current TT (Passport 221BH) there is solarflex 200 with a single 200 watt panel on roof charging battery via a Victron 15 amp charge controller. Our typical setup will be to plug the trailer into the bluetti 30 amp port in the morning to make coffee, etc prior to generator hours and to top up the house batteries. Then we use suitcase 200 watt panels to charge Bluetti (as well as generator if running it to charge trailer) and the rooftop 200 watt panels to charge the house battery. On a good light day we do not need the generator and the Bluetti usually replenishes what we used by end of the day (supposing we dont use more than 40-50% of its battery in the morning).

 

[RacerX-KEY]

Based on the specs of mstech”s panels he needs to avoid series connection of all three if his Bluetti is limited to 60v input. He will fry the charge controller putting three 46.2v panels in series. Key difference is his panels are not low voltage like your Renogy panels.