No idea Mike. Maybe speak to Sterling and report back. Most of this stuff goes over my head, but I'm happy to report back what works in real life
It was the 30amp one I went for, so far I’ve just found it works, no issues with the alternator that I’ve noticed. I have noticed higher leisure battery voltages than when I had a basic relay fitted which I’m guessing is the more efficient charge that the B2B gives.
I don’t know how I missed it but contrary to my earlier comments the Sterling website clearly states their BBS1230 is also a solar regulator. https://sterling-power.com/products/battery-to-battery-charger-w-solar-regulator-bbs1230 It has a night time setting, apparently this allows the unit to ran at half the power so the fan noise is kept down. What is the purpose of this? Why would the fan be running at all during the night when there is no solar input? Incidentally, I don’t have to worry about exceeding 350w of solar, my two panels might manage 35w.
All I can think is that these things are built for the marine market as well, so there may be occasions when they run when folk need quiet time? No idea. I don't expect any issues in the van install...but we'll see haha
I decided to read the manual and it says with the B2B you can press a quiet mode button each time you want to shut off the fan for some peace ( also reduces charge rate) . You also may have a wind turbine on a boat which will work at night time too. You may also have a really quiet e.g. Fischer Panda generator running overnight ( big soundproofed box, water cooled ) and your charger might be use as a B2B for an anchor windlass battery at the other end of the 20 metre yacht..
I've not been on for a bit and hadn't read all the issues some had been having with solar. Good to see Photonic Universe getting mentioned positively though. I have had two of their 100w semi-flexible panels and an Epever Tracer 20a fitted to my rear hinge Westy for maybe 5 years and they have been magnificent. I run a compressor fridge, Propex, charge phones, laptops and also sleep with a CPAP so even with a 110ah leisure battery I would have struggled to last a weekend without solar. Mine easily charges the battery each day from spring to late autumn. In terms of the Spain/Italy thing, I have a friend with a T5 who regularly tours over there and he has had more issues due to the heat in the day and charging efficiency falling. We use our bus in the UK and never had an issue here.
Devon pop-top: two holes through the fibreglass top (outside of the canvas) grommet sealed and then covered in a little plastic watertight box. Snake chain with the cables inside so that it folds nice and flat when the roof comes down. Through the fibreglass base of the Devon pop-top, and then out onto the rear tin roof; at this point there was no choice but to drill two holes in the actual metal to get the cables inside, but again the holes were sealed with rubber grommets and a plastic waterproof box over the top. Down through the headbanger and into the MPPT controller in the wardrobe. I'm not going to say it's never leaked - because that would be tempting fate - but it's all been fine and there has been no issues at all since I did it. Possibly overly complicated, but I do have a tendency to over-engineer things!
I chose not to leave mine installed, I only connect up my panel when parked for camping, in via the engine cool air intakes. So no external holes at all.
Rear hinge Westy - much the same as above. Through the top outside of the canvas, through cable glands into the roof, across to the side above the headbanger then down to the MPPT in the cupboard under the bed. There’s not really an alternative if you want the cables hidden.
Well I had the camper out at the front of the house at the weekend and checked the solar, the leisure battery was charged so in the nice sun the panels were giving about 0.4amps at 14.5 volts. I put the absorption fridge on and it shot up to 5.7 amps, I turned everything on and got a peak of 8 amps at 14.5 volts, not bad for April. I have noticed before that to get peak power the battery needs to be partially discharged otherwise I just can't draw enough power to max out the panels in good sunshine
This is exactly what mine does.... the leisure battery is just topped up / trickle charged by the solar all the time, so the panels appear to only output less than an amp. I really worried about this until I understood how they worked! The wiring of my absorption fridge is such that it only works off battery when the engine is running so I can’t check, but I bet it would do the same to the amps if it was wired directly.
Cheers @scrooge95 @77 Westy , that is probably what I will do then. Its a rear hinged westy if memory serves. @scrooge95 , is the snake chain stuff you speak of the same as seen on daisys bus? Commonly used on chair lifts i believe?
I was thinking of using this to take cables through the roof: There are different sizes and finishes. Should handle the curves. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Unless the panels are like mine. I understand how they work and there is no problem for my 2 x 100-watt panels to keep a charged battery topped up but when a load is switched on there is little or no increase from the MPPT and the battery discharges.
Yes 2 x 100watt, I just hope I have more luck than you, then again I probably won't get the same heat buid up in Ireland as in France
I have the older front hinge Westy roof and I found a 100w panel that fitted in the rear rack section. I used one of these https://www.photonicuniverse.com/en...pervans-boats-and-building-installations.html for routing the cable through the roof, with the outside entry for the cables facing to the rear. You can just about see it in the photo ... cheaper than this one which I believe is better for cables on a boat where they go straight up and down i.e. for the mast etc. If I remember the cable for the solar panel was quite stiff?
I used simple cable glands. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vzer-Pcs-P...eywords=pg9 cable gland&qid=1617705301&sr=8-6
Yep, exactly that. From memory, for mine (although a weary may be different) it didn’t lie quite flat enough on its fold to fit under the closed roof, so a small amount of ‘shaving’ of the plastic links had to happen just on the bend.
