I’ve made many mistakes and many changes due to mistakes and to changing priorities and requirements.

campervan

v0 - planning, circa 2016

I had a mockup of the vanspace in my sticks-and-bricks office.

I wanted a bank to start building the electrical system around so I bought a used set of Duracell (East Penn / Deka) GC2 for $50.

I used the 5A Genasun MPPT (see Hotel Ranger below) and a 24v power supply to maintain the bank.

v1, circa 2017

Bought the van and installed the existing power setup, adding a shore power port. I wanted to tweak charging setpoints so I replaced the Genasun with a 10A EpEver MPPT. A Battery Doctor VSR charged the batts while driving. I kept the camper plugged into shore power when not in use.

v2 , circa 2018

Found 3x 190w 24v panels ($0.32/Watt) on a pallet and installed them on a DIY rack. Ran them on a 40A EpEver MPPT in series (108Vmp)

v2.1

I did not yet understand the charging of deep cycle batteries and thought my used ones were dying. In actuality I was undercharging them and didn’t know it. I suspect I could have gotten more use out of them.

I replaced them with another set of Duracells.

v2.2 - the (charging) light bulb goes on)

Sometime in 2019 I came to understand the importance of sufficient Absorption duration and observing current acceptance to determine what sufficient meant. My GC2 would get one good year of proper charging before they hit the wall at ~1,100 cycles. If I had known what I was doing I think they would have gone 1,500.

v3 - installing LFP in 2021

I installed 100Ah of LFP and sold my GC2 for scrap/cores.

Reconfigged the solar charge controllers and pressed on.

v3.1 - 50Ah sidecar

I was offered a 50Ah Chins LFP (the PO was upgrading to 100Ah). At first I turned it down, believing that it would not parallel well with the existing 100Ah. Eventually I remembered I like to do experiments and publish the results. They paralleled with zero drama and take/give according to their relative capacity. This was a pleasant surprise.

v4 - capacity upgrade

Hotel Ranger

v1

  • 60w panel
  • 10A HQST PWM
  • marine batt

v1.1

replaced 10A HQST with 5A Genasun MPPT