pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Joined: 12/18/2004
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ewarnerusa,
Go for it!
I originally intended to use the battery bank to run the fridge for 12 hours before taking a trip.
I never got around to doing so--and the controller did not have a diversion load terminal.
Regards, Don
My ride is a 28 foot Class C, 256 watts solar, 556 amp-hours of Telcom jars, 3000 watt Magnum hybrid inverter, Sola Basic Autoformer, Microair Easy Start.
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Tom_M
New Hope, MN
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Bobbo wrote:What I don't understand is why you feel the need "to do something with excess solar harvest that would otherwise be wasted." It's not as if you would have to go out and buy new "solar harvest" if you waste it. It seems to me that this is a solution in search of a problem. It means that you would use less propane. Once your battery is fully charged you would then heat your water with the excess electricity. Seems like a great idea to me.
Tom
2005 Born Free 24RB
170ah Renogy LiFePo4 drop-in battery 400 watts solar
Towing 2016 Mini Cooper convertible on tow dolly
Minneapolis, MN
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stevenal
Newport, OR, USA
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Those 12 V elements look like they are for home style water heaters, not RV.
'18 Bigfoot 1500
Torklifts and Fastguns
'17 F350 Powerstroke Supercab SRW LB 4X4
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ewarnerusa
Helena, Montana
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Joined: 12/20/2011
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stevenal wrote:Those 12 V elements look like they are for home style water heaters, not RV.
Yeah I don't think they're the right size for a swappable replacement of an RV water heater 120V element. But it says in loud all caps to not use on grid power as it will fry the element. It's a website for wind and solar and listed as a low voltage diversion load element, so seems like the perfect application if I can get it in the tank.
Aspen Trail 2710BH | 470 watts of solar | 2x 6V GC batteries | 100% LED lighting | 1500W PSW inverter | MicroAir on air con | Yamaha 2400 gen
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Chum lee
Albuquerque, NM
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As previously hinted at, if you have a 2/3 way absorption type fridge, why not divert the excess power generated to that and save some propane? Clearly, if you have a 2 way fridge, you'll need an efficient inverter capable of generating at least +-500 watts on a duty cycle of at least 50%. Just keeping your 1500 watt PSW inverter online full time may be enough to waste enough excess power to solve your issue doing nothing else. IMO, 280 watts of solar wont be enough to run the fridge full time, but hey, it's a start. You'll be spending a lot of time doing load management.
Chum lee
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ewarnerusa
Helena, Montana
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Chum lee wrote:As previously hinted at, if you have a 2/3 way absorption type fridge, why not divert the excess power generated to that and save some propane? Clearly, if you have a 2 way fridge, you'll need an efficient inverter capable of generating at least +-500 watts on a duty cycle of at least 50%. Just keeping your 1500 watt PSW inverter online full time may be enough to waste enough excess power to solve your issue doing nothing else. IMO, 280 watts of solar wont be enough to run the fridge full time, but hey, it's a start. You'll be spending a lot of time doing load management.
Chum lee
Fridge draws 30 amps on DC side when I run it off of the inverter. Twice as much as my solar panels could provide during the most ideal of conditions. This has crossed my mind as something to do if I found myself with full batteries during peak solar harvest time while camping. But as you said, lots of load management to think of and it would draw from my batteries whenever duty cycle was on.
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AllegroD
Outdare
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Deleted.
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Boon Docker
Mountain Foothills of Southern Alberta
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ewarnerusa wrote:stevenal wrote:Those 12 V elements look like they are for home style water heaters, not RV.
Yeah I don't think they're the right size for a swappable replacement of an RV water heater 120V element. But it says in loud all caps to not use on grid power as it will fry the element. It's a website for wind and solar and listed as a low voltage diversion load element, so seems like the perfect application if I can get it in the tank.
You are right.
The heater element is 1" NPT and an RV water heater is 3/4" NPT.
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stevenal
Newport, OR, USA
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Maybe just use a Hott Rod. By my calculation, 450 W at 110 V works out to 26.9 ohms. At 12 V, this would be a bit over 5W. Not much, but it is something.
Before anyone objects to putting DC on an AC element, purely resistive loads don't care.
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ewarnerusa
Helena, Montana
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Boon Docker wrote:ewarnerusa wrote:stevenal wrote:Those 12 V elements look like they are for home style water heaters, not RV.
Yeah I don't think they're the right size for a swappable replacement of an RV water heater 120V element. But it says in loud all caps to not use on grid power as it will fry the element. It's a website for wind and solar and listed as a low voltage diversion load element, so seems like the perfect application if I can get it in the tank.
You are right.
The heater element is 1" NPT and an RV water heater is 3/4" NPT.
Isn't it 1 1/4"? I have not taken mine out and checked, just been googling.
https://www.dyersonline.com/atwood-domet........110v-1400w-screw-in-heating-element.html
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