Lower on light

The solar energy system of the Fuso Szulc is a very vital aspect of the expedition vehicle.
Only rarely is the rig hooked up to city 110 volt.
Most of the time the Fuso Szulc is boon docking and running on its own energy source and supplies like water, propane and diesel.

Another issue is that the 6 solar panels on the roof, the Heliotrope HPV – 30 DR Charge Controller and Magnum ME 2512 inverter were a serious and high investment.

Together this concludes it should operate as best as it could.

However, lack of knowledge of the builders of the Fuso Szulc resulted in an expensive system working at a fraction of its capacity.
That is something becoming very clear.
The good news is that it can be fixed.

This should be done quickly because yesterday disturbing news was found on the website of the company Am Solar, Inc..

Inspection of the roof had revealed the 6 solar panels were hooked up in the “Daisy Chaining” way.
This is an easy and convenient way of installing.
For the installer.
What they do is make a cable go from solar panel 1 to solar panel 2.
Another cable from solar panel 2 to solar panel 3.
One from 3 to 4.
One from 4 to 5.
One from 5 to 6.
And from solar panel 6 a cable goes to the Heliotrope HPV – 30 DR Charge Controller.

What is the disturbing news?

Read what AM Solar Inc. has to say about “Daisy Chaining”:

Roof Combiner Boxes
Using a combiner box prevents the all too common mistake of "Daisy Chaining" too many solar panels together. This is where you take the output cable from one solar panel and parallel it in the junction box of the next solar panel and then taking that output cable to the next solar panel and then to the next one and the next one, etc. This causes the combined amperage of all the solar panels to pass through the terminal strip of the last solar panel in the "daisy chain".

The problem with this is that the terminal strips inside the junction boxes of most solar panels are only rated for about 15 amps. If you exceed this rating, you run the risk of literally melting down the terminal strip and stopping all charging. I have seen this happen on several occasions.

Think about this ... if a typical 120 watt solar panel has an output potential of about 7 amps and you have more than two of them connected in a "daisy chain", then you are exceeding the rating of the terminal strip in the last panel of the chain. The result can be a meltdown and disruption of charging. It might even destroy the solar panel where the meltdown occurred.

These combiner boxes solve that problem and are mounted up on your RV roof and are used as a place to bring the output cables from each of your solar panels to parallel inside on a pair buss bars that can handle 100 amps or more. From the buss bar in the combiner box, you extend a heavier gauge pair of wires to your charge controller.

Conclusion of this story is that the situation on the roof of the Fuso Szulc is not good.
Even dangerous.

Yesterday it was explained how one solar panel of 60 watts produces only 0,2 amps at noon with full sunlight.
Now we know that this 60 watts solar panel receives the cable coming from 2 solar panels of 110 watts each.
This low 0.2 amps output of the panel might very well have to do with the “Daisy Chaining”.

Quick action has been taking.
A loyal friend in the USA ordered a CB Combiner Box from AM Solar Inc.
Technical staff of AM Solar sent information how to hook up 6 solar panels to the CB Combiner Box.
The hardware will be FEDEX’ed to Mexico soon.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To learn more about the company specializing in solar systems for RV's, click on:
http://www.amsolar.com/






.