Help with some wiring please

I am in the planning stages of building my own pickup camper. I would like to have a battery bank of 2 deep cell 12 volt batteries and i want to be able to charge them with a roof mounted solar panel as well as a 110 volt battery charger. I want this to be all hard wired but was unsure what I needed to get this done. I will be running a few led lights and a small 12 volt tv as well as a ppace to charge my cell phone and laptop. I found this schematic and tried to modify it for my needs. The question is will it work and any advice on making it better or easier or cheaper. Thanks

I think it should work fine, we did something similar, had a camper at our tree farm off the grid. We had lights, water pump, and a gas water heater so we could take showers. If your furnace has a fan that will use a lot of power, some furnaces the fan is optional. Don't use an unvented heater, they will find you dead in your camper!

What is the blue box with what I think says fuse block? Is that a fuse block for other 12 volt circuits? As drawn it just looks like a fuse block with no function.

Paul

I don't understand what is going on to the left, it looks like you just "X"ed out some circuits.

I assume the 110V source has it own protection, fuse or circuit breaker.

Otherwise, looks OK.

Paul

Yeas that is where I intend to distribute the 12 volt power from

The diagram I found had several solar panels. I intend to use only one. The protection for the 110 charger, should I put a fuse in the positive wire between the battery and charger? Thanks

I intended on having a 110 system also for when I can be plugged in to use a air conditioner and a small fridge and misc other things. This will have a small breaker box.

Case, great idea, I have been designing and using solar power on my RV's for years !!!!!! Currently have 940 watts of solar, 50 Amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller, 520 Amp Hours of AGM battery storage, 2000/4000 Watt PSW Inverter, 4KW Generator...


A few things in the interest of Codes and safety and fire and battery protection are as follows:

1) When you run wiring FROM the batteries TO any devices (say solar charge controller or other loads or equipment) YOU MUST PROVIDE PROPER OVERCURRENT PROTECTION to protect the wiring and it needs to be located at or near the energy source IE the batteries NOT far away downstream...??.

2) In order to be able to shut off the solar panel from the solar charge controller I ALWAYS HAVE A SWITCHING DEVICE there at the solar charge controller. I use a manual reset DC circuit breaker there.

3) "Some" people place overcurrent protection right at the solar panels output but since that energy is somewhat self limiting and less of any risk or hazard, "some" do not THATS YOUR CHOICE

4) Size the wires for adequate ampacity and if voltage drop becomes an issue they might need re sized

In a nutshell I would have a shut off on the solar charge controller input and place proper overcurrent protection (fuse or breaker) where wires feed off the battery. NOTE an MPPT solar charge controller can yield more energy harvest then a PWM but they cost more

John T Retired Electrical Engineer and 49 year RV owner

Thanks for the help I have a lot of details to decide before I get to the construction stage in a month or two but I like to think things through for a while before hand

It would be best to have an isolation switch which only drives the battery charging or the 100VAC, but not both. Marine stores sell a break before make battery isolation switch which handles large current. It this application, the current would flow from either the solar charger, or the 110VAC charger to the common leg of the switch and then to the battery.

So, in your diagram, the common leg of the isolation switch would connect to the + side of the batt, and each of the legs of the switch would connect to the output of the solar, and the output of the 110VAC charger.

You can do the same with a 'center off' switch that is rated for the amperage of the chargers.