I have found a good way to repair
UltraFab levelers that pull the motor mount studs out of the base
of the jack. Click on the link to the left and I'll take you
through the process.
These are 2 of my 4 Siemens SR-100
solar panels. I built the mount by hand from 3 inch aluminum angle
1/8th inch thick and stainless self locking hardware. The extra
holes you see in the bracket aren't errors, they are carefully
calculated to allow me to tilt the panels to the angle required
for best power throughout the year and from Mexico to Canada. I
got all the bits and pieces from
Backwoods Solar near
Sandpoint Idaho.
Looking under the panel at the
bracket. The panels can tilt to either side since they mount only
at the four corners. Remove 2 bolts, tilt up and add braces (under
the bolts on the other side for storage) and 2 more bolts for the
bottom of the braces and you are finished. Rounding the corner of
the bracket that mounts to the panel allows them to tilt.
The view from outside looks fairly
clean. I spaced the brackets apart with a couple of washers
between the roof bracket and the panel bracket so they would pivot
smoothly. Wire brushing the aluminum makes for really snazzy
looking brackets (someday when I get industrious.) It also takes
several hours. Keeping the panels above the roof allows cooling
air to flow under them, cooler panels make more power.
My solar equipment is mounted in the
basement, the silver unit on the left behind the pipes is a
ProSine 3000 watt sine wave inverter. It is wired to the gray box
in the bottom center with 4-0 wire. That box contains a 250 amp DC
rated breaker, the shunt and terminals to split the 4-0 wire to
two pairs of 2-0 wire that connect to the batteries. The gray box
on the right contains combiner strips for the 4 panels 10 gauge
wires to the 2 gauge wire that runs to the solar controller. The
solar controller is an RV Power Products Solar Boost 50, it
provides 20 to 30 percent more power to our batteries than a
conventional controller. The silver box at the bottom right is an
Intelli-Power 45 amp converter with their Charge Wizard control
unit. We use it when charging from our 1000 Watt (840 real watts)
Honda backup generator or when using poor quality power. It will
keep the batteries up while the inverter provides good quality AC
for the rig. The only thing it won't power is the air conditioner.
On this picture you can see a
thermostatically controlled fan at the top, it is used to cool the
inverter as we did not have the clearance needed to insure the
inverter would convection cool and the internal fans would
sometimes cycle on. Below the fan is the low voltage breaker box
which is configured to disconnect the trailer from the solar
system for equalization and maintenance.
I used to have a Trace C-40 charge controller that we replaced
with the RV Power Products Solar Boost 50 shown above. The Trace
generated so much radio frequency noise that we can't listen to AM
radio and it caused problems with other DC devices in the trailer.
I copied the schematic of the system
to a pdf file so you can see how I hooked it up. I really wanted
two functions:
To be able to equalize without putting 15 plus volts to the
trailer electronics and yet having 12 volt power available to run
the fridge and lights.
To be able to run the rig off the inverter when AC power was of
poor quality and let the converter (90 to 135 VAC) turn the bad AC
into good DC to keep the batteries up.
I got in an discussion on the
internet a while back about what happens to a generator when you
put a load on it and how that effects battery charging and
microwave cooking.
If you look at these two photos you
can see that the waveform and peak voltage change for the worse as
load increases. Since battery chargers (analog ones anyway) and
microwave ovens depend upon peak voltage they can tell if your
generator is struggling to provide clean power!
I added a Vanguard ceramic brick
propane heater to the rig. This heater has kept the rig cozy in 15
degree temperatures (we moved south quickly) with no problem. We
have a CO (Carbon Monoxide) detector and with this unit on full
blast and all vents and windows closed (not a good idea for normal
use) the detector never moved off zero. I also tested the detector
and it is working properly. Try
www.desatech.com for more information on many types of vent
free heaters.
This is the heater with the bricks
hot. You will build up moisture if you keep everything closed and
at some point you will get condensation. Usually at the coldest
location in your trailer, either the windows or inside the
cabinets. Keeping the humidity below 50% seems to be adequate to
keep moisture from condensing anywhere except the windows. The
radiant heat from the bricks warms you up, the blue flame style
heaters warm the air which rises to the roof and in a 5th
wheel heads for the bedroom leaving the living area cold.
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