Used to power basics like lights, computers, TVs, a low-power blender, and even an AC fridge. Perfect for use in a van. The battery can also be charged from the alternator with a B2B charger.
Description
This system uses a 12V 230Ah lithium battery and uses a 12V 1200VA inverter. You can add a shore battery charger if necessary. In this example, we will add two 200W solar panels to charge the battery and a B2B (battery to battery) charger.
The maximum current the system will draw is 100A: 1200VA/12V=100A
The total capacity of the battery is: 200Ah*12.8V=2,560Wh
The amount of sunhours (1000W/m²) we need to recharge the battery: 2,560Wh/400W=6.4 sunhours (2 days)
You should be able to recharge your battery in one day. A winter day in Houston has only 3 sunhours. So, to supplement the battery charging, we can use the alternator. If we use a Victron 12/12 30A B2B (Battery to battery) charger, it will take:
It will take 7 hours of driving or running the engine to recharge the battery from 0 to 100%. This should not be relied upon but is a great backup energy source on the road during cloudy days.