Unimog electricity solar 230V 24V expedition

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Solarpanels

We have 3x solarpanels. (At the picture the thirt one is not mounted)
The pannels do 300 Watt each at 40Volt is 5Amp times 3 is 15 Amp. The panels run an average off 200 Watt so total per hour is 600 Watt divided by 24 Volts since the Solarregulator turns 40 V into 24 V to charge the batteries.
Therefore I estimat solarcharging brings only 25Amperes per hour.

Batteries

We choose AGM batteries because they are good on ruf roads. In 5 years when we need to replace them it probably are going to be LiON’s.
2 Batteries is 2x 220Ah=440Ah at 12V. But we have 24V makes 220Ah per set.
We have two sets so at 24V we carry 440Ah. Problem with the AGM batteries is that they are only 50{826f189e666d5f36673a7257a17d487d2b02035bf60506587bf175ebb66be828} to decharge. So effectively we have 220Ah to our disposal.

Cooking on a electrical induction plate
When we cook on 1 plate at full power we use 1850 Watt at 230V.
The Victron Color Control shows 2100 Watt usage. This means that the convertor uses 150 Watt at this powerlevel.  
2100 W / 24V = 88 Amp. So we can cook for 220Ah/88Ah = little less then 3 hours before our batteries are at 50{826f189e666d5f36673a7257a17d487d2b02035bf60506587bf175ebb66be828}.

If we cook at 60{826f189e666d5f36673a7257a17d487d2b02035bf60506587bf175ebb66be828} instead off fullpower the internal resistant of the convertor drops dramaticaly and the batteries do not heat up so there is a lott less loss also.


Charging the batteries
So after cooking on 2 plates for 20 minutes we use approx 70Amp.  To recharge in full sun the solarpanels need 3 hours. Since we cook at the end off the day the batteries won’t charge. If the fridge and the cooler run whole night the 50{826f189e666d5f36673a7257a17d487d2b02035bf60506587bf175ebb66be828} warning alarm might sound. 😉

We changed our standard motor alternator for a 150Amp/24V version. Running the truck engine for 30 minutes could soulf this problemm. (we never needed this so far ;- )

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