One Charger To Rule Them All!

[1der]

We have the Samlex EVO 2212 w remote now four years. Great unit for us. It is connected to two house 175ah AGMs and the two 65 ah AGMs engine batteries. 480 ah total. Solar is 360w single panel.

As Greg said, the EVO receives the output from the solar controller and incorporates that input into battery charging when on shore or generator power. When not connected to shore/gen it just passes the output from your separate solar controller directly to the batteries.

For temperature controlled charging- there separate temp sensors for the EVO and our solar controller. Both came with their own.

[renegadeoverland]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

I don't personally use, nor have I installed any Samlex equipment, they have a generally good reputation. To be clear the Samlex EVO does not manage your solar charge, it will basically monitors the solar charge and adjust it's own output accordingly. I am not saying that is a bad feature, just that all the charge profile will be still coming from the Solar Charger you choose.

If your Samlex is set for 60 amp max charge in bulk, and your solar controller is putting out 20 amps, then the Samlex will reduce it's charge to 40 amps. You also want to be able to make sure that you can match the charge profiles absorbtion, float , and temp compensation.

-greg

Thanks for following up, I do understand that it is not managing the solar, only taking it in and providing a single point of connection for the batteries. I personally like this better than having 3 or 4 different controllers hitting the battery terminals, though I understand its all the same in the end (a standard inverter/charger will monitor the state of the batter voltage/current and adjust accordingly I would assume -- or one of the devices in the system would yield to another -- this just combines everything into a nice easy to reason about package for me).

I am not completely sold on Samlex yet (e.g. have not bought anything) I have just not seen anything in the various things I have read to make certain brands, like magnum, warrant so much higher a price point when companies like samlex have a great reputation and offer all the same ranges of customization and 2, 3, and 4 stage profiles for managing charging.

My long term plan is to replace my charge controller with DMT-1250 that you mentioned to gain the benefit of the DC to DC charger and replace the ACR and reduce overall system complexity. I am also leaning heavily toward the Carbon Foam batteries, though that could change if prices change significantly in the next year or so when I am apt to be at the point of beefing up the battery bank size.

Overall the Samlex option seemed like the best "bang for the buck" ratio I have found. If you or anyone else has insight to offer that could impact said evaluation I am all ears. I will be waiting until after this initial trip to do this bigger change due to not having the build-out in a place where I can easily add the requisite panels/plugs for an inverter like this to be usable. I will be buying a decent quality 300W plug in inverter for the immediate AC needs.

I had hoped to find an inverter/charger that had an AC outlet built in like many of the stand alone inverters have but that appears to not be a thing for these. So I will be focusing on build plans for bigger changes come June/July and work this into the design then.

[Scalf77]

I see no reason not to move forward with your Samlex option, the specs are very similar to Magnum. Ray has Samlex unit and only has good things to say about it. My comment on the solar input was not trying to dissuade you from that decision, but informative instead.

I currently fight with my solar (Morningstar) and shorecharger (Magnum) playing well together. Between and difference in the temperature reading and accuracy of solar controller, in my case the Tristar is actually more accurate, it tends to want to jump into absorption mode every day, based on the float voltage. So the Samlex concept interested me, but wouldn't help in this case.

I think in the long run you will appreciate having more than a outlet on the inverter, I think hard wiring it in is better anyway. The magnum MS2000 and 2012 do have a 15 or 20 amp outlet version.


I would put a good battery monitor on your list also, I am currently very high on the new Balmar SG200. I installed on a Carbon Foam battery system the other day.

-greg

[twotimer]

I would stay away from the Xantrex products. I had a 3000W Xantrex installed in my 2003 E-350 Sportsmobile and, although it lasted quite a fews years, once it bit the dust there was no one who could repair it. I replaced it three years ago with a Magnum MS2012 that is field repairable and I have been very happy with it.

[renegadeoverland]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

I see no reason not to move forward with your Samlex option, the specs are very similar to Magnum. Ray has Samlex unit and only has good things to say about it. My comment on the solar input was not trying to dissuade you from that decision, but informative instead.

I currently fight with my solar (Morningstar) and shorecharger (Magnum) playing well together. Between and difference in the temperature reading and accuracy of solar controller, in my case the Tristar is actually more accurate, it tends to want to jump into absorption mode every day, based on the float voltage. So the Samlex concept interested me, but wouldn't help in this case.

I think in the long run you will appreciate having more than a outlet on the inverter, I think hard wiring it in is better anyway. The magnum MS2000 and 2012 do have a 15 or 20 amp outlet version.


I would put a good battery monitor on your list also, I am currently very high on the new Balmar SG200. I installed on a Carbon Foam battery system the other day.

-greg

Sorry I never responded to this. I have every intention, and fully agree it is better, to hard wire in the inverter vs using built in plugs. I just dont have time to do that before this trip.

Thankfully my needs at the moment are low enough I can use a small inverter that has a plug or two in it. I picked up a Samlex 300W inverter for the drive we are taking in two weeks and then I will do the research and build a cabinet for the panels etc and wire in the big boy later on. We are still making plans around how we want to build out the interior for our needs which will influence where we put panels, want plugs etc.

Keeping it simple for now but will definitely be referencing the information here when I do the larger install in a few months.

Originally Posted by twotimer

I would stay away from the Xantrex products. I had a 3000W Xantrex installed in my 2003 E-350 Sportsmobile and, although it lasted quite a fews years, once it bit the dust there was no one who could repair it. I replaced it three years ago with a Magnum MS2012 that is field repairable and I have been very happy with it.

Thanks for the feedback. Its nice to have first hand experience with various brands. I am heavily leaning toward the Samlex with Magnum following behind in second. Hard for me to justify the extra cost right now but perhaps more research will convince me otherwise.

[nanuk]

As another example, I've installed a Samlex EVO 2212, fed by a 220 AH FLA battery array, 200 watts of solar through an MPPT controller, as well as a bluesea 7610 ACR.

From the EVO I've wired a single 20 amp 120v AC circuit feeding 3 receptacles in parallel. AFCI breakers on the input (grid) and output load centers, then one GFCI outlet at the beginning of the receptacle chain. All 120v wiring is through "liquid-tight" conduit and connections.

For battery monitoring I use the Victron BMV-700.

Lovin' it so far, Here's some pics of my setup: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmaRFf9nppx/

[renegadeoverland]

Originally Posted by nanuk

As another example, I've installed a Samlex EVO 2212, fed by a 220 AH FLA battery array, 200 watts of solar through an MPPT controller, as well as a bluesea 7610 ACR.

From the EVO I've wired a single 20 amp 120v AC circuit feeding 3 receptacles in parallel. AFCI breakers on the input (grid) and output load centers, then one GFCI outlet at the beginning of the receptacle chain. All 120v wiring is through "liquid-tight" conduit and connections.

For battery monitoring I use the Victron BMV-700.

Lovin' it so far, Here's some pics of my setup: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmaRFf9nppx/

This is pretty much teh exact setup I have been designing. Thanks for the link, super helpful to get some eyes on. I may be PMing you in a few months if/when I have questions since you are running basically the exact setup I intend to (down to the same model etc) The one piece I had yet to fully understand is where the output from the ACR was connected into the system, but at the same time I was not that worried since I had intended to upgrade my MPPT controller to the DMT-1250 mentioned above to gain the higher tech of the DC2DC charger in place of the ACR. But understanding how to connect the ACR with my current controller all to the EVO will be super helpful.

Thanks again, glad to see someone else has done what I intend, makes me feel a little better about my choices so far :-p :-D

[nanuk]

For the ACR I'm doing battery positive(150 amp terminal fuse) to battery positive (150 amp termial fuse) with the ACR in between.
http://assets.bluesea.com/files/reso.../990170140.pdf

The one thing I'd be concerned with is having having dissimilar batteries connected through that particular ACR since you want to run lithium house batt's. I have no experience with them Lithium's, but there are solutions out there. Maybe check in with Nations Starter & Alternator, and talk to Adam Nation about lithium charging off alternators.

I installed a switch through a relay to disable the ground for the ACR, essentially disabling the unit if I don't want the batteries connected while driving, such as a long drive in the sun, when the solar is charging anyways and the system is @ 100%. The mppt controller is smarter than simply connecting through an ACR, so I try and let the controller do most of the charging.

I have 2 AWG running between the batteries for the ACR, but if I had to do it again I may go to 1/0 because my cable run is so long (~30 feet), however voltage drop hasn't been an issue as I have a Nations 270xp high output alternator delivering ~14.5 Volts at the house battery, despite the lengthy cable run. You could of course just pick a shorter cable run.

The highest current thing I do with the system is use a 1000 Watt Blender, with the van running. When I hammer the system with the load from the blender, the inrush current will cause the battery to dip below the low voltage shut off on the EVO, and it will lockout. Running the van with the ACR live completely eliminates this issue, and there is no battery depletion. However, with your massive battery array, you may not have the same issue.

[renegadeoverland]

yea my explained design is just that, a design. The prev owner's setup is serving me well enough for now and I want to use it as a stress test to get a baseline. Math and theory are one thing practical is something else entirely. So the lithium and larger AH bank are all in the works but not yet in use.

The ACR setup in my van is the 7622 which has the switch to turn it on, turn it off, or have it auto sense and connect it so it operates in much the same way as you set yours up with the ground disconnect.

Right now my actual power needs on the AC side are quite low, easily sub 100W in reality which is why I should be able to go quite some time on the Samlex 300W inverter I went with -- this thread was started as I was hoping to save that $150 and just get the unit I knew I would want eventually but that didn't work out so I went with the 300W for now.

The biggest thing I am building around is redundancy and growth. I know I need the ability to easily connect to shore at least and ideally a generator as well (hence why the EVO really stood out to me). So as I look at adding a charger to handle those situation and not need to rely on Solar or the motor for longer stays, I also want to build growth into the system from the power side that would let me add some conveniences later as they were identified (I work remote so having the ability to drive my computer and possible a monitor etc, my wife's computer and so on are things I want to be ready for and have some adventures without taking time off). I dont want to have to buy and re-configure the system every few months/years as my needs grow. For the low idle current draw of the EVO unit I am intending to do a setup similar to yours that will allow me to have plenty of forward facing growth from the initial build/setup.

[Tlorusso]

The renogy 3000W pute sine wave inverter charger has all that you need. For lithium the optimal is 14.25 from what I have read. Renogy has great products and they can also be financed with Bread financing if desired.