Need Advice on Adding Solar (LONG)

[Mambo42]

Forgot to mention that the 2 x 380 W panels most likely are not going to do the trick for you. Realistically speaking you will get a max of 80 % of Max Wp and that is only in summer. At the moment I have spring here and I can see 40 - 50 % of Max Wp during a few hours of the day. The angle of the sun is just to shallow to give me more output.
The one thing that is saving me is that I have 3.2 Kwp of solar and that ensures I can bring the batteries up to about 90 - 95 % in this period of the year. Have to say that I have heating running, a boiler, induction plate, dish washer, washing machine etc running on a regular basis. If you don't have that it is not going to be a problem, but 760 Wp will have a hard time charging AGM batteries to 100 % outside of the summer season. To be honest, I think you will need more solar.
But it is also a matter of power management. Simple things like: 'don't run heavy equipment in the morning when the solar is recharging the batteries'. Just wait until the batteries are charged and then start using the heavy draw equipment. That could mean preparing food in the afternoon, on solar power, so that you just need to warm it up in the evening. Running a washing machine in the afternoon instead of in the morning. It takes a bit a planning, but you will get the hang of it.
Also, don't forget you can have multiple days of rain and in that case you will need the generator.

 

[DBG8492]

Hate to resurrect this one, but - things have changed. I no longer have an admiral on the boat.

The power went out here a couple of weeks ago, and I cranked the genny to run the AC so the dog and I didn't die when they said it was going to be 8 hours to fix it.

The ACs came on, and everything was good until I realized that the fridge wasn't running.

I checked the AC disty panel that feeds the fridge (tied to the inverter), and it had a "Reverse Polarity" light on it, and the main breaker on that panel was disabled as a result.

So I shut off the genny to be safe and we just sat in the heat.

Later, when everything was back to normal, I started investigating and found something I didn't see before - not sure why.

The inverter feed to/from the inverter batteries runs through a 230 amp Guest on/off switch. When the switch is ON, it parallels the house/start batteries to the inverter. there's a even a sticker there that says "On - Inverter Parallel Charge." No, I never noticed this.

So my guess is that rather than run either of the two Echo Chargers on the Xantrex to the house/start batteries, they just wired it through that switch to charge everything when at the dock, but when underway or running the genny, you should switch that to "off" so the Inverter only draws from the inverter bank.

Any possibility that running the genny with that switch on caused the RP condition? There was no issue noted with this during the survey, and I haven't touched anything generator-related since the purchase. The only thing we did was replace all the batteries, but there's no chance that changed anything - they drop in and the wires will only go where they go - so...

No, I haven't tried it yet. Haven't had time trying to manage everything else and get my head back on straight. Just wondering if anyone might have any insight.

 

[Bmarler]

Was the shore cord disconnected when this occurred?
The input power shouldn’t have anything to do with the reverse polarity, more likely some neutral is landed in the wrong spot.

 

[SteveK]

the inverter AC input hot and neutral should be switched with a dual pole selector switch so there is no cross feed.
Unless all AC loads are fed by the shore/GEN/inverter then the neutrals and hots of non inverter loads must be separated from inverter loads.
Recent post found a GEN had the hot/neutral wires reversed which caused the reversed polarity. And as @Bmarler said with two neutral bus bars a neutral on wrong one will cause reverse polarity light.

 

[DBG8492]

Was the shore cord disconnected when this occurred?
The input power shouldn’t have anything to do with the reverse polarity, more likely some neutral is landed in the wrong spot.

Yes - I switched the three-way to "Off," disco'd the SP cable, brought the genny online, then switched the three-way to "GEN."

 

[DBG8492]

the inverter AC input hot and neutral should be switched with a dual pole selector switch so there is no cross feed.
Unless all AC loads are fed by the shore/GEN/inverter then the neutrals and hots of non inverter loads must be separated from inverter loads.
Recent post found a GEN had the hot/neutral wires reversed which caused the reversed polarity. And as @Bmarler said with two neutral bus bars a neutral on wrong one will cause reverse polarity light.

Yeah - I'm probably going to have to break down and bring in an electrician for this one. It's getting outside my comfort zone for one, and I simply have too many other things going on to devote the time necessary to dig into this at the level it would require for my safety and that of the boat.

It's odd - nothing like this happened during the survey - and I haven't touched anything wiring-wise anywhere except replacing the batteries.