How I installed 400 watts of solar on my 2016 Thor Axis 24.1 Motor Home

 First off I had to decide where to install the 4ea 100 watt solar panels on the roof of the motor home. I made cardboard templates the size of the panels and layed them on the motor home roof. I moved them around untill I found the location that I wanted for the panels in a series parallel setup. I also used the cardboard templates to cover the panels until I got the wiring hooked up.

Here you see the panels in place and ready to be hooked up. Next was to run the cables to the 40 amp MPPT controller. I hooked the cables to the panels and ran them down the Refrigerator vent on the left side away from the vent pipe.

 Here you can see where I ran the red and black cables from the panels down the vent on the left side of the refrigerator. I then ran them to the right across the refer floor where I drilled a 1/2 inch hole into the outside TV compartment. on the right.

Here is where I ran the panel cables from the refrigerator compartment into the outside TV compartment. I ran the wires down and to the right where I drilled a hole into where the outside speaker was. I found the there was a wirin loom in the speaker compartment that went into the storage compartment below Where I mounted the MPPT Controller.

Here is the MPPT controller in the compartment below the outside TV and speaker compartment. The panel cables come in at the top of the controller and through a 40 amp circuit breaker and then into the controller. The controller is mounted on a 16 inch pine board that is afixed to the wall of the compartment. I then ran the cables from the controller Battery side to the batteries which were under the steps to the right of the compartment. I drilled a 1/2 inch hole and ran the cables through a 100 amp fuse on the positive side to the batteries along with a temperature probe from the controller.

All done with the cables hooked up from the panel series parallel array and ran over to the left and down the refer vent. All cables are held in place by cable clamps covered with Dicor on the clamps and screw heads. The panels are held down with stainless steel self threading screws through the brackets and into the roof with putty tape under the brackets and dicor all around the brackets and screw heads.

Several have asked why a Series Parallel instead of just a series or parallel circuit. Well on a cloudy day a parallel circuit will do a better job with limited sunshine same thing when driving down the road. It will give you the same voltage but will double the amps A series circuit will give you more voltage but the same amount of amps. for a long cable run a series circuit is better. So a Series Parallel is the best of both worlds for me with a 20 foot cable run. Some asked me why I put the controller in a outside cabinet instead of one inside. 

First of all  the controller is very large and heavy with a large heat sink which puts off a lot of heat. Its not sutable for a inside cabinet. Second you want the controller as close to the batteries as you can get it. My controller is about 6 inches from the batteries. Stay tuned for more upgrades.

Mel

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