Figuring out a power setup.

Add watts of your loads : 65 + 140 + 25 = 230W max.

You need two T105's in series to get 12V. Putting batteries in series does not change the Ahr. 225Ahr at 12V is 2700Whr. But, for battery longevity, it's best not to routinely charge below half. So your battery pack has 1350 Whr usable when fully charged.

Ignoring inverter inefficiency (usually low 90's% for a good one), if you have 1350 Whr available for a 230W load, that's (1350/230) or nearly 6 hours runtime if all were on at the same time. Or 1350/65 = nearly 21 hours of laptop only. Or 1350/165 = a little over 8 hours of your PS4 system only.

I'm guessing your battery system may be a bit small for your needs, Or just run them down past 50% and know you'll replace them more often. (Those suckers are heavy!)

I'm ignoring your cellphone and handhelds; their power usage is so much lower than either the PS4 or your laptop that it doesn't make a huge difference for these rough estimates.

Assuming you're going to run down those Trojans to 50% every day, you're going to need 1350 Whr of energy every day to charge them.

If your solar panels actually put out 300W, then you'd need (1350Whr/300W) or 4 and one half hours of sunlight. But, solar panels never produce the full rated wattage. And, they aren't pointed directly at the sun throughout the day. In general, I find rooftop, horizontally mounted solar panels put out 30% of their rated value in direct sunlight. That means 100W out of your 300W system. Now you need 13 and one half hours of direct sun to charge your trojans 50%. You're not going to get it.

You need more panels, and even then that's workable only in areas where it's sunny nearly every day. You don't have enough battery capacity to skip a day charging. If you want to be able to survive a few days of rain, you need a lot more of both solar and batteries.

Your suggested system seems fine for a starter system if you're conservative with that PS4, but allow room for more solar on the roof as expansion. The batteries are big and heavy, but if you have room, start with 2 but allow room for four.

And, to solve the 'not enough sun' problem, get something like the CTEK DS250 (Amazon $220). It is both a solar charge controller (saving you having to buy one of those), but also hooks into your van's primary battery. When the van is running, this device will automatically charge your Trojan's. If the sun's out, it will use the sun.

If yousStart with 300W solar, 2 Trojans and the DS250 wired to your van's main battery and the solar panel(s), you'll have a decent starter system. Just allow room for growth.

/r/vandwellers Thread