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Ka'a Nui - Mana (solar power and house batteries charging)

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Ka'a Nui Solar power Ka'a Nui has about 700 watts of 12-volt power on the roof.  How best to use and implement is what this blog will be about. Six panels of three different types make up the 700 watts, 2-50 watts at the rear of the van, 2- 100 watts at the front and I think 2- 190 watts panels in the center of the van roof.  . Currently, only 1 panel is being used, and looks like the others are set in series.   Issues to consider... Can I install and ship lithium batteries?  Not sure yet, having reached out to both Pasha and Matson, it is hard to tell what our options are. Run the 700w as two 350w strings, or three strings, each with a controller to the battery.  I'm thinking in this direction and could mean more wire, but we can keep the AWG wire size down, and have redundancy.  Also depending on how different size panels are connected, you can end up with a ton of loss to the batteries How large of a house battery and what type, GMA or Lithium?. Install a DC-DC charger f
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RV Ka'a Nui - The Blog

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 Ka'a Nui - The Big Van Project   2024      -      www.johnconey.com/kaanui_home.shtml A blog about the setup of the RV Ka'a Nui, a 2021 Dodge Promaster van purchased on February 28, 2024.  A huge hand goes out to Howard and Tim, who drove me to Kona to meet the seller and have lunch.  Great people and tons of fun for sure.  The van is a tall 9-4" Promaster van with 136" wheelbase (wb), front-wheel drive.  For electrical, it supports a 230a high output alternator and 700 watts of solar (more on that later). Sooo, why buy a van.  The current concept is to fix and build it out into a sleeper van to include a bed, toilet, sink, fridge and other amenities and ship it to the mainland in a few years when done. June 22, 2024 Progress happens, finally got a weekend of sunny weather to work on solar.  Cut three holes, added grommets to protect the wires, and cleaned up the solar wiring.  Now bringing 8awg line into the van, and connect to a breaker panel.  Now powering a 45-q
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