You MUST understand the following when designing your solar power system.
Power is measured in watts.
Volts times amps equals watts.
12 volts times 10 amps equals 120 watts.
120 volts times 10 amps equals 1,200 watts.
I thought amps were amps, so I designed my system thinking I could run my 10 amp (1,200 watt) microwave for 40 hours with 400 amp hours of battery storage. Wrong. 1,200 watts at 120 volts is 10 amps, but 1,200 watts at 12 volts is 100 amps of continuous power draw from the battery. My system turned out have 1/10th as much power as I thought it would have, but I didn't know that.
I have been dealing with power issues since I started living in my van 4 months ago. Every time I ran the microwave for for more than two minutes the batteries would shut themselves off then come back on a few seconds later. It turns out the 200ah 100 amp BMS (Battery Management System) batteries I bought couldn't handle the power draw. I had to replace them with 200ah PLUS batteries with the 200 amp BMS, which allows for 200 amps of continuous power draw.
It took me forever to figure out what the problem was. These guys went way out of their way to help me on numerous occasions, including paying for shipping AND packing when returning a battery that turned out to have nothing wrong with it. I bought the batteries after seeing a YouTube video where a guy cut one open and was impressed with the quality construction. The batteries work great and other people I know with Chins batteries have never had any issues with them. The prices are better than most. What really sets this company apart though is the customer service, which is the best I have ever encountered. I have been repeatedly impressed by their responsiveness to my technical questions as I tried to discover what was causing my power problems. So yeah, I highly recommend Chins batteries.
UPDATE: July 2023 -- It turned out that all my power problems did not involve the batteries shutting down at all. The power was cut by a circuit breaker which would reset itself after a few seconds. I had no idea self-resetting circuit breakers even existed and assumed that since the lever on the breaker hadn't flipped open the breaker had not tripped. I replaced the breaker anyway just to eliminate the possibility it could be part of the problem, which still persisted.
Something to know about nearly all the circuit breakers sold on Amazon and elsewhere: They trip at much lower current draws than they are rated for. My 150 amp breaker was tripping at 100 amps. I replaced it with a 300 amp breaker and that solved the problem that had been defeating me for 9 months.
| Brand | CHINS |
|---|---|
| Size | 12V 100AH |
| Product Dimensions | 6.77"D x 12.95"W x 8.43"H |
| Number Of Cells | 4 |
| Resistance | 10 Milliohms |
| Terminal | M8 |
| Manufacturer | CHINS |
| Item Weight | 23.8 pounds |
| Item model number | LAF12100 |
| Batteries | 4 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacturer Part Number | LAF 12100 |
