I have a Xantrex ProSine 2.0, 430w of solar (two systems, one 300w MPPT, one 130w PWM – both in full parallel) two WC 6v GCs, and a Panasonic 850w (gross) MW, and to keep track of energy usage a Xantrex LinkLite meter with shunt…I only have space for two batts due mostly to venting issues.
I started out with 200w of solar, but the problem you’ll soon find out about solar is that you just can’t get enough, and will want to be liberated from the genny – lol!!…Its all about the 4-5 hrs of typical harvest time (varies per season and latitude), so you’ll be in a true ‘race against the sun’ to achieve a full (or hopefully near full) recovery, and you’ll likely never achieve full rated panel watts during winter months… Thus, in my humble opinion 300w would be a far better ‘minimum’…Having said that, I believe the recovery times with lithium may be a bit faster than with WC’s, as is the case with AGM’s…I would assume that one advantage to lithium might be that the voltage output stays relatively constant up until they just plain quit, a good thing if you were running something like a 12v furnace or refer designed with a low voltage shutdown.
I also swapped out the factory installed 1500w (gross) MW, for a far more practical 850w (also ordered an online SS trim kit to fill the cabinet gap).
Inverter has no problem whatsoever powering this oven…Another point is to make sure your cable runs from batts to inverter are as short and as robust as possible, else with a heavier load your inverter may expreience a bottleneck and nagging low voltage alarms – be sure to adhere to Mfg’s recommendations …I eventually increased size to 0004 AWG with round-trip cable length at about 7’.
So even though I’m running only two GC’s, this system has proved quite optimal for our extended camping needs, even down to zero degrees, and even powering the 11k btu AC unit for short roadside lunch stops via the inverter (system is passively cascaded for shore, genny or inverter)… I carry a Honda 2200i as a SHTF back-up, but seldom ‘if ever’ need to use it, unless running the AC unit.
Having said all this, if I ever do another system, I would at least explore a 24v series two battery set-up, with something like a Xantrex Echo charger to recharge each 12v battery sequentially – just a bit of random thinking here – lol!
