What are some APU alternative setups??? its getting hot!!!

I don’t know, he parked beside me.
he said that unit heat and cooled.

 

What was your solar output on this set up? I know Merlin solar has a nice solar set up for trucks. I think they have a 350 watt and could add that on the roof and add another on the hood. I do have the EPU from TK and it is ok but I am not overly impressed with it. If it had LifePO4 batteries it would be a great set up except the one issue. It does not run all bunk area.

 

It's three 160W 20V panels, so 480W @ 60V max by the spec sheet. Reality is: under ideal sunlight/angle it's producing up to 30A charge current. That would be a sunny afternoon parked pointing straight at the sun at about 2-3pm. Typical random conditions somewhere around 20A under clear skies, less with overcast. These are Rich PV panels and their 40A/100V charge controller. Pictured is the charge display on a sunny day not quite perfect sun angle.

IMO having superior house battery capacity should be a higher priority than more PV panels. Regards to hood mounted panels, I opted not to. It really creates a second wire run that also complicates connecting the panels in series. You do that to feed higher voltage to the charge controller, that reduces the wire gauge needed for the run. Hood panels being mounted much lower than the roof also increases the odds they will be in a shadow in typical parking situations, at least where I go.

 

I think the idea for the hood panel is to keep the truck batteries topped off. This would work pretty good for how the EPU TK set up I have. Right now my system pulls equal from both battery banks so if I charged the truck battery bank with that it would last longer. Ideally I would like something like that plus a top Panel that charged the EPU battery set up plus when running it charged both. That will be my goal more then anything else when I do another system.

 

A battery isolator on your PV charge controller 12V output would solve that with a single panel array on the roof. That is, connect it to both banks, and simpler wiring as a bonus. I'm not familiar with how the TK EPU isolates batteries, how deep it will draw them down, etc. I've never worked on one, and was unimpressed with the HVAC efficiency looking at the sales materials before doing it the way I did. Seemed like a form over function design, which was not what I wanted at the time.

The main benefit of LiFePO4 house batteries is they can be drawn all the way down to zero, so you can exploit every bit of capacity they have. My current setup I can only take the truck batteries down to about 50% and still be able to start the truck without a jump start from the reefer. So about half the run time on battery only using just truck batteries instead of a dedicated house bank. Based on how what I'm using now behaves, I believe 400Ah house set would be enough to keep my bunk cool all night in the summer with no help from the truck alternator or solar panels.

That said, I think 350W solar would be barely adequate for what you want to accomplish. Next time I do this, I'll be using a grid of smaller 50-75W panels at the expense of having more wiring to secure on the roof. I don't think it would be a stretch to say I could have fitted 700W or more doing it that way, and had a much cleaner appearance.

 

Dales is the name you’re looking for. He is always advertising great prices on used APUs. A lot of these places like Dales and Green APU in Lemont, IL also can offer you financing. Before buying my Green APU in Lemont. I used a Predator generator with a stand up AC unit from Home Depot and a floor heater in the winter. Also installed a smoke and carbon monoxide detector as a just in case.

 

Idle it. It may want a regen when your 10 is up, but you will be fine.

 

I like the way you have thought through this. I have not done enough home work to understand how I will get it done. But I do know with the money I spent on the TK I could have done something way better on my own. Next one I will get really motivated to learn how everything works before I put in any money. Was in a hurry to get this one done but will have some time on the next one.