Well boys I joined the Lithium Club

[bdelcurto]

And I need a loan, LOL!

I purchased 2 LiFEBlue 300 amp hr batteries.

Red

I’m eyeballing those same batteries. Although they have a larger footprint, it seems like it will be a cleaner install with just two batteries...fewer cable and connectors. I’d love to see some pics when you’re done.

Not sure if you have a 30 or 50 amp coach, but Victron recently came out with the Multiplus II inverter/charger that will run both legs in the 50 Amp coach without the use of an external switch. AM Solar had an external smart switch, but it’s been unavailable for sometime and after speaking with them, sounds like it won’t be available again until sometime in the fall. I think having it built in the inverter/charger cleans things up as well. I’m excited to give it a try.


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[bdelcurto]

And I need a loan, LOL!

I purchased 2 LiFEBlue 300 amp hr batteries. Why I chose LifeBlue is because of amp hour capacity and and the bluetooth feature. I can monitor individual cells and the wattage going in and out of the battery.

Next step is to get them all hooked up and change the programming in the inverter/charger (Magnum 3000w/hybrid) and the solar charger (Victron 150/85).

Wish me luck.

Red

Hey, Red, did you get these installed yet?


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[RoJoSo]

tagging along

[bdelcurto]

And I need a loan, LOL!

I purchased 2 LiFEBlue 300 amp hr batteries. Why I chose LifeBlue is because of amp hour capacity and and the bluetooth feature. I can monitor individual cells and the wattage going in and out of the battery.

Next step is to get them all hooked up and change the programming in the inverter/charger (Magnum 3000w/hybrid) and the solar charger (Victron 150/85).

Wish me luck.

Red

@el Rojo, I’d love to know what you think of the 300ah LifeBlue batteries.


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[JDWDSGNS]

@el Rojo, I’d love to know what you think of the 300ah LifeBlue batteries.


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How’d it go? Sounds difficult, but worth it. I’m looking for Boondock rated power options like your Lithium 300ah & solar panels… Already installed though, too feeble to do any mechanical swaps & panel installs…


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[el Rojo]

@el Rojo, I’d love to know what you think of the 300ah LifeBlue batteries.


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Got them installed. Working great. Lot's of power. I'm ready for the residential fridge now.

Red

[EddieK82]

What exactly can solar run now?

[Second Chance]

What exactly can solar run now?

It all depends on how much you can spend on batteries (lithium), solar panels, and the stuff to connect and control them. We have just enough to run the residential refrigerator when we're not on shore power. I know of folks who have installed enough solar and batteries to run ACs, microwaves, and most anything else in the RV.

Rob

[SolarPoweredRV]

What exactly can solar run now?

Like SecondChance said above, it all depends on your battery capacity.

Solar is not where your capacity comes from, your capacity to run items comes from your battery bank and the Inverter that you choose.

For example: if you had a single Lithium battery (LiFePo4) with 100 ah capacity, you could probably boondock for 2 to 4 nights if you only used the 12 volt accessories in your camper (and you did not need to run the furnace). For some campers that is enough, they are perfectly happy with being able to use their camper for a few nights without the added noise of a generator.

On the other hand, if you were living in your coach full-time, you might have a Residential Refrigerator or want to use the entertainment center on a regular basis, maybe use your Insta Pot sometimes and have a fan running to circulate the air inside the coach. This would require an Inverter and more energy storage to prevent you from running out of power in the middle of the night.

Your Solar panels are used mainly to re-charge the battery bank and not to directly power your appliances (though on Sunny days the batteries stay fully charged and most of the energy consumed comes from the Solar panels).

The trick is to figure out your needs when it comes to the size of your Battery Bank, and then to figure how much Solar you need to support that Battery Bank.

As an example; we boondock a lot. We also boondock where the nights can get pretty cold (even in FL it can get pretty cold at night). Consequently, we need a pretty large battery bank just to keep the furnace running (Furnaces in RVs are just Power Pigs). On top of that, we envision that we may need to run the A/C a little bit at night if we find ourselves in a hot and muggy location. We also like to use our entertainment system in the evenings and we realize that every day is not Sunny and bright, so, we increased the size of our Battery Bank to allow for a few cloudy days.

Where we ended up at was 800 ah of usable Battery storage (2 Tesla Model S, 24 volt, battery modules), a 3000 Watt Victron Inverter that powers both sides of the 50 amp Breaker Box, and 1,200 Watts (4, 305 Watt residential Solar panels) of Solar on the roof.

With this system, we have plenty of power for all the 12 volt accessories in the coach, Including running the Furnace. We also have 120 volt power in all the receptacles and we can run our A/C for a few hours if we need to.

[KDRunner]

Congrats, and I thought I just dropped some change on the 3 100 amp Battleborns that I ordered this week with new converter. Next I'll neeed to get solar next Spring. Research time for that. I don't even know where to start except on here. You have started me with some info on your setup.