solar generator or 2nd lithium or both or neither?

[Hobie1]

dry camping in northern Utah and New Mexico in my 2022 Winnebago mini FLX and discovered not enough battery or Ah to run heater fan over night. rig has a Lithionics 320Ah. So wondering whether to install a 2nd 100-320 Ah or buy a solar generator? Can i pair mixed Ah, say the 320 with 200Ah? Can i mix brands?

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

320Ah of lithium should be able to run an RV furnace alone for about a couple of weeks, unless you have some other remarkable loads you're also running. I can go 3 days easy on 220Ah of lead running the entire RV, TV, furnace, lights, the whole deal. So before I'd go adding more solar or storage I'd figure out where all your power is going. From there you can make a calculated decision whether storage, generation or both is the solution.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[HueyPilotVN]

Maybe he. Is running a electric space heater

 

[Jkoht]

There must be more draw than you know. I've taken my popup on fall hunting trips and run the furnace all night on a single group 27 lead acid battery and those were temps around the 30's so it cycled a lot.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

He may not be charging things correctly..>>>Dan

 

[UTTransplant]

As Dan noted, Li batteries need a different charging profile than lead acid. Have you modified the charge profile on your rig? The battery manufacturer should be able to give you the appropriate settings if you tell them the brand and model of charger. A “solar generator” is just a battery and small solar panel, and it won’t help at all at night. If your battery is appropriately charged, you should be able to get 280-290 amp hours, and that is what we spend using a residential refrigerator, lots of lights, TV, and keeping two propane heaters running at 65 degrees on a cool night (30s-40s).

 

[Hobie1]

Maybe he. Is running a electric space heater

No just propane

 

[Hobie1]

What y’all say is what ii think too. But realty not. There must be some leakage. The only thing on is LEDs. I asked dealer service to check and they can’t find anything wrong.

Charging is done either while driving 6 hours or solar, in the desert!

I’m just learning about lithium’s so your experience is assuring. Thanka

 

[UTTransplant]

Do you have a shunt battery monitor like a Victron BMV 712? It is the only way to really monitor your energy usage. In fact, it should have been installed as soon as you started thinking about camping without hookups. As for charge times, 6 hours with the alternator charging doesn’t come close to a full charge for us. As for solar, it depends on the sky conditions and the sun orientation.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Wonder and guess, or measure and know. You need a battery monitor, one that at least measures current. You have something wrong, and your dealer didn't know how or take the time to figure it out. You can guess and throw parts at it, or learn exactly what's going on and deal with it directly. Doesn't have to be a spendy monitor, even the $20 ones off amazon can tell you what you need to know.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Hobie1]

The only monitor i have is the lithioncs battery app - Bluetooth. it basically shows stored power and battery charge %. I'll look into a battery monitor like Victron.

 

[Hobie1]

Wonder and guess, or measure and know. You need a battery monitor, one that at least measures current. You have something wrong, and your dealer didn't know how or take the time to figure it out. You can guess and throw parts at it, or learn exactly what's going on and deal with it directly. Doesn't have to be a spendy monitor, even the $20 ones off amazon can tell you what you need to know.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

techs have little to no experience with lithiums.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

Amp hours in vs amp hours out is the first test irrespective of chemistry. I think the "little to no experience" is the issue in general.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Hobie1]

Amp hours in vs amp hours out is the first test irrespective of chemistry. I think the "little to no experience" is the issue in general.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

for example, there is a builtin monitor in RV thats mostly for marketing. reality no one understands it!

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

About the only thing the stock battery level indicator in mine is good for is to tell me it's not dead, which is something I have a pretty good idea about already. Something like the victron offers a lot of information for the curious and are good units, but frankly I don't care. I do enough engineering for my day job, I just want to camp. All I need to know is if I need to run the generator or not, and the basic monitors give me plenty of warning for that. Hats off to the diligent that install spendy solar systems, lithium batteries and futz with setpoints, thresholds and usage graphs. My idea of camping is to reduce my daily complexity.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Hobie1]

About the only thing the stock battery level indicator in mine is good for is to tell me it's not dead, which is something I have a pretty good idea about already. Something like the victron offers a lot of information for the curious and are good units, but frankly I don't care. I do enough engineering for my day job, I just want to camp. All I need to know is if I need to run the generator or not, and the basic monitors give me plenty of warning for that. Hats off to the diligent that install spendy solar systems, lithium batteries and futz with setpoints, thresholds and usage graphs. My idea of camping is to reduce my daily complexity.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

lol, our first RV was all manual...no guesstimates! just camp! What have i got myself into?

 

[CampMike2270]

dry camping in northern Utah and New Mexico in my 2022 Winnebago mini FLX and discovered not enough battery or Ah to run heater fan over night. rig has a Lithionics 320Ah. So wondering whether to install a 2nd 100-320 Ah or buy a solar generator? Can i pair mixed Ah, say the 320 with 200Ah? Can i mix brands?

I have 170w of solar, a Victron Battery to Battery charger, & 100ah of lithium & I can run my lights, water pump, heater fan, fantastic fan, and fridge electronics (Dometic propane) indefinitely in boondock scenario. You either are not pumping watts into your batteries for some reason, have a mystery power draw, or your batteries died a premature death

 

[Hobie1]

Solved problem…bought a portable generator that recharges battery to 100% in one hour. By morn battery drains 30-35% down to 65%. At 70% appliances and outlets automatically shut off. At 20% everything shuts off so battery doesn’t drain to 0.

Dry camping again in Arizona and Utah and as long as skies r clear and no shade, solar panels recharge to 100%. But cloudy days need that gen.

 

[UTTransplant]

Glad you got things working, though I would check why your inverter shuts off at 70%. That doesn’t even make a lot of sense with lead acid let alone lithium. Check if there is a programmable setting to change that.

 

[Hobie1]

Everything is set at mfr standard. If I change setting and lithium battery goes bad, warranty is voided. So I live with it + genny