300W of Solar should replace 100AH of usage daily?

[corn18]

Originally Posted by NJKris

Most high consumers are trying to power a residential fridge on an inverter, or have one of these new DC only fridges. Life is still a gas with me. Propane baby! Propane, propane! Time to play the game!

I love picking my 5er up from storage, turning on the residential fridge and have it cold by the time I get home 25 minutes later.

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by spower

What a great thread with lots of great info!! My question is......

What are you running/using that will consume 100ah in a night?

Not sure who this question is for... But recently we used about 106Ah a night, two nights in a row. Previously our high was about 60ah. That would cover the CPAP and MaxxAir fan and a little use of the electric mattress pad. But this time it included 3hrs ish of the 50in TV Keystone put in here. Had to watch a football game. Then too my wife says her side of the mattress pad is too hot, so I may have a defective controller. I'll have to look into that. And it was colder so the mattress pad was on longer (or on a higher setting. And, I recently found a 700 watt coffee maker. It makes two 7oz cups at a time... and I ran it twice each morning. So, maybe 106Ah wasn't bad...


But on the up side, we have two Battleborn batteries. Two hundred usable amps 😁.

[NJKris]

Anything that makes heat will put a serious hurt on batteries. Whether it's a coffee maker heating up 14 oz of liquid, or electric blankets/mattresses, or forgetting to turn heater of on CPAP humidifier/hose.

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by NJKris

Anything that makes heat will put a serious hurt on batteries. Whether it's a coffee maker heating up 14 oz of liquid, or electric blankets/mattresses, or forgetting to turn heater of[f] on CPAP humidifier/hose.

Put a serious hurt on the batteries? Nonsense.

That's why I have 200 usable amps of lithium. I never turn off the heated humidifier on my CPAP. I used to make pour over coffee using the propane cook top. Now I just push a button. The art of camping on 12v is balancing your wants/needs with your battery bank.

And when in doubt, push the button and yell, "more power Mr Scott!" (or add another lithium battery)

YMMV

[Hclarkx]

Originally Posted by spower

What a great thread with lots of great info!! My question is......

What are you running/using that will consume 100ah in a night?

Keep in mind that for us solar users, "night" starts well before sunset, maybe 4 or 5 pm if there are trees nearby and earlier in non-summer months. So, our afternoon coffee and maybe some microwave use preparing dinner can come from the battery. The 12V fridge door gets open a few times fixing dinner so it runs a bit more for the next hour and off and on overnight (5.2 amps). Then there's the DW's Yamaha e piano for an hour (4 watts plus inverter losses) after dinner. And if we watch a movie, the powered media speakers (video is on a tablet which needs to be re-charged). Then CPAP overnight running a bit over 2 amps. And the propane space heater for a total of a couple of hours if it's cold (we camp 4-5 months in fall, winter, spring) and a solid 45 minutes to warm the place up from 50F to 68F. Ceiling fans overnight if it's warm. Then morning brings the toaster and coffee (espresso machine) and microwave to heat the Mocha and microwave to cook the oatmeal. Lots of things on USB chargers. Currently we are averaging 100 Ah.

It just adds up! And grows over time. Glamping.

And a 9K mini-split and more battery and solar are waiting in the garage.

[kcmusa]

Here is my setup. 800 watts, flat on roof. It’s now winter so low sun angle.
Ah to kWh is voltage x ah
1.34 KWh yesterday. 111 Ah

[Captain Insaino]

Hey guys, What’s your experience with the Victron smart shunt? This is very appealing to me, but I am reading a ton of reviews saying that the Bluetooth range is very short. I would put the shunt in my tongue mounted battery box and would like to be able to use the app throughout the entire trailer. This is the only feature in my mind that would justify the expense. There are plenty of cheapo volt amp meters out there. I am reading complaints of the range being as little as 6 feet from the device. I honestly don’t care about a lot of features or a fancy display. I just want to read amps and volts. Are there any other devices that are comparable to this?

[corn18]

Originally Posted by Captain Insaino

Hey guys, What’s your experience with the Victron smart shunt? This is very appealing to me, but I am reading a ton of reviews saying that the Bluetooth range is very short. I would put the shunt in my tongue mounted battery box and would like to be able to use the app throughout the entire trailer. This is the only feature in my mind that would justify the expense. There are plenty of cheapo volt amp meters out there. I am reading complaints of the range being as little as 6 feet from the device. I honestly don’t care about a lot of features or a fancy display. I just want to read amps and volts. Are there any other devices that are comparable to this?

You can get the Victron BMV-712 with remote monitor.

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energ...68428369&psc=1

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by Captain Insaino

Hey guys, What’s your experience with the Victron smart shunt? This is very appealing to me, but I am reading a ton of reviews saying that the Bluetooth range is very short. I would put the shunt in my tongue mounted battery box and would like to be able to use the app throughout the entire trailer. This is the only feature in my mind that would justify the expense. There are plenty of cheapo volt amp meters out there. I am reading complaints of the range being as little as 6 feet from the device. I honestly don’t care about a lot of features or a fancy display. I just want to read amps and volts. Are there any other devices that are comparable to this?

My short answer is that I don't have experience with the Smart Shunt, it came on the market about a year after I bought the BMV-712 with built-in Bluetooth.

I'm not impressed with the Bluetooth distance on the 712 and might be concerned about the difference on the Smart Shunt. But another camper had coverage clear out to his campfire. We started to speculate it might be my "lower cost" Motorola cellphone hardware. So I don't know.

My 712 is in the front pass through of our TT. I can get good connection anywhere inside our 30ft TT. But outside, sometimes only 6ft away, at other times I can connect 12 ft away. Our TT has aluminum tube wall structure with "fiberglass" wall skin.

Maybe someone else will have direct experience they can tell you about.

By the way, I did not mount the remote corded monitor..

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by Mikec557

Put a serious hurt on the batteries? Nonsense.

That's why I have 200 usable amps of lithium. I never turn off the heated humidifier on my CPAP. I used to make pour over coffee using the propane cook top. Now I just push a button. The art of camping on 12v is balancing your wants/needs with your battery bank.

And when in doubt, push the button and yell, "more power Mr Scott!" (or add another lithium battery)

YMMV

You just said you used 106Ah in one night. To me that's a lot. Most people don't have 200 amp hours available.

[Jimbo K.]

Originally Posted by Captain Insaino

Hey guys, What’s your experience with the Victron smart shunt? This is very appealing to me, but I am reading a ton of reviews saying that the Bluetooth range is very short. I would put the shunt in my tongue mounted battery box and would like to be able to use the app throughout the entire trailer. This is the only feature in my mind that would justify the expense. There are plenty of cheapo volt amp meters out there. I am reading complaints of the range being as little as 6 feet from the device. I honestly don’t care about a lot of features or a fancy display. I just want to read amps and volts. Are there any other devices that are comparable to this?

The reviews reporting short range are correct. I have to be standing within 5-6 feet of my own tongue mounted battery to get a signal. Sporadically I'll get a reading from inside the trailer if I'm all the way at the front. Nowhere else from inside.

Having said that, the SmartShunt meets my needs and has performed well, given its range limitation.

[Captain Insaino]

Thanks for the responses. Jimbo, I assume you have a plastic battery box and fiberglass/aluminum trailer construction?

[Jimbo K.]

Originally Posted by Captain Insaino

Thanks for the responses. Jimbo, I assume you have a plastic battery box and fiberglass/aluminum trailer construction?

That is correct.

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by Captain Insaino

Thanks for the responses. Jimbo, I assume you have a plastic battery box and fiberglass/aluminum trailer construction?

I was thinking about my less than stellar Bluetooth range, and a light bulb went on that may explain, or contribute to, my poor range .

The BMV-712 has built-in Bluetooth, that's why I bought it. It has a 2.5 inch/ish round display that I did NOT mount in a wall inside the camper. I intended to use by cellphone and I didn't want to make a hole in my wall. I knew I'd take the 712 with me when I sold that trailer. So I plug the display into the shunt and push it into a corner of the pass through, under the inverter.

The epiphany is that the round display I don't want to see or look at is my Bluetooth transmitter. I think I'm partially blocking my own transmitting signal. Now I'm going to have to do some experiments.

Mounting the Smart Shunt in the battery box is probably a better location than what I have been doing.

Just some food for thought.

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by Jimbo K.

The reviews reporting short range are correct. I have to be standing within 5-6 feet of my own tongue mounted battery to get a signal. Sporadically I'll get a reading from inside the trailer if I'm all the way at the front. Nowhere else from inside.

Having said that, the SmartShunt meets my needs and has performed well, given its range limitation.

I do wonder if location of shunt in orientation to batteries makes a difference. I can imagine big blocks of lead can block/attenuate a radio signal.

[Ex-tenter]

Originally Posted by Captain Insaino

Hey guys, What’s your experience with the Victron smart shunt? This is very appealing to me, but I am reading a ton of reviews saying that the Bluetooth range is very short. I would put the shunt in my tongue mounted battery box and would like to be able to use the app throughout the entire trailer. This is the only feature in my mind that would justify the expense. There are plenty of cheapo volt amp meters out there. I am reading complaints of the range being as little as 6 feet from the device. I honestly don’t care about a lot of features or a fancy display. I just want to read amps and volts. Are there any other devices that are comparable to this?

I have the Smart Shunt in the battery box on the tongue of my 2608BS and have adequate signal in the living room in the middle of the trailer. It gets iffy further back,and won't connect in the back end. I've been happy enough with it.

[Captain Insaino]

Originally Posted by Ex-tenter

I have the Smart Shunt in the battery box on the tongue of my 2608BS and have adequate signal in the living room in the middle of the trailer. It gets iffy further back,and won't connect in the back end. I've been happy enough with it.

This is encouraging. Although your trailer is much larger with slides, the front construction and tongue look very similar to mine.The center of your trailer would be almost the rear of mine. I wonder, is our “genuine imitation diamond plate“ rock guard even metal? If it is, that would explain a lot.

[NJKris]

The diamond plate must be something durable, mine looks like new 3 years later.

[Captain Insaino]

I just did the scratch test on mine. It would appear it is aluminum. Probably not the best material for passing RF.

[NJKris]

Originally Posted by Eric H.

To add to your post, all the charge controllers I've seen say you can damage the controller by connecting the panels to the controller if the controller is not connected to batteries first. Opposite when disconnecting. Connect panels last. Disconnect panels first.

Eric, I just received clarification on this from Renogy customer service:

This statement is actually correct in that it is not recommended to connect the solar panels to the charge controller unless the batteries are already connected. But in the case of the solar suitcase, the solar panels are already prewired to the charge controller so just to make sure that the charge controller does not get damaged due to the solar panels already being connected to the charger controller we just need to make sure that the batteries are already hooked up before we leave the solar panels under the sun. You can also cover the panels with a dark thick cloth while connecting the batteries.

So plan A is to put a piece of cardboard on ground, and open panel with cells down against ground until I connect battery cable to controller, OR plan B, buy one of these and put it inline with one of the leads between panel and controller:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077CYL8DH...v_ov_lig_dp_it


Really kind of stupid to sell these without a cut off switch if this is indeed a concern.