What is low battery

[RedRoadTtrek]

Very good. I admit to playing dumb a bit because we wanted to see what other's experience was, with out coming forward immediately with some "infinite wisdom" solution. It turns our that we installed a Victron battery monitor lasts year on our boat, and it has been very successful. Battery voltage alone is not the best way to determine the state of charge/discharge. Thanks to all for these and any other suggestions or personal experiences.

As far a battery types, either a properly installed Lithium Ion or AGM system is great, but have heard loudly and clearly from both the RV and marine worlds that mixing the battery types in the same system can be a recipe for problems if you don't do a lot of homework?

[wincrasher]

There have been some fairly exciting development in the electrical area in recent years that the RV manufacturers have yet to fully embrace.

If you decide to stick with one brand's eco-system, you can get a pretty compelling package from either Victron, Magnum or Xantrex. Their inverter/chargers exist on a network with battery monitoring, display remotes and solar controllers. You can monitor all aspects of your battery charging, power distribution and energy storage. Both Victron and Magnum will control how the solar is applied/integrated with shore power or generator charging.

It's all plug and play now, without a lot of expert knowledge required. The downside, besides some of the hardware being expensive compared to the ebay grade stuff you can get, is that you have to stay in that brand's ecosystem. Their "network" is proprietary to each brand.

Right now, if I was to buy a basic new RV and put solar/batteries/inverter in it, I'd probably go with the Victron system. Check out AMSolar's site for an overview of the hardware and some diagrams. It's pretty impressive and still cheaper than buying the low-grade systems from the major RV manufacturers.

[booster]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

There have been some fairly exciting development in the electrical area in recent years that the RV manufacturers have yet to fully embrace.

If you decide to stick with one brand's eco-system, you can get a pretty compelling package from either Victron, Magnum or Xantrex. Their inverter/chargers exist on a network with battery monitoring, display remotes and solar controllers. You can monitor all aspects of your battery charging, power distribution and energy storage. Both Victron and Magnum will control how the solar is applied/integrated with shore power or generator charging.

It's all plug and play now, without a lot of expert knowledge required. The downside, besides some of the hardware being expensive compared to the ebay grade stuff you can get, is that you have to stay in that brand's ecosystem. Their "network" is proprietary to each brand.

Right now, if I was to buy a basic new RV and put solar/batteries/inverter in it, I'd probably go with the Victron system. Check out AMSolar's site for an overview of the hardware and some diagrams. It's pretty impressive and still cheaper than buying the low-grade systems from the major RV manufacturers.

Has Victron moved to full shut off chargers for lithium now, with the settable stop point? I assume they might be because of the voltage trigger point relay they have in the monitor, and voltage seems to work adequately on lithium.

Nearly the same question for Victron on AGM batteries, only have they gone to shunt controlled, amps and volts based, state of charge control and calculation like Magnum and Outback do.

I have not been keeping up with Victron changes, obviously.

[wincrasher]

Looking at their paper on integrating lithium, they have a signal from the BMS and the Multiplus will switch into one of two modes - float or charger disable. Whether that is triggered on SOC or voltage, I'd have to further research, but the paper is worded such that I'd assume on SOC.

[RedRoadTtrek]

Sorry, but you lost me in the acronyms!

[booster]

Originally Posted by RedRoadTtrek

Very good. I admit to playing dumb a bit because we wanted to see what other's experience was, with out coming forward immediately with some "infinite wisdom" solution. It turns our that we installed a Victron battery monitor lasts year on our boat, and it has been very successful. Battery voltage alone is not the best way to determine the state of charge/discharge. Thanks to all for these and any other suggestions or personal experiences.

As far a battery types, either a properly installed Lithium Ion or AGM system is great, but have heard loudly and clearly from both the RV and marine worlds that mixing the battery types in the same system can be a recipe for problems if you don't do a lot of homework?

I think that Roadtrek looks at the AGM battery as a "disposable" necessity to making the lithium system function (which it does only sometimes, though). Tesla does a similar thing with their cars. Not a great solution, but there are other issues with the Roadtrek system that are much more troubling than the AGM battery in the system.

[wincrasher]

Originally Posted by booster

I think that Roadtrek looks at the AGM battery as a "disposable" necessity to making the lithium system function (which it does only sometimes, though). Tesla does a similar thing with their cars. Not a great solution, but there are other issues with the Roadtrek system that are much more troubling than the AGM battery in the system.

I noticed a regular battery in an electric car in a video recently. Under the hood on the Chevy Bolt was a standard car battery. I was wondering what the hell that was for...

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by RedRoadTtrek

Sorry, but you lost me in the acronyms!

BMS = Battery Management System
SOC = State of Charge