Preview commercial: We have done several Solar installs on RV – using ContinuousResources.com. (Affiliate link) I can’t say enough good things about them, so if you are looking at doing an install – I suggest contacting them both as a resource and supplier.
Review: Just over a year now since we installed solar in our class A motorhome. We had 400 A/hours of Lithium batteries. We installed 800 watts of panels, a Victron MPPT solar controller, a Victron 3k inverter charger and a Victron battery monitor. We also added a Victron Color Control Console, as a “not necessary”, but as it turns out, quite a useful device.
It looks something like this:
So, how does it all work? In a word: Great!
On my RV – most of the electrical system had few if any ability to monitor operations. If I slid the drivers seat back and opened the overhead cabinet, I could see and have some control over the Inverter status. The Spyder system showed me the house battery voltage. That is it. Most Victron devices can communicate with Bluetooth (though some require a dongle). So, while in or near our RV, we can monitor the various parts of the system. And most often, that is the method I use to just check on the battery status or how much solar do I see. But with all the metal framework, Bluetooth has its limitations. For example, sitting all the way in the front of the RV – my phone doesn’t see the solar controller that is way in the back-left compartment.
Enter the Color Control Console (CCC). All the Victron devices are connected via their V.E. bus. They can share data (such as the Inverter and solar controller can read the battery voltage from the battery monitor). All the devices share their data with the CCC. The Console is mounted inside a back closet and I can flip through menus and see what is happening in my entire system. But I don’t do that very often, as I can also access the CCC via Bluetooth AND the internet. The CCC connects back to vrm.victron.com through our hotspot, where it both uploads operational data and provides a back connection from Victron to my CCC. Thus, I can access my CCC either via an app on my phone or via a web address. The server also stores the operational data which can be retrieved via the web site. I can review how the system has been doing yesterday, last week, this month or the entire year. In the example iPhone VRM app sample to the right, you can see the week we were boondocking with only partly or fully cloudy days. The rest of the days shown we were at electric hookup sites. The peak input from solar was only about 500watts, but then we are up in the foggy, cloudy, far-north Oregon and Washington state. That is why having more panels that you think is an expense, but also an advantage. The bright summer sun isn’t always overhead. The Victron system shows the solar system has supplied 400Kilowatt hours since it was installed just over a year ago. That translates to approximately 310 hours of generator time saved. Since solar supplies some power to the coach whenever there is sun and DC power draw, that is probably an overstatement, but solar is working, not just loafing on the roof.
The left image is from the Battery Monitor, as is the middle – showing historical numbers. The right shows real-time voltage and current data for the batteries accessed via the VRM iPhone app. There is so much more.
We run an Apple TV, along with several hours per day of television, a large residential refrigerator, the furnace some at night, several computers for a few hours and a CPAP all night. We use around 200 to 400 Amp-hours of battery most days and when it is sunny, solar keeps up with that easily. When we cook a substantial meal in the RV, we use even more as most of our cooking is with electric appliances. (microwave, induction burner, air fryer). If the batteries are headed for 50% and we want to cook something that will take a long time (30 minutes), we sometimes will fire up the generator to take up the cooking load as well as put some power back into the batteries. We have a 7000-watt generator (2 * 3500 watts), and running that just to charge batteries is a waste of gas and generator time, so we try to get more use when it is running.
We don’t currently have the ability to run an Air Conditioner from our inverter, though it should be possible. The Air Conditioner power doesn’t feed through the inverter. I do have a smart start box (yet to be installed) for one air conditioner and with a simple wire change and a switch, I could cut one of air conditioners to the inverter feed and could briefly run the air conditioner off the inverter and lithium batteries. Ideally, I would need to add a few more batteries and another round of solar for that hookup to make sense.
The 3000 watt Victron inverter/charger was an optional part of our solar installation process. The RV came with a 2000W Magnum. Between it and the resistive power connection, it was no end of trouble. There were many combinations of appliances that would overload the 2k watt unit. I really like several of the features of the Victron. First – it picks up power flawlessly when outside power goes off, the generator is shut off, etc. Second – I can program it to limit power usage when I’m on a smaller power pedestal. If I’m on a 30A or even 20A – I program that in from my phone and any time power draw, through the Inverter gets too high, it uses battery power to supplement. Now, this isn’t quite as simple as setting it to 20 or 30, because the Victron only sees power going through it – so the air conditioners and electric fire place for example use power it doesn’t see. So I will usually set the power draw lower and let it use the batteries when needed. Third, the extra 1000 watts above the Magnum mean we can use many more combinations of appliances without worrying about the inverter kicking out. Lastly – with most of my power management all from the same vendor, all accessible through the same interfaces, it is much easier to monitor how things are working.
When our RV is in storage – I leave the Solar connected. It keeps the batteries charged and runs the Ring doorbell, internet hotspot and cell repeater so everything stays charged and we can remotely keep tabs on the systems and the RV.
The solar install we did on our daughter’s class A is also doing well. They do not yet have an updated Inverter (theirs is only 1200 W), so they often end up running the generator when cooking with electricity. A Victron 3k is on their “someday soon” list.
I’m very happy with all my solar equipment, that I got through ContinuousResources.com. (Affiliate link) I highly recommend you consider them if you are going to build a system.
mgg