We first met Rod five years ago when we powered up his Boston Canopy atop his new Hilux, for camping. In went The Lithium Box 100/40 and two 160W solar panels which ran all internal lights and an Engle fridge.
Recently, Rod purchased a new Golf 607HT Tourer Caravan and wanted to upgrade the Deep Cycle batteries to lithium, plus add in an Inverter to run some 240V appliances.
The caravan's existing system included:
A Projecta PM300, 30A all-in-one unit with 240V, Solar and Vehicle charging with LED display.
Two 100AH AGM batteries
Two 170W Solar Panels
Large upright three way fridge
With Rod wanting to run some modern conveniences such as a coffee machine, induction cooker, microwave and washing machine, we assessed the possibilities and designed and built a new customised system, whilst retaining some features of existing equipment.
To start, we removed the original batteries and disconnected the solar, vehicle and 240V charging from the PM300 unit, leaving it to function as a fuse box and tank monitor.
After leaving the drawing board, we built a custom, truly 'drop in' 300Ah RV Lithium Systems (RVLSA) Battery Pack with a built-in Victron Multiplus 12/2000 Inverter/Charger. The new system features:
A custom built 300Ah RVLSA LiFePO4 Battery
A custom built RVLSA Battery Control Unit (BCU) which controls the Multiplus charger inputs and inverter output, solar and DC charger inputs and van power outputs
A Victron Multiplus 12/2000 Inverter (2000VA) and Charger (80A) with Built in AC transfer switch which switches seamlessly between Inverter and 240V power, making the van's 240V connections plug and play
A VE.Bus Smart Battery Dongle which, as well as being a Battery Voltage and Temperature Sender, also provides Bluetooth connectivity to the Multiplus. This means battery voltage and temperature data is received by the Multiplus and all solar controllers, linking them together as a single system, where each device knows what the other is doing. This is called synchronised charging.
A Victron Smart Bluetooth BMV-712 Battery Monitor which communicates through our BCU and turns off the inverter and caravan output power if the battery reaches low voltage or low state of charge. The Battery Monitor and remote inverter switch are connected via data sockets on the Battery Pack and were installed close to the PM300's display for convenient reading of the caravan's data in one spot and ease of switching the Inverter.
Two 50A Grey Genuine Anderson plugs, protected by a 100A Breaker Switch to connect the caravans 12v power
Two Red 50A Genuine Anderson plugs to connect Solar and Vehicle Chargers
Additionally, we installed:
Two 175W Victron Solar panels
Two 20A Victron Smart Solar MPPT Bluetooth Solar Controllers - One controller for the two new 175W panes and the other for the original Two 170W Panels
A 30A Victron Bluetooth Solar / DC Charger Combo for external solar (up to 30A) via a Yellow Genuine Anderson plug in an enclosure on the side of the van and 30A Charging from the vehicle
All chargers are linked to the VE.Bus Bluetooth Dongle for synchronised charging
Get in touch to take some 'mod cons' off the grid.