Keep the dogs cool! That was the goal of this power system. This client goes to numerous dog show competitions a year, traveling around with her pure bred Rottweilers. Being that most of the competitions are in the summer, and there's not always somewhere to plug in, so we needed to make sure the dogs could stay comfy no matter what.
Being that this is a relatively small Class C RV on a Ford Transit chassis, doing an air conditioning system powered solely by solar just wasn't going to happen. Simply not enough rooftop real estate. Luckily, we weren't looking for 24/7 operation, just to get us through the middle of the day till the competition ended and they'd depart for a campground in the evening.
Due to supply chain issues we weren't able to install the upgraded rooftop AC while I was there, but we did the math out on what the new unit should consume and built an electrical system around that. The final results included 900ah's of lithium batteries and a 3kVA inverter/charger. Taking advantage of the factory installed secondary alternator, we put on a 120 amp DC to DC charger, and for good measure added an extra solar panel to the roof since we had the room.
While I was there we went ahead and installed a Haloview 3 camera system to make maneuvering the camper a breeze.
This was definitely a challenging install since the factory electrical system was spread out all over the camper. With factory alternator control systems buried under the fridge it had to get pulled. Factory batteries were on the exterior rear corners, so those batteries had to get dropped out and their factory wiring re-routed. Heavy cables for our high output alternator circuit had to get ran under the rig, and routing everything to our new electrical system, including extending and relocating solar wiring, took time.
This RV was definitely built with the intention of never being disassembled, so we had to carefully pry apart many of the decorative cabinet facades to access remote wiring and such.
This was a challenging install but that's probably what made it so fun!
BUILD DETAILS:
900ah’s of Lifeblue lithium Batteries
Victron BMV-712 battery monitor
570 Watts of GoPower solar panels
3000VA Victron Hybrid inverter
Smart Phase Selector switch
Victron bluetooth solar controller
Sterling 120 amp DC to DC charger
