Van Electrical Nightmares? Fixing Broken Systems at VanFest!
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- Опубліковано 18 лис 2023
- We went to VanFest in Hurricane Utah and fixed some electrical systems of attendees while we were there and we want to share with all of YOU what we found so that you may not make the same mistakes.
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Here are some additional resources that you may find helpful with planning and installing your DIY Camper:
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I love videos like this, digging into real-world random electric setups and puzzling out the little innocent mistakes people have made. Seeing how to do things correctly is one thing but seeing how to do them *incorrectly* can be even more educational!
I find it very professional that you don't toalk down competitors products like Renogy, LiTime etc. Not everyone can afford a full on Victron system.
Thank you for helping my father out at 18:37. I really appreciate what you are doing. He was having so much trouble with those solar panels and was bumming him out! He’s ecstatic that they working now! You got a like and subscriber! Keep up the good work
That’s awesome to hear! So glad we could help out! Thanks so much for watching 😁😁
this one goes into a favorites catagory. Doing more "hands on" with us regular folks makes for an excellent video.
Hey @StratRider, Thanks so much! Cheers!
The white van at 16:xx. I would look for a GFCI that's tripped or bad in line with the outlets, but I bet you already had looked. The folks at 27:xx need a Jet-boil or equivalent to heat water, even if only for a backup when battery is low. It is nice of you to help all these folks. You have helped me immensely with your videos and wiring calculator. I enjoyed this video. Thanks!
Tripped or bad GFCI will interrupt all outlets on that circuit. Common RV issue
Im impressed that you helped 👍 thank you for your videos and all knowledge you are sharing 🙏
some old RV 120 outlets have a ground fault outlet by a sink in the bathroom or kitchen. It sometimes will be bad knocking out other outlets ... some RV power panels will have a transfer switch on top of it ... ... the buck wood over the top of the power distribution most often is openable ... and one could look down from up top and test too. I enjoyed this format, checking things out... now we can go buy wiring kits from ya'll (x-rv and auto tech here) pat
The 94 van may have gfci tripped .
I thought so too; but I couldn't find any GFCI outlets. 🤷🤔
@@EXPLORISTlifeone reason I wouldn’t use gfci breakers. I read issues about problems with shore power stations tripping. What is your opinion on this.
@@cycleoflife7331 Those problems are going to be on the shore power side of things; not the AC Out side of things for outlets mounted in the camper.
Thanks for All You Do !!
That was really helpful. Thanks.
Thanks for coming to out to VanFest. It was a great event for our local community.
Nooooo we want more!!! Thanks nate
Hello. Time stamp 9:09. Re: wires from inverter mfg. Will Prouse has stated several times that these wires are undersized. All 3 of my inverters came with dual + & - wires. I tossed them and went with 02 welding cable.
Yeah; for sure. I wish they wouldn't even provide them with those inverters. Gives people a false sense of security. That and it makes fusing difficult because the fuse at the busbar needs to be able to handle the full load of the inverter but can't be larger than the max fuse size for each of the individual wires. Overall a terrible concept.
@EXPLORISTlife FYI, I thought I had my system down pat,THEN I watched your series. Thanks for saving my bacon.
Question: Do I run my Renogy 60 amp charger through a separate shunt?
Glad it helped! We only use one system shunt in our system designs.
thanks.. LOL, i have a spare shunt now .
@@EXPLORISTlife
@@EXPLORISTlife Friends don't let friends buy from signature solar, use Current Connected instead; same products/price, different attitude.
Great work as usual Nate!!
Appreciate that!
Is it better to have more smaller batteries or fewer larger batteries? For example, Li Time has 100, 230, and 460AH batts which are incrementally cheaper and lighter. For a smaller system, 4x100 or 2x230 ? For a large system, 4x230 or 2x460?
The big difference is with more batteries, you'll likely have a higher total amperage output. Each battery has an output limit... bigger batteries don't necessarily have output limits that scale equally compared with the small batteries. Same with incoming charging limits.
Great video! Very interesting!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video. Hope to see you at Vanfest in FL.
I like these "settings" audit videos. Learning new things every day.
Glad it was helpful. Cheers!
Nice, GOOD INFORMATION.
Thanks! 🙂🙌
Very good video. I don’t use solar but I do enjoy learning this information. Don’t know when I might need it.
Thanks for watching! Cheers!
At 29:09 into the video you’re talking about the settings between the shunt charge, and the MPPT charge. The danger of stating only 0.2 V difference, isn’t what my manufacturer stated with my battle born or SOK batteries. Each manufacturer has their own recommendations.
This is why I use separate shunts for each battery bank. But all the charge controllers are at the same settings.
Battle Born does indeed recommend setting the 'charged voltage' of the shunt .2V lower than the charging voltage (absorption) of the chargers. This is a 'shunt' parameter and not really a 'battery' parameter; so there's no reason that should change from battery manufacturer to battery manufacturer.
But yea; if you have some kind of hyper specific thing with multiple battery banks of different manufacturers or something else weird/atypical like that; you may have to do something different than what I showed in this video.
@@EXPLORISTlife
Battle Born Batteries recommended my Victron charge controllers be at 58.4 voltage and equalization. Float voltage, 54.40 and charged voltage be at 56.5 on the shunt! This is with 200 amp hours at 48 V. Or eight 12V 100 amp hour Battle Born Batteries batteries tied in series/parallel. These are the settings I was given? 🖖
.2V for a 12V battery bank and then that value doubles for 24V; or x4 for 48V.
Battle Born may have recommended something to you, but those figures are what they were recommending back in 2017ish when we started working together and have consistently worked since then. Most settings work in a 'range' so there's a good chance that whoever you were talking to there had their own number in that 'range' that works.
The .2V for 12V, .4V for 24V, .8V for 48V has historically worked well for the dozens of people in our tech support inbox every day. If the value Battle Born gave to you is working well; that's great and you don't need to change anything. 👍
@@EXPLORISTlife
Thanks for the education! I’m definitely a rookie at this. 😜🖖
I thought that smell was Teen Spirit
Good stuff, getting an education! 🖖👏👏👏
Thanks! 🙂🙌
Hi Nate, thanks for this great troubleshoot video. I just completed the installation of my 400a 3k inverter/charger with full Victron, following your diagram and wire size. Only issue I have so far is “low battery” light flashing on Multiplus when running big load (1.5kw). Do you think that could be related to a setting? Im running 4/0 where needed. I didnt cheap out on cable size so I woulnt think voltage drop is the issue. I also have 2x200 Lithium that can output 150 continuous each. Any insignt would be appreciated. Cheers
Nate, is it always that clear, what you read on VRM?
The differences you mentioned (0.2V on a 12V system - worse on the 24Vsystem) are pretty small. So I doubt if the readings are always correct.
For me there might be differences in the readings of that battery monitors and the charge controllers, there might be differences in voltages due to small cables or crimps or poor connections. What's beyond - might there be a second investigation like: What's the real battery voltage, what does the monitor read meanwhile, what do the MPPT read then?
The settings are a great spot to start. If there's a wring setting, it's pretty cut and dry. If that doesn't fix the problem; other things can be diagnosed (poor crimps, etc).
You are so cool.
I purchased your wiring diagrams for the utility trailer I converted. The diagrams were very helpful and the system runs very well!! I went with Victron inverter charger, DC to DC, solar controller, shunt, and lynx bus. One issue I can't figure out is why my GFCI circuit breakers in the load panel pass the self test, but will not trip using a Fluke circuit tester. The Fluke says the hot/neutral/ground are all wired correctly. Does the AC load panel need to have the neutral and ground bonded for the GFCI breakers to provide protection?
12:42 is key🎉
9:00 they're not inverter chargers, but renogy supply those same cables with the 3000W inverters, too! CRIMINAL.
Ah; yeah. Good catch. lol We really only deal with Inverter/Chargers and not independant inverters so that's a hard speech pattern to break. 🤣
What App are you using for your cellphone infrared imager? Besides the color contrast, I like the way it displays the actual temperature numbers next to the heat extreme object
Yeah; it's pretty sweet. That's the Flir One Pro camera attached to the bottom of my phone: amzn.to/46laU8Q and then the Flir One App.
@@EXPLORISTlife Thank you
Are you planning on going to the 2024 RTR in Quartzite?
We will not be there, no. Our only event we have on the schedule this winter is VanFest in FL.
Hi Nate, What happens if someone connects the power inlet of a Victron Multiplus to a power outlet associated with the Multiplus. I'm concerned about an inept person or prankster doing such. For example, a van with a Multiplus is connected to shore power and has an outside outlet. What happens if a prankster unplugs the shore cable and plugs it into the van's outlet? Are there any protections built into the Multiplus? If not, are there protections I can add? Will any of the commercial protectors detect loop-back power and prevent connection?
The multiplus would just try to charge the batteries from that outlet and the batteries would drain at the rate of the multiplus efficiency loss. Or if the input current limit was too high; it'd trip the breaker of that outlet it's connected to. There's no way to 'protect' against this any more than 'protecting' against a 'prankster' sneaking over and plugging in a space heater.
I have been watching you for years since you had your old van. Do you know anyone who does electric hookup for van conversions in Cincinnati, Ohio?
Hey! We don't have any installers in Cincinnati but here is our full list of our trained installers: explorist.life/find-a-certified-installer/
@@EXPLORISTlife Thanks. Happy Holidays to you and Seph!
I thought it was a pretty good video.
Cmon man 6:43 touching a live busbar. With live equipment you would have been killed man. Why do people not seem to realize you CANT do this? You CANT touch a live busbar? Mortally dangerous.
That was live. It's 12v. No issues of touching a 12v busbar with a bare hand given you aren't soaking wet or something.
The dual 2000watt renogy setup also uses very tiny busbars. Looks like something rated for 150A.
The worst setup I ever seen was a van that I rented for a week in 2022. 12v and 230v used the same cables. Wrong fuses. Cable spaghetti etc. when I gave back the van I said to him "please redo the system" he probably didn't care. I said I won't be leaving a review because it won't be positive. And then I walked away. Never rent a dutch yellow transit surfer style diy van 🫣