Recent content by rootusrootus

I have a little Phoenix 12|250 inverter that I use to power a TV when we're boondocking. So far, so good, the TV plug is only two-prong to begin with. But this inverter won't power my Starlink. Given that it is a perfectly good inverter from a reputable company and I've no reason to doubt the...

I'm on time-of-use, so it's somewhat variable, but overall I'm usually right around $0.115/kWh before taxes & such. Consumption is higher in the summer, but overall average about 1500kW/month. I'm in Oregon, so the amount of sun we get isn't ideal. They did quote me an even larger system...

Just got a quote for a professional install of ~13kW of panels for ~19K after rebates. Sounds great, and I am tempted. But when I work the numbers, I come up very short. If I drop 19K on PV right now, I could cut my bill from $200 to probably $50 (still have some basic grid fees and such...

Yep, it's basically the same as getting the Progressive Dynamics board and doing the swap. Costs about the same, too. Seems like a lot of people prefer the PD option, but I have no basis for my own opinion on that, so it may not be backed up by real data.

Yeah, I actually went cheap at first, and picked up the AiLi battery monitor. Then I realized that I'd rather have it be bluetooth, not a dinky display somewhere. Figured I could do the BMV-712, but for my purposes I really don't care much about the display, so might well get the SmartShunt...

Is there a consensus on the accuracy of the Overkill BMS state of charge? I am trying to decide if there is any value at all to getting a Victron SmartShunt so I can see with bluetooth the state of the battery. The BMS has bluetooth, also, but is the SOC measurement accurate enough? I gather...

Huh. Interesting. Well, I guess I'm going to find out :).

I thought I recall seeing somewhere that the 'burning out alternator' problem is dependent on vehicle. E.g. Ford limits current on the charging circuit to a level that won't overtax the alternator.

Congrats on your X213. We had a 2016 X213 before we traded up to a bigger TT a couple weeks ago. Great little trailer, we stuffed it into many places that weren't really meant for a trailer to be :). I'm not entirely clear on the outcome of this discussion, and I have essentially the same...

A lot depends on what your plan is for the battery. I intend to drop mine on the front of my travel trailer, so getting the purpose-built box works pretty well. It will drop right in place of the FLAs that I have there now, in the existing box. I wouldn't want to put bare cells directly in...

Thanks for figuring this out. Ordered two of these boxes and got them today, they are exactly as you described. Pretty decent for a $35 box, even if they cost $110 more to get them to my doorstep.

Agreed, it could be that the documentation on the web site is wrong and there was no misunderstanding. But on the other hand, I'd have to weigh the likelihood that the documentation is oddly specific but wrong about the 35F to 45F temperature range against the possibility that either the tech...

I'm guessing he just misunderstood what you were asking. His answer was technically correct, in a simplified way. You enable/disable the system with a switch. From his perspective, 'activate' means enabling the heating system, not literally turning on the element.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/product/heated-100ah-12v-battery/ "With our new internally heated battery, you no longer have to stress about your cold temperature outings! When the battery reaches an internal temperature of 35 degrees F, a flip switches and warms your battery up!"...

Battle Born says it comes on automatically at 35F. There is a switch, but it just enables and disables the heating system, the actual operation of the element is based on temperature.