Thanks for all the replies. When looking into a piecemeal system seems I would require: batteries, mppt controllers, shunt, dc to dc charger, monitor, inverter/charger, and batteries. Plus all the cabling. The price is close to the cost of a Bluetti and I would hope to either add a lifpo4 into the system later or a Bluetti expansion battery. Keeping it plug and play could mean moving it to a camper or reselling it later if I want to. I did find a post from an Amazon review where the guy integrated it into his RV. Sorry in advance for the walk of text!
“One Shot Wonder
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2022
I have a 2012 Arctic Fox 29 foot camper trailer. I got rid of my 12 volt batteries, got rid of the battery charger / power supply, installed a couple of solar panels on the roof, installed a 30 amp automatic transfer switch, hooked the camper to both the 12 volt 30 amp power supply and 120 volt 30 amp power supply and this thing is the one-stop-solution for my camper. If you are curious about details, here you go ...
* I disconnected the camper from all power - including the 12 volt batteries.
* I disconnected the 120 volt, 30 amp power supply line from the main breaker and attached a short piece of 10 gauge wire from the main breaker to the output of the automatic transfer switch
* I connected the wire from the camper's 30 amp shore power to the "generator" side of the automatic transfer switch (the switch prefers the generator, so I used that side for the shore power so that my camper will prefer shore power)
* I used a 30 amp male outlet and attached a short length of 10 gauge wire to it. Then I attached the other end to the "shore power" leg of the automatic transfer switch.
* I attached the supply line from the battery to the 12 volt 30 amp adapter for the Bluetti
* I plugged in the 120 volt 30 amp plug as well as the 12 volt 30 amp plug into the Bluetti
* I mounted 2 solar panels and connected them in series (Negative from the first panel into the negative jack for the Bluetti's solar port, positive from the first panel to the negative of the second panel, and the positive from the 2nd panel to the positive jack for the Bluetti's solar port)
* I plugged in the solar adapter and set the Bluetti for solar (as opposed to the 12 volt car charger setting)
* I powered everything on and watched it work
I wish this unit came with the 12 volt 30 amp adapter - it's a $20 accessory. It seems like that could be included, IMHO. But just know that if you are going to do a setup like this, don't forget to order the adapter.
I also wish that you could charge via 12 volt cigarette lighter and solar at the same time. While you *can* charge from the 120 volt power supply and the solar at the same time, the solar and the cigarette lighter use the same port. It's one or the other.
I don't love the 10 Amp cigarette lighter. I was hoping to use that to power my 12 volt air compressor to air up my camper's tires and my air bags, but it draws just under 20 amps, so that's a no-go. I also don't love all of the proprietary plugs. It means that you have get all of your accessories through them. So you can't just run to an automotive store and get a plug if you neglect to order the 12 volt 30 amp adapter. You have to order it and wait for it to arrive.
Lastly, the power supply as a fan that runs continually. If it weren't for that, I would have been tempted to connect the power supply to the shore power so that when I plug in at a campground, it would charge automatically from the campground's connection. But having that fan running constantly means that I need to manually plug it in if I want to charge, and unplug it when I am done. Not a deal breaker, but also not great.
I did test even my high wattage 12 volt devices like my furnace and the motors for my slide-outs and the lift jack. A little electrical math: amps * volts = watts. So the 12 volt, 30 amp outlet can power up to 400 watts. I never saw my usage rise above 200 watts, so (at least for MY camper) this outlet is enough to power my camper. That was one of my biggest worries, since I really didn't know how much draw some of my 12 volt accessories would require. All of my lights are LED, so that does help. A few high-draw lights can rack up the watts pretty fast.
I do love that I don't need any heavy lead acid batteries anymore. I love that I can easily unplug this from my camper and take it home with me and use it as a backup power for my home in case I need it. I discovered that my camper's built-in 12 volt battery charger / power supply were horrifically inefficient. With a pair of fully charged batteries, and running nothing more than the camper's furnace, the camper ate through 2,000 watt hours in one night. It should only have used about 270 watt hours - meaning it wasted about 1,730 watt hours through its inefficiency. So I love that this system is FAR more efficient. It's also really cool that I can plug 4 USB A devices as well as a USB C device and charge my phones via 2 induction pads. The 100 watt USB C is especially nice, since I can plug my MacBook Pro into that and leave my power supply at home. You can also plug in 2 additional batteries at up to 3,000 watt hours each, for a possible total of 8,000 watt hours. That's a ton of battery.
I used to use a famous AGM battery for my camper. At 660 watt hours and weighing 43.5 lbs, it would take 3 of those batteries and 130 lbs to equal the capacity of this unit. And lead acid batteries shouldn't be depleted past 50% if you want them to last. They also don't have as many charging cycles in them. To duplicate this setup, I would have to purchase 3 of those batteries, an mppt charge controller, and a 2,000 watt pure sine inverter to duplicate this setup. Even then, it would be missing some features.
Please note that you need to pay attention to the load (wattage) of what you are plugging into your camper. This device has 2,000+ watt hours and can power up to 2,000 watts at one time. If you have a device (like a microwave) that draws 1,200 watts, that means it will draw 1,200 watt hours in one hour. Let's use another example: My furnace draws between 60 and 75 watts. If you divide 2,000 by 67.5 (the median between 60 & 75) you get 29.63 - which is how many hours this device will run the furnace continually before the battery is completely dead. Of course, you don't want to run your battery dead, so you need to do some math and figure out how much solar (or additional batteries) you need so that you can stay ahead of the game. The Bluetti will help you by telling you how much it is drawing so that you can get an idea of how much electricity various devices are using. (If you turn them on one at a time, this is a good way to figure out what each device draws.) But I'll say right up front that you shouldn't plan to run high wattage devices like air conditioners on this unit. Even with the maximum solar, you won't be able to stay ahead of the game. My refrigerator and water heater are also dual power, so I make sure to turn them both to propane before I unplug from shore power. But if you are looking to do some off grid camping and if you are looking to be frugal with your usage, this is a great unit to keep your camper running and maybe even use your microwave to heat up your coffee in the morning”