Class B Full lithium No Generator?

[10thtp]

Is there solar on the roof?

Yes 220W

 

[SaltyVetAdventures]

Yes 220W

With 630ah and 220w solar...you should be fine with everything except the A/C. Not sure on how that will work out.

630ah x 12v = 7560 watt hours. Look at all of your appliances and add up the watts. CPAP with a heated hose and humidifier can use a bit of power. 12v refer won't use much at all once it is cooled down to operating temp. 12v A/C can use about 900 watts per hour! So what you want to do is totally possible but the AC will be the big factor.

 

[CJ Laub]

We’re getting a new Coachmen Beyond 22c li3 full lithium power no generator next week to 10 days. We would like to take an extended trip as soon as we get it. Would like to hear from any you who have a coach with the lithium power no generator. How well is it working. What are the pros & cons? Is there anything I should be aware of. I have owned several class A’s DP & gas, going to 22’ B to get away from the handling of a big rig & toad. Just physically can’t do it anymore. Wife & I want to make another crisscross of US before hanging up tha keys. All related input appreciated.
Terry

Hi Terry,
I'm reading this a year later and considering a purchase of similarly equipped Class B. How have you been faring with that system?

 

[Scotttkd2]

Ditto on the AC usage, what I have read on other forums is the salespitch for using AC on batteries is far from the real world reality. You would need many times the amp hours to be able to run the AC for any decent length of time without killing all of your capacity to run everything else. Just my 2 cents as they say.

 

[TheLooks]

The original poster did not say how many 630 ah battery(s) he had. Still not good info to make a decision based on that post. I saw systems with multiple 670ah batteries. Would not work with only a couple hundred watt panels. Looks like burning fossil fuel is the best way to keep them charged.

 

[Camerabry]

When we were looking to buy I just couldn’t pull the trigger on lithium pkg yet. No one could tell me I could run the AC and in Florida that’s a must. Hopefully by my next rv it will be there and won’t have to worry about dealing with it in the middle of the night.

 

[TheLooks]

I participated in a $30,000 dollar install at school and it would run the AC. But that is a high price for it.

 

[Rich W.]

The big question is the 12v AC - if it really only uses 900w thats great, you can figure your run time by dividing that into 80% of your battery bank capacity. But one thing to consider is the BTU output of the unit. A 900w AC is probably around 4k btu which might not be sufficient in hot weather, even for the small space of a Class B.

The other thing of course is the battery bank size. My SWAG on the run time for the OP’s 630ah battery bank is around 7 hours with nothing else running. If you are camping in the South, and you stopped at your CG with no hookups around 4pm, you’ll be waking up hot and sweaty before mid-night with no power. Not a good scenario. Also that 220w solar panel is really only a small trickle charger - probably 10amps at best. It wont come close to recharging the battery bank in a day of full sun, which of course will make the coach an oven.

I’d say we are getting closer to systems that can effectively live off lithium batteries, but they are currently way over-priced (IMHO) and not yet sufficient. I’d travel with a small (~2000w) quiet generator as a back-up or plan to have hook-ups. @Camerabry, why they couldn’t answer the question.

 

[Rich W.]

I participated in a $30,000 dollar install at school and it would run the AC. But that is a high price for it.

I built a system with 2/3 of a Nissan Leaf battery (gen 2) and 1890w of solar, and it would run a 15k btu AC for about 8 hours after sundown. Around midnight in Memphis in September, so not even sufficient. That system cost me around $8,000 but that was before people discovered used Leaf batteries (from wrecks) and now they are really hard to come by.

Building a system that will run an AC through the night doing everything myself and finding a deal on the battery would now probably cost nearly double that, and with solar, you have to park in the sun which kind of defeats the purpose. Without solar, I could see it running towards that $30k mark.

The good news is that Leaf batteries are now in gen 4 and the capacity is more than double the gen 1 (I think around 60kwh). So if you can find a deal on a good used gen 3 battery (lowish milage car from a northern climate) and you have the skills, you can build a very capable system, but it isnt plug-and-play like LiFePO4, and you need a 3kw inverter for one AC. You can see how it adds up fast.

This is my battery from my install in my Bay Star. I’ve since repurposed it to run my 48v Polaris EV:

 

[TheLooks]

This one had $14,000 in batteries and the rest was Victron dual inverters and all the bells and whistles plus I think just under 3000 watts of panels on the roof. But I am to old to recover the cost of that.