Question LiFePO4 questions

[Jonf254]

No, I'm not going fulltiming right now but someday I need to de-hoard and going fulltiming even if for a short period of time may help me make that transition. Right now I can't imagine how I'd get rid of everything I've accumulated in this house over the past 20 years. It is nice keeping the house if only for storage and also an asset but that comes with the responsibility of maintaining it and avoiding any HOA threats for it being unoccupied which thankfully hasn't happened to date even with being out 7 months. I don't know if there are even rules about that but guessing there are.

For those that made the jump to fulltiming, what did you do and how did you do it? Did you put your stuff in storage? All or some? Did you have some type of sale to let people come in and take what they want? How do you handle this and any regrets?

Hi Neal, wife n I full time all summer, I’m retired and she has 3-4 years left to finish up a 25 year teaching career.I have been downsizing for the last 2 years, we have a yard sale every April and what’s left is dropped off at a local auction.
We have already learned full time RVing is 1.not cheap, 2.Allot of work 3. Can at times be very frustrating especially with rig issues and service while on the road.We will never be full timers.
I was curious about your 1800 watts of solar, is that enough to charge your batteries to 100% SOC on a clear sunny day? How many lifo4 do you have and what are the voltages and Watts.
Were running 2 Lifo4 24 volt 230ah with 5885 watts each in parallel, 800 watts of solar on the roof of our tow vehicle.When boon docking we struggle to fully charge the battery’s from 1%SOC.

 

[Neal]

I have 4 x Victron 330ah batteries, dual Victron inverters, etc. Your power setup is specific to your coach, electrical demands, and how you intend to use your RV. Space available, budget, etc. all come into play. So what someone else has really has no effect on what someone else may need. Some here are going with the single Epoch option which I believe is 460 ah. Keep in mind with LiFePO4's you can effective run them down to 10% before the BMS cuts them off but I don't think anyone would take them that low.

You mention 1% SOC I just saw...I assume you have a BMS which should be preventing it from going that low, either internally in the battery or like mine uses an external Victron BMS. I think 10% is the do not go below, but it's probably 10.0V that is the more specific scenario.

 

[Jonf254]

I have 4 x Victron 330ah batteries, dual Victron inverters, etc. Your power setup is specific to your coach, electrical demands, and how you intend to use your RV. Space available, budget, etc. all come into play. So what someone else has really has no effect on what someone else may need. Some here are going with the single Epoch option which I believe is 460 ah. Keep in mind with LiFePO4's you can effective run them down to 10% before the BMS cuts them off but I don't think anyone would take them that low.

You mention 1% SOC I just saw...I assume you have a BMS which should be preventing it from going that low, either internally in the battery or like mine uses an external Victron BMS. I think 10% is the do not go below, but it's probably 10.0V that is the more specific scenario.

Yes both batteries have the BMS built into the batteries and I have my SOC monitors programmed to 1% before the BMS shuts down.
Our power plant is in the Van “ our tow vehicle “ and we plug a 120v 30amp line into the van from the RV.This allows me to use the vans power plant at home when we returned and the RV is put away for the winter.
We struggle cooling the RV back down after a long hot travel day, we can run both roof tops to catch up and cool down then switch to 1 to maintain, however that uses about 70% leaving us 30% to get threw the night, which so far has worked, but we start the next day at nearly 0%.
Not sure where the money would be best spent, more batteries,more solar,or another furrion Ice Cube roof top,or and additional Dc to Dc charger from the van 300 amp upgraded alternator.

 

[Neal]

I moved this thread out of the fulltiming area to the electrical/battery area.

I don't know if a generator would solve your issue regarding running A/C's - solar may not be the answer or upsizing LiFePO4's as if it's cloudy or raining, you're out of luck.

I suggest doing some research about the low end SOC setting. While I don't know your setup and I'm not the expert, 1% does not seem like a good option and you may damage your batteries.