Power Station Plugged into your RV AC Outlet

[Rich W.]

Finally got through to the THOR Motor Coach support electrician. He sent the attached electrical diagrams for my 2021 Thor Compass. A better picture to assist us. He also stated no issue plugging the power station into the wall outlet or shore power cable, but need to make sure the power station is capable of delivering 30amps. Also, there is a battery disconnect switch which allows the batteries not to be charged by shore power and only charged by the two solar panels.

Plugged into shore power yes; into a wall outlet no. Your wall outlets are on 15amp circuits with 14ga wire so putting a bigger load on that type of circuit would be a mistake, and probably (hopefully) just trip the breaker anyway, regardless of what the guy at Thor said. I am not certain as I‘ve never tried to over-power a breaker by feeding excessive power backwards through it (might be a good experiment on someone else's panel) but it just sounds all wrong.

When I have back-fed a panel for a hillbilly generator hook-up, I’ve at least gone straight to the panel with an appropriately sized circuit (home run with the right size wire and outlet) and made sure no one else touched it. Can’t say I’ve never done the double male thing, but it is asking for trouble and with an RV (to me) its just not worth the risk. Seems pretty irresponsible for a tech at Thor to advocate this.

 

[Thor Compass]

I havent read this whole thread yet, but my son just picked up a good used Mercedes (made by Tesla) battery for $3400. New it was 35.75 kwh. Currently hovering around 35.24, so over 98%. It‘s also liquid cooled, accounting for its longevity, and the configuration is usable just the way it is, and a cooling system can easily be fabricated and added to help maintain its useful live. Nissan Leaf batteries used to be the standard, but this thing is a significant improvement over them. I dont know what the 2kwh Li-ion power station mentioned above costs, but this thing is the best $/kwh I’ve ever seen - by far!

Also (on topic) I fully agree with others here that back-feeding a power source into an RV would be a mistake that could lead to some very serious consequences (do you have a 30amp outlet on the coach to back-feed it into?) and even wired correctly, it wouldn‘t be worth doing for 2Kwh.

Rich W.,

Thanks, for reinforcing not to back-feed, as Rich Patty recommended, also. I'll stick with using the 30amp shore power circuit. Since, I'd like to keep the power station protected from the environment. I need to find the simplest way to install a 30amp receptacle on the inside of my RV house and plug it into the power station. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[Rich W.]

Rich W.,

Thanks, for reinforcing not to back-feed, as Rich Patty recommended, also. I'll stick with using the 30amp shore power circuit. Since, I'd like to keep the power station protected from the environment. I need to find the simplest way to install a 30amp receptacle on the inside of my RV house and plug it into the power station. Any ideas? Thank you.

I’ve done a lot or this kind of work but without seeing it and being involved I really can’t make any reccomendations other than find someone with experience in this area who wont rob you. Pic is 2/3 of a Nissan Leaf batrery in my Bay Star that fed an inverter wired directly to my transfer switch. It would run an air conditioner for around 7 hours after the sun went down and solar stopped contributing, I had a similar arrangement in an older Thor Class C (with 1875w of solar) but had to add a transfer switch to the system.

 

[Thor Compass]

Rich W.,

I’ve done a lot or this kind of work but without seeing it and being involved I really can’t make any reccomendations other than find someone with experience in this area who wont rob you. Pic is 2/3 of a Nissan Leaf batrery in my Bay Star that fed an inverter wired directly to my transfer switch. It would run an air conditioner for around 7 hours after the sun went down and solar stopped contributing, I had a similar arrangement in an older Thor Class C (with 1875w of solar) but had to add a transfer switch to the system.View attachment 12835

Rich W.,

That's a nice setup with a 7-hour Airconditioner runtime. That would not fit in my 23ft Thor Compass. The battery storage is under my entry stairway. Only two 12v 60ah batteries (total - (120ah) will fit. Therefore, the power station will be small enough to put on the floor of the house. Just need to somehow get a shore power plug receptical installed in the house. This would only power your AC unit for 4-hours if you are pulling 500w/hr. Your battery setup is probably providing around 4000Wh. Thank you.

Specifications​

• PRODUCT WEIGHT: 38 LBS
• PRODUCT HEIGHT: 10.5 IN
• PRODUCT LENGTH: 15 IN
• PRODUCT WIDTH: 9 IN

 

[Richpatty]

Yea…wiring the power station from inside is out of my area of expertise as well. I still think the best way is to put it in a basement somewhere and run the shore cable over to it. You maybe need to have some way for it to breath as there may be some heat generated….need to look at the power station specs.

Rich

 

[Thor Compass]

Yea…wiring the power station from inside is out of my area of expertise as well. I still think the best way is to put it in a basement somewhere and run the shore cable over to it. You maybe need to have some way for it to breath as there may be some heat generated….need to look at the power station specs.

Rich

Richpatty,

Noted. I'll find a space somewhere that has ventilation and easy access. Maybe under my bench seats for the dinning table, that is part of slideout. Thank you.