- Joined
- Jul 27, 2019
- Messages
- 12,418
- Location
- Midlothian, VA
- RV Year
- 2017
- RV Make
- Newmar
- RV Model
- Ventana 4037
- RV Length
- 40' 10"
- Chassis
- Freightliner XCR
- Engine
- Cummins 400 HP
- TOW/TOAD
- 2017 Chevy Colorado
- Fulltimer
- No
I used two temperature monitoring systems, a Tempstick both in house and wet bay but also my solar setup by Victron has a temp sensor in the battery compartment and also the wet bay. I have alarm rules setup in the web portal for Victron, a free service, to alarm me on various rules but one is wet bay temperature.
Last night around 8:30 PM I get an email that the wet bay has gone below my threshold of 37F. We had high winds and expected power outages. I logged in to VRM and sure enough power was out but is now back on and then it went out again. SOC was down to 94% and it appeared the power had been out for several hours already. The storage lot is about 20-30 minutes from me and I really didn't want to have to drive up. I have OASIS AC I/II on but not diesel burner so I need a 120V source (shore or gen power). I figured I can trigger the GEN to come on my using my Wi-Fi thermostat from Micro-air to turn the heat pump on for zone 2 and that should trigger the GEN if AGS is setup correctly. My concern though was the outside air temp was now 15F and the dometic logic is to auto switch to furnace below a set temp, on mine that was tested to be around 32F. So yeah, I couldn't get the GEN to come on so off I go heading to the storage lot.
I arrived and yeah, no power, and turned on the diesel burner. I reviewed my AGS settings and had two mistakes: 1) I didn't have EXT INPUT enabled as I only use that in the summer to trigger GEN when air conditioning is needed and shore power is lost. Bad idea, it could have helped me here, so it's enabled. 2) Quiet hours still set from 10 PM to 8 AM. No need for quiet hours in storage and that would have been 10 hours of no heat which surely would have reached below freezing temps. Granted, things aren't going to flash freeze, it takes time, but it wasn't what I wanted. I raised my lower SOC setpoint for GEN to come on from what I normally use and left. It worked, temps came back up to around 52F in the wet bay and AGS did its thing.
I have also revised my alarm rules so I can get an earlier warning of when power is lost and not wait for a temp alarm to notify me.
Sometimes a little tech is nice. Even when your coach is in storage you may need to know.
Last night around 8:30 PM I get an email that the wet bay has gone below my threshold of 37F. We had high winds and expected power outages. I logged in to VRM and sure enough power was out but is now back on and then it went out again. SOC was down to 94% and it appeared the power had been out for several hours already. The storage lot is about 20-30 minutes from me and I really didn't want to have to drive up. I have OASIS AC I/II on but not diesel burner so I need a 120V source (shore or gen power). I figured I can trigger the GEN to come on my using my Wi-Fi thermostat from Micro-air to turn the heat pump on for zone 2 and that should trigger the GEN if AGS is setup correctly. My concern though was the outside air temp was now 15F and the dometic logic is to auto switch to furnace below a set temp, on mine that was tested to be around 32F. So yeah, I couldn't get the GEN to come on so off I go heading to the storage lot.
I arrived and yeah, no power, and turned on the diesel burner. I reviewed my AGS settings and had two mistakes: 1) I didn't have EXT INPUT enabled as I only use that in the summer to trigger GEN when air conditioning is needed and shore power is lost. Bad idea, it could have helped me here, so it's enabled. 2) Quiet hours still set from 10 PM to 8 AM. No need for quiet hours in storage and that would have been 10 hours of no heat which surely would have reached below freezing temps. Granted, things aren't going to flash freeze, it takes time, but it wasn't what I wanted. I raised my lower SOC setpoint for GEN to come on from what I normally use and left. It worked, temps came back up to around 52F in the wet bay and AGS did its thing.
I have also revised my alarm rules so I can get an earlier warning of when power is lost and not wait for a temp alarm to notify me.
Sometimes a little tech is nice. Even when your coach is in storage you may need to know.
