• Scott Szabo
    0
    Hi - I'm a long time forum reader and have HUGE appreciation to Ray for all he does.

    I don't have great writing skills, so I tend to just observe and gobble up all the info I can.

    With my first RV trip coming up, I hope I can get some opinions on a question regarding RV electrical power.

    Last Fall I purchased a solar generator to power my RV trailer, and it worked wonderful. (thanks Ray for all of your reviews!)

    If I understand correctly how the RV electrical system works, the RV converter/charger pulls power from any AC power input (shore or generator) to charge, even trickle charge my LiFePO4 batteries (Lion UT 1300), which I don't need or want since I want to conserve as much generator power. I only boondock camp.

    My logic says to turn off the breaker switch to the Charger/Converter, but I thought the charger is necessary to convert any 120V to 12V for the RV lights, fans, fridge flame, slide out motor, etc.

    Questions:
    Would I want to add a Battery Power Cut Master Switch to the battery setup, and utilize that to disconnect the RV cable to the first battery so the charger wouldn't use power trying to charge the batteries when connected to the solar generator?

    Thanks in advance for any replies!

    My converter/charger is an Iota DLS 55A Power Converter/Battery Charger w/ a IQ4 LIFEPO Smart Charge Controller attached, I also have a Victron Energy BMV-712 Smart Battery Monitor set up to the batteries (in parallel).
    .
    With gratitude, -Scott

  • RayAccepted Answer
    1.3k
    Hi Scott, when off-grid, the Lion UT 1300 batteries will power the RV lights, fans, fridge flame, slide-out motor, etc. just fine as long as they aren't too low in charge. So best to have a way to cut off AC input power to the charger converter to control when you want to use it or not. In my rig, there is a dedicated breaker for the converter AC input, so it makes it easy.
    If you don't have a breaker, you could always install something like a light switch on the AC input line to the converter.
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