Upgrade Your RV with MASSIVE Power | EcoFlow Power Kit

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for watching! Please Like the video (if you did). Next on my RV to do this is to track down a short circuit that’s been draining my engine batteries. What’s a project you have next on your list?

[@androidmx1831]

My next project: Clean my repair desk... Great video by the way!

[@FrugalRepair]

@@androidmx1831 Nice! Me too. Thanks!

[@justin_time]

Would the amp-hound tool help you in any way to find the short circuit? It was featured on the KZbin channel "Car Wizard" in the video titled "Smoking up the Shop! CAR WIZARD shows 3 essential advanced diagnostic tools he can't live with out!" starting at 13:08. It is made for finding battery drains, not exactly short circuits, but they can be related so maybe it could help?

[@FrugalRepair]

@@justin_time thanks, I don’t know of that product so I’ll have to check it out!

[@bohemenper1636]

I will get one and steal electricity from public buildings

[@SuperSushidog]

That's sweet. It looks like that closet space was made specifically for those batteries. Real clean install. I just found your channel and subscribed. I just faced a similar space challenge with my batteries. I too have an older motorhome with the batteries located under the entrance step. Our motorhome came from the factory with 2 CG-2 FLA golf cart batteries in this space. We're FTers who boondock most of the time, so wanted the largest capacity battery we could fit in this same small space. If we went with 2 pre-made batteries like Battleborn, Lion Energy, etc. only 2, 100ah batteries would fit there. So in January we custom built a 560ah (7.1Kwh) LiFePo-4 battery, made with 8, 280ah prismatic cells. We actually made 2, 6v batteries so we could wire them the same. Think of it like 5 1/2, 100ah Battleborn batteries. We used a Heltec 350amp BMS, to start the onboard 5,500watt generator in our motorhome, along with a 5a active balancer to keep the cells synched up. We built our 12v battery with grade "A" LiFePo-4 prismatic cells having a 6,000 cycle manufacturer projected life at 100% DOD. This means that if we cycled them 100% every single day, 365 days a year, they would last over 16 years! So they're obviously going to wear out from age before they wear out from cycling. It only cost us $1,500 to build this 560ah battery, including the high amp BMS. Thet fit under our steps perfectly, have 5 times the capacity of our old lead acid batteries and were even 35lbs lighter too. We insulated the battery compartment, cut a 1" hole in our step risers and installed a tiny computer CPU fan to keep this space at close to room temperature, so we don't have to worry about the BMS shutting down charging from getting too cold - or their life reduced from getting too hot. We started our build 4 years ago with a 620-watt liftable array mounted on the side of our motorhome. It serves as a nice bedroom window awning too. It practically lifts itself to the desired angle with a couple gas struts and it's easy to clean with a windshield squeegee, standing safely on the ground. Lifting an array to the correct angle for latitude and month, produces 25-30% more power than a flat mounted array - even more in winter when the sun is low on the horizon. We typically use about 15% of our battery's capacity each day, running a desktop computer and a 55 " UHD TV most days till midnight. We've found they charge much faster than our old lead acid batteries did and are typically full before 1:00. Our complete system, including the liftable array, wiring, breakers, a new Progressive Dynamics 80a Li compatible converter/charger, a 600w PSW inverter (to run our TV and PC), an Epever 50a MPPT charge controller for our solar panels, a Lnex battery monitor/shunt, and a Renogy battery to battery charger (to protect the alternator) only cost us around $3,600 as we did all the design and installation work ourselves. We have our MHs onboard 5,500w generator for backup and to run our AC units and microwave, but it doesn't start and shut off on its own like your sweet system. Last Spring our 23 yr old, 13.5k Btu Dometic AC died so we replaced it with a new 14.5k Btu Furrion easy start AC which cools our entire 36ft motorhome just fine. Since I installed it, we never had to run our rear AC even once. Furrion now makes a 15k Btu model that's even more efficient, drawing the same current as our 14.5k Btu model.

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for watching, subscribing, and the info! I was recently reminded about how nicely those two batteries fit when I had to pull them out to wire in a solar array before I put them back.

[@Cookefan59]

Good lord! You’re amazing. I take my hat off to you for both production and your ingenuity as well as your knowledge base of what’s available. I had no idea this kind of stuff was out there!

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks and thanks for watching!

[@josephsowell490]

That LCD diplay looks pretty awesome. It would be cool to have something like that in the RV.

[@FrugalRepair]

Yes, it’s very nice!

[@DieDae]

Loving the RV updates. Keep em coming please.

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks!

[@justin_time]

A "soft start" system might be able to help with the dual A/C start-up issue. The folks on the channel "Gone with the Wynns" covered that topic a few years ago when they built a similar setup to yours. Thanks for sharing! Love the solar tech!

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for watching ! I was thinking about the soft start but wanted to see if 60amps was enough. I’m pretty sure that if one AC is using 10amps while running then it gives a little less than 50 amps to start the second one. I don’t know why the transfer switch was having an issue. Do you have any solar panels?

[@troy3456789]

Those soft start devices really help

[@justin_time]

@@FrugalRepair True true. The numbers seem to add up, so I don't know what could be causing the issue either unless there are other devices in addition to the AC that are somehow drawing a huge amount of amps - seems unlikely. I hope you were able to find a solution though! I do have one solar panel that I use to trickle charge my car battery. It's a Deltran Solar Battery Tender ~35 Watt. My car often sits for a week to two weeks at a time and I was constantly worried about the battery being dead but it took away all of my woes, even in the winter. I love it. Rarely can a product bring me that much genuine relief. My car always fires off with no issues now no matter how many days it sits. That is a much different and much smaller application from yours. My knowledge about bigger systems comes solely from watching KZbinrs like yourself install systems for larger projects, like the Wynns and their yacht.

[@robertmyrick7016]

This is definitely the best upgrade for my RV. I can really use those 5kWh LFP batteries.

[@FrugalRepair]

They are pretty sweet. What kind of RV do you have?

[@michaelhatcher2317]

I think the best thing about the Power KIt is that it is fully customizable. I can place every component wherever I want.

[@dontpanic8525]

What I like best about this Power Kit is that it is using a 48v system which has thinner wires and a bit more safer compared to the 12v system.

[@FrugalRepair]

Yep! Less amps (and unwanted heat) for same amount of power.

[@SuperSushidog]

@@FrugalRepair 48v is the way to go if you want to run your high current devices like AC. This winter, we will be installing a 48v battery bank ourselves in addition to our 12v system. We will use 16, 310ah prismatic cells (15.9Kwh.) So together with our 560ah (7.1 Kwh)12v bank, we will have a total of 23Kwh of batteries onboard. This is why we mounted our solar array on the side of our MH, to leave the roof free to rack 8, 460W bifacial solar panels down the length of our 35ft Class A. The front side of these is rated at 460 watts with up to 25% additional wattage output from reflected light on the back side, for a total of up to 575 watts, depending on how they are mounted. We will be racking ours about 13" off the roof to clear our front AC shroud and vents. This clearance should conservatively produce another 10% output off the back of these bifacial panels, from sunlight reflected off our white roof - more during off-peak hours and in the winter. It will give us some nice shade too, reducing the heat load on our air conditioners. Our MH is only 11' 9", so we will be able to keep the RV height to about 12". Rather than buying individual components, we will be using a Sungold Power all-in-one 48V, 5,000W, 120V PSW Inverter, 80a MPPT charge controller with a 40a A/C battery charger. The reason we chose this all-in-one is because the idle power consumption is only 25 watts - and it's only $800. We will be replacing our old rear 13.5k btu rooftop AC with a super high-efficiency 12k Btu 48v DC mini-split heat pump that only draws 750 watts at peak output and less than 500 watts when it's cooling normally. This second phase will cost about $10k, including the heat pump, as we plan on doing all the work ourselves. Our 2nd phase will provide 24/7 off-grid air conditioning and supplemental heat from the heat pump and allow occasional usage of our front rooftop AC to cool things down for peak afternoon demand, as well as give us whole house 120v ac power. This will give us total off-grid electrical independence, allowing us to keep our generator in reserve for emergency use only.

[@thepatternforms859]

@@SuperSushidogwhat AC model Are you looking at using? I’m not aware of any 48V mini split units that efficient

[@johnkaprese36]

Still waiting for the alternator charging video. Would it be possible to connect any 3rd party battery to the alternator charging port to charge the power kit batteries from 3rd party batteries? I think it should be possible…?

[@FrugalRepair]

Are you wanting me to review it? I'm not currently planning to review one but I supposed if there is enough interest I could.

[@thepatternforms859]

@@FrugalRepairmainly just let us know here on this comment if it’s possible or not

[@mr89fox]

What about the function of the alternator and generator to charge your batteries? Did you attempt to wire those units together?

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for asking. I have used both and they work. I just drove a 2,000 mile trip and used the alternator on and off. I likely need to come up with a better wiring setup for the alternator cable but it works. One thing I need to think about more is that when I turn the engine off that I need to turn of the alternator input otherwise it draws from the engine batteries.

[@thepatternforms859]

@@FrugalRepairthe alternator charger from EcoFlow is a smart unit and when the engine is off it is not pulling power

[@michaelgarcia8271]

Great video. This looks like a great system to upgrade to but you may want to point out the cost. Based on their website the gear they gave you cost as much as my TOAD. This is not an inexpensive upgrade.

[@gerbearunit]

More RV Reno videos please!!!!

[@craigosterberg5045]

Thanks

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for taking the time to watch!

[@aBc-123-XyZ]

Awesome job and thanks for sharing 😎✌️

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for watching!

[@aBc-123-XyZ]

@@FrugalRepair 😎👍

[@steveciarico9824]

Good job!!

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for watching!

[@euphoriarealtygroup]

can you just use two delta pro for what you are doing?

[@0525ohhwell]

You know what.. The built in Onan genset on my old class A is pretty well shot. I wonder if I could just take it out and put a system like this in it's place. Edit, just saw the price, Yikes! Might see about making my own system....

[@FrugalRepair]

Especially If you’re generator is gas/diesel then that’s a good thought. Is it possible to rebuild your generator engine?

[@0525ohhwell]

@@FrugalRepair Yeah, I just didn't want to mess with that if possible because the previous owner did some odd stuff like replacing a safety control board with a toggle switch... The main issue is I know the carb needs rebuilt, it's spewing gas out of the bowl now so sounds like the needle is gummed up. I can't get into that tiny space to even disassemble it. I was going to try to drop it but my floor jack doesn't go high enough. I just got fed up and gave up for now. It's a gas Onan 5500 Emerald if I remember right.

[@gushardy4421]

hello. can i bypass all the electronic functions of my instant pot and just turn into a powering on by just plugging it?

[@DanielBoone1294]

How would this compare to using just a pair of Ecoflow Delta Pro's?

[@Kanelbullah]

How about making a Geothermal Heating and Cooling system?

[@FrugalRepair]

For an RV? I’ve thought about one for my house.

[@bolt2638]

Seems like those LFP batteries are stackable which means it would take less space.

[@FrugalRepair]

Yes, they actually stack really well. And when stacked the battery cable for each battery stays behind the stack (and doesn’t get in the way) so it looks nice too.

[@jimpatrick264]

For 10k did you buy it or did they sponsor ?

[@barryholiday8998]

Is it accurate that 10kwh equals around 208 amp hours since it’s a 48v system?

[@FrugalRepair]

Yes

[@barryholiday8998]

@@FrugalRepair could you do a video showing how this system compares to a traditional setup with individual components?

[@unguidedone]

what he did not mention in the video is the power station he has on that dolly is worth 10k usd ya thats just a minor detail i guess 😉

[@williamzoom]

I would ditch the roof top ac units and install a mini split. More efficient and better cooling & heating.

[@bkbroiler6609]

Would that stand up to the bumps of the road?

[@FrugalRepair]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep that in mind.

[@williamzoom]

@@bkbroiler6609 They have been installed in semi trucks, bus and RV's and hold up just fine!

[@bkbroiler6609]

@@williamzoom Then that would be a great idea. Or at least upgrade the 92 AC units. Those gotta be hella inefficient.

[@wedrivetheworld]

Hi I noticed you had one of your batteries on its side I emailed ecoflow about this as I wanted to do the same they strongly advised against it you may want to drop them a line

[@ezquimal]

Second life battery in Spain have 10kwh from electric cars for sale. Whatch there videos on KZbin

[@troy3456789]

That is an interesting idea, actually. Makes me wonder if they could be installed on the bottom of the RV, improving its low center of gravity and not taking up as much space in bins. Yes, they'd have to be heated and cooled though, so that would be another task altogether.

[@armoredsaint6639]

Well if they would give me the money back for the Eco flow Delta pro 2 and extra battery that I bought to power my RV that turns out it won't power my RV because of a Problem with the compatibility with transfer switches Regarding a negative ground issue yeah I would be happy to buy one but since I paid $6000 for 1 that wont-work maybe I won't

[@FrugalRepair]

Did you contact customer support?

[@supremeautomotive6749]

Turn off the RV battery charger

[@FrugalRepair]

What do you mean?

[@sflscott11]

Until they improve outputs to permit the use of a 12v a/c unit, this system is a hard NO.

[@FrugalRepair]

What are you wanting to see change? A higher amperage on the 12v output?

[@Lolerstomp]

"Frugal Repair".....first video I see is this guy using $10k worth of solar...

[@SolarPowerMyRV]

Junk