Thanks Chad. Nice job on your build. This too was my first build. I went camping with a buddy who has a single 3000VA Multiplus with three 206AH SOK batteries. His RV is about the same size as mine. We both had to instruct the wives to be careful to not use too many devices because of the limited available power. I decided after that weekend that I wanted to light up both sides of the breaker panel in my RV. That's what pushed me to build my own batteries and to go with the dual Multiplus units and the autotransformer. I built four 304AH batteries for the same $$ that he spent on three 206AH SOK batteries.

I built my system in my garage and did a bunch of testing before I buttoned it all up and installed it in the pass-through. For a load test I opened the door on the RV and then fired up both AC units. I set the thermostats as low as possible so the units would run at max draw. I had calibrated the shunt to the battery SOC so I was interested to see how closely they tracked as the test ran. When the Smartshunt showed the RV had pulled 610 AH the first battery BMS shut down, followed in rapid succession by another, effectively ending the test run. It took just over six hours of running the AC units like that to deplete the batteries. I was very happy with that result. With normal usage battery capacity is not an issue for us. Not having to choose what devices to use makes things simpler too.

If I were to do it again I would look very hard at using a Sol-Ark 5K AIO. That would greatly simplify wiring, lower the device count, etc. However, I am in love with the Victron software so it would be a real tough decision. I possibly would go to a Quattro 8000 and run the input and output through their big Autotransformers but that injects another layer of complexity because of the whole 30A & 50A variable input thing we have here in the USA. I sure wish we would have followed the rest of the planet and just made everything 240VAC. Sure would be easier.

 

My setup is pretty basic—just a couple of 100W panels and a small battery bank. Works great for keeping things powered on longer trips, but I learned the hard way that having backup batteries for smaller devices is just as important. I ended up using an LR626 battery equivalent for some of my smaller electronics that don’t pull as much power, and it's saved me more than once when I couldn't rely on the solar.

 

post up some pics! I’d love to see it.

I installed a 12v power point for charging cellphones and running a 12v fan.

 

I've got 8x 100w 16BB Renogy panels and 400AH of battery. They're wired in 4s2p I believe is how you refer to it.