This post is going to deviate a little bit from my typically long-winded format and present a list of observations and measurements so far. In short, I’m very pleased: The charger charges at a constant rate until it reaches the upper voltage shutoff After shutting off the charger, voltage drops by less than 0.2V (in…
Category: Projects and How-Tos
This series will share our latest projects and give some insight on how you can perform your own maintenance and upgrades to your rig.
Charging a 48V Volt Battery Section
Now’s where it starts to get interesting. We’ve got a bunch of 48V batteries that need charged. We’re sitting at 43.8V, after who knows how long between the donor Volt’s death plus 2 and a half months of storage. Do we really have a good battery? I’m going to save the details of how we’re…
Taking Apart a Volt Battery
Ok, I know we’ve put a lot of text up with very few pictures. This is where we start actually doing stuff and seeing what we’ve got. This particular battery was purchased from a large recycler near Dallas, Texas, back in October. I was in the area ahead of my first triathlon, and thought that…
Why a Volt?
If you’ve been following along, you’ve seen why we want to make use of a 48V battery pack. Now the question is a matter of where or how to get and/or build one. There are three pretty obvious choices here: Buy prismatic lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, connecting 16 cells in series. This would be…
Why does a 48-volt battery bank make sense?
Before deciding to use a Chevy Volt as a battery source, the plan was already going to make the switch to 48 volts. We’ve talked about why the RV industry settled in on 12-volt house systems; now we’re going to look at what might be better. What are some of the considerations when looking at…
A few words on Wire Sizing and Voltage Drop Calculations
Wire sizing guides leave out a part of the calculation important for figuring out the right size wire to use, particularly when dealing with low-voltage circuits where voltage drop can be a significant fraction of the total. Standard practice is to use Ohm’s Law to calculate the current needed by a device, and look up…
How did 12-volt battery systems become the norm?
Perhaps the most significant change in this project is the use of a 48-volt battery bank. There are a number of reasons for this, and we’re going to discuss them before looking at a new configuration. Here though, we’re going to start with why we have what we have: an electrical system designed around 6…
New Project: Installation of a New Lithium-Ion House Battery Bank
Here goes nothing! After a lot of planning, and several revisions, it’s happening. I’ve started the process of replacing an aged house battery bank and inverter/charger with a new system based around lithium battery technology. This isn’t going to be a simple remove-and-replace project though. While there are a number of commercial offerings already available…
HOWTO: Coleman-Mach/RVP Blower and Condenser Fan Motor Replacement
Diagnosing a blower motor problem and sourcing the replacement motor have been discussed in part 1. If you need to replace your blower motor, and have the part on hand, here’s how to do it. Start to finish, depending on how many times you go up and down the ladder, should take less than an…
Coleman-Mach/RVP Blower and Condenser Fan Motor Replacement
In 9 years of full-timing, having owned a total of 4 Coleman-Mach or RVP air conditioners (two on my current RV, two on the old one), I’ve replaced three blower motors, but never the same one twice. The failure mechanism on all three was the same–the bearings (or bushings most likely) would fail causing the…