Skip to main content
Power Management

Lithium batteries and a Victron power management system installed in a new Bürstner Motorhome

By February 9, 2022No Comments
We were requested to design a system to supply an uninterrupted 240v supply to allow the client to run his business while touring Europe in his Motorhome.
The grid assist will also temporarily turn off the battery charger if the hook-up power is required for other functions, this allows the charger to be much bigger than the standard 20 amp charger fitted at manufacture. The battery charger included in the 2KVA Victron Multiplus is 80 amps so it is capable of charging the batteries very quickly.
The Victron Colour control also gives you accurate information on the following:
  • Battery level
  • Battery voltage
  • Grid input from the site hook-up
  • AC loads
  • PV yield
  • Charging current
  • Discharge current
  • Multiplus function
Most the information displayed on the colour is supplied by the Victron BMV battery shunt, this is installed in the negative circuit and displays all charge and discharge currents to and from the battery.
 
The Victron Multiplus also has a built-in mains priority switch, if the hook-up supply is lost it will start inverting so quickly it will not be noticeable.
We also upgraded the split charge from the engine alternator, the standard split charge installed by the motorhome manufacturer does not exploit the available power from the alternator. Most Motorhomes are fitted with at least a 130 amp alternator, the vehicle only requires about 30 amps to operate so we can use the additional 100 amps to charge the leisure batteries. This means that the Dometic Freshjet 2200 installed on the roof can be used while the vehicle is in motion.
To supply additional charging, we installed 540 watts of solar on the roof, this was achieved by using 3 x 180 watt panels connected in series to a 50 amp Victron MPPT charge controller.
Arguably the most important part of a power management system is the batteries. Our preferred battery is still the Transporter Energy Lithium battery, we now have numinous systems in the field using Transporter Energy Lithium batteries and we have been very impressed with the performance. There are very few batteries that are independently tested by Intertek and hold a 10 year warranty.

Leave a Reply