I have my AC200P hooked up directly to my rv by the shore power cable. I shut off my house battery converter / charger and let them run all the lights and fans. I use LP gas to run the fridge, stove, furnace and water heater. That leaves the bluetti to power the microwave, laptops, phones, blow dryers, vacuum cleaner and tv. I currently use 3 120 watt portable bluetti panels with 30’ extension cables. I can go 4 days easily without charging and on a clear sunny day I can recharge in about 5 hrs.
7 Likes
I’m glad to hear this. I’m new at rv’ing and of course a new Bluetti AC200P owner. I haven’t used the Bluetti yet, but will soon. So you turn off the house battery and connect the rv to a 15 Amp receptacle on the power station? I have the three panels of solar you mentioned. something else not clear to me is, what does the 25 Amp DC output on the power station do, how do I use it, and what do I need as far as connectors or adapters to use it? If you can help me with these questions I really appreciate the replay. Thanks.
Scott Benson is the go to guy on this site for answers. The 25 amp DC output is for campers that have a DC fuse box or DC appliances.
1 Like
As far as turning off the converter/charger to the house batteries. I only do that so the Bluetti isn’t constantly charging them. I still use the house batteries for lights and fans. When they need a charge I just flip the breaker to the converter/charger back on until they are topped off.
3 Likes
I bought a 12 gauge extension cord and plugged that into one of the 15 amp receptacles. Then plugged the other end to a 15 amp to 30 amp adapter that connects to my 30 amp shore power.
2 Likes
Where do keep the AC200P, and if inside, how do you get the solar charging cable into the RV for charging the AC200P?
Thanks
We leave it in the back bedroom of the coach. I drilled a hole under the right sofa which leads to a compartment and then drilled another hole that leads to another compartment where my shore power cables are stored. I plug my Bluetti into the shore power cable using a 15 amp adapter. I have access through the compartment doors that I also use for a solar extension cable that leads to the panels.
2 Likes
I would be interesting to see how well the AC200 would function using it just like you would shore power wise. Not turning off anything in the RV and let it charge the house batteries as well. If the house batteries began as fully charged, it shouldn’t be too high a converter load in the RV. Then…see if the solar will keep up with this set up running everything.
I will try that experiment and let you know. We are currently experiencing a lot of rain. When the weather clears I will give it a try. I have seen the AC200 charge my batteries once when I left my converter on by accident and no panels plugged in. It dropped from about 70% to around 40% if I recall. I walked into the rig and heard the converter fan. Took me a few seconds to realize what was happening.
I have a similar use case. But i would also like to use the 120V to leave the Fridge running while traveling vs using propane, then switch to propane. Do you think you can do 4-5 drive plus have enough power left for one night of boondocking (similar use as you listed) before having to recharge? I am thinking of the new AC200Max and connecting the 30A thru a transfer switch inside the RV so i can just plug in indoors as necessary. Thanks for sharing!
@Eli welcome to the forum!
It’s hard to give you and solid answer without knowing the wattage/load draws from the items you’ll be running. What I would do, is take a “kill-a-watt” meter and plug your entire camper thru it, and run your loads like you normally would. This will give you a pretty good foundation to go off of & will show you what you’re going to “need”.
@m.briney The new Bluetti AC200Max coming out will have 2200Wh using lithium so aprox 80% usable energy. I did a couple of test on the RV that may help out with the calculations. I did a simulated boondocking 1 hr test with 4 led lights, Maxair fan, awning led lights, converter and of course TV on and Fridge on 120v for a total of 433 W used. When i switched to Fridge on propane the it went down to 117 W. Here are some specifics, converter 27W, TV 34W, LED light 6W/ea, Maxair 23W, ph charger 8W, Microwave 1100W, router 3W, CPAP 45W.
So with all this data, my need for travel days would be to run fridge on AC for 4-5 hours max, or for one night boondocking to avoid plugging in gas generator. Can you explain why this unit would not meet these use cases? We are not full timers so battleborn, inverters, wiring and other cost though ideal would not be cost efficient. Ideally some portable panels in the future.
So what do you think? Thx
I finally tried leaving my converter / charger for the house battery’s on during a pretty sunny day with 3 120W panels charging my AC200. The house batteries are 2 6V deep cycle lead acid’s in series. They were low and ready to be charged. The AC200 charged them in a few hours but the solar panels couldn’t keep up with the draw. It went from 90% down to 30%. It wasn’t the clearest of days. I was getting just under 200 watts and about 4.5 V input. I have since purchased another 120W panel giving me 480W total. Overall I think I will stick to my plan of keeping the converter / charger off until needed.
1 Like
@Fig yea I have found since even upgrading my camper batteries to 2-12v vmax agm batteries, that my “stock” converter (pd9130) doesn’t quite keep up the charge where I want them either. My unit has what they call a “charge wizard” that’s plugged in to “regulate” the charging voltage into the different cycles, but always settles them back to a 12.6 float… and with my vmax agm’s… they are suppose to stay at float at 13.5-13.8v. So needless to say, I’m keeping my converter off unless I absolutely need some shore power charge.
I may change my converter and battery type when it comes time for new batteries but for now I can live with my set up.
1 Like
I appreciate your info!
I would like to access the shore power backside of the inlet to wire in a 30 amp cord with a male plug. This would enable plugging into my adapter/‘bone’ for a cord that could plug into my Bluetti ac200p, all inside my RV. I’m not sure of the best way to get to this in my 20rdse ( Cherokee Grey Wolf ). Anyone familiar with the 20rdse?
I’m not familiar with that exact rv @Ettiblu but there’s tons of YouTube videos that can help you out for sure. I installed one on my scamp camper and it wasn’t hard at all. One recommendation would be to keep it as close as possible to your existing setup, so that your runs are minimized as best as possible.
Thanks for your input! I will most likely have to access area behind breaker/fuse panel, but was curious if there was another option with the 20rdse RV model. I’ll wait awhile to see if anyone else with this model has any experience accessing the aforementioned area. Meanwhile, I will check YouTube as well. Thanks again!
@Ettiblu I just stumbled across this video where the guy has ran his so-gen hooked up in a pretty creative and simple way. So he’s able to utilize his on-board setup and his so-gen capabilities together with ease. Skip to about 4 mins to see where he starts talking about it.
That’s Ray, from Love Your RV. He has a lot of excellent solar and electronic videos.
1 Like