RV TIPS & TRICKS - Manage Your Electricity

[ExcelRVGuy]

RV Battery Voltage Monitor Helps Extend RV Battery Life

A lot of modern RVs are equipped with an RV battery voltage monitor. However, most older and many new RVs are not.
If your RV is one that doesn?t have an RV battery voltage monitor, you can add a simple volt meter that plugs into a 12v power socket for less that $10. These little volt meters don?t have all the bells and whistle features of the fancy installed monitors but, frankly, voltage tells you pretty much what you need to know about your batteries.
When plugged into power your RV?s converter works to keep your batteries charged. During charging you should expect so see around 14.3 volts. Once the batteries are charged the converter will reduce the voltage to around 13 volts.

When relying on your batteries for power it is important not to let the voltage drop below 12 volts.
Monitoring your RV battery?s state of charge is an important part of RV battery care & use maintenance. if you want to extend your RV battery life as long as possible, it is important to keep them fully charged whenever possible and recharge them as soon as possible when they have been discharged.
[moderator edit]

[okcnewbie]

Other than the engine itself the batteries (chassis/house) could be the second most important part of the MH.

Monitoring the voltage is certainly important and could be used exclusively.

With all we have invested in our MH's I would certainly suggest everyone have a proper battery monitor/shunt. With the proper system it's easy to keep an eye on every system that uses the batteries.

Example; Are my alternator, converter, solar..etc. working?