Anthem lithium ion

[philnail]

Originally Posted by relay700

Phil, I am guessing with this size system, you also have at least some of your air conditioners wired so that they could run off battery. Is this true? If so, could you provide some insight on how you have this configured and some details on run time etc???



My wife and I also boon dock a lot and recently purchased a 2022 Entegra Anthem and this thing is horrific for boon docking :( We have some work to do to set this up for boon docking.....

We also HATE the sound of the generator and would prefer to go as long as we can without it.

It can handle running 2 AC units but I have not set that up yet. When we get back to Quartzsite, Az Oct 1st that will be the first thing I do. It will be very easy to setup.

Above the drivers seat are the breaker boxes. The left breaker box which is the shore power side has 2 inverter breakers. I have mine off as the only breakers left on that side are the AC units, electric burner and fireplace. We don’t use the fireplace or the electric burner so those are turned off. By leaving those 2 breakers off it will be very easy to setup power on the AC units to run off the solar.

I am purchasing a 5,000 watt pure sign inverter, most likely it will be a victron but I haven’t fully decided yet. That inverter will have a 50 amp receptacle on it that I will plug my 50 amp power cord into. That will trick the system in thinking we are plugged into shore power.

You will also need to have soft starts installed on each AC unit which will help with the startup amp draw. I chose east start by micro-air as we have their thermostat and it is very high quality.

That’s it. When you need AC simply turn them on. Just make sure you have plenty of house batteries and if you are going to add solar you would be all set.

If you have any questions PM me

[bevandtomH]

The only thing more impressive is Phil’s BBQ set up.

[philnail]

Originally Posted by bevandtomH

The only thing more impressive is Phil’s BBQ set up.

Thanks. That is the best part of the coach.

[Denie]

Originally Posted by philnail

Hi Gary

1: the system is mounted on the passenger side of the coach using 4 x4x1/4” steel angle that is coated. Then I also have several feet going from the frame on the passenger side from the frame to the roof.

The Actuators are mounted to a 12x12x1/4 inch plate with approximately 12 stainless steel screws holding them down to the roof. When the actuators are in the down position there is enough downward force to hold the array firmly to the roof on the drivers side. I have them adjusted so that when the lower the array to the roof that once the feet touch the roof the actuators continue to lower to add pressure so it won’t budge.

2: Because of the downward pressure on the frame the legs hold firmly even when going down the road at highway speeds. We have had a couple days here in southern Utah with 60 mph wind gusts. No issue at all.

3: Each panel is securely mounted to the frame in four places using (4) 1/4x 1 stainless steel bolts. The system is rattle free.

Someone had asked earlier if the AC units get enough air since the array is about 1 1/2” above the AC units. If it were 100 degrees outside and I needed to run the air I can simply raise the array about 6 inches.

So...when we get our CS, what do you charge for this installed!

[JohnV1964]

Hi Phil,
I was asking some questions about running an AC from the inverter and was pointed in your direction by brobox, another senior member. You mention that you will need to "trick" the system to think you're running from shore power with the 50amp plug. Do you know what in the system is blocking you from just running the AC from the inverter directly (assuming you moved the wiring to the correct panel)?

I moved my rear AC wiring over to the Inverter panel so I can run the AC for a few hours when needed while boondocking without the generator. There is something in the controls 'system' that is preventing me from running the AC compressor. I can run the AC fans in low/high, but no compressor. UNLESS: When I have the coach plugged into shore power and the 50amp 2-pole feeder breaker in the coach is OPEN (off) it works just fine. But if I try that without being plugged into shore power, it won't work. It seems like it's not a straight line power feed from the shore power plug to the ATS, to the 50 amp feeder breaker. Somewhere between, the 'system' knows if I'm plugged in or not.

I'd love to know why the "trick" is needed.

Thanks,
John

[Grower15]

Originally Posted by JohnV1964

Hi Phil,
I was asking some questions about running an AC from the inverter and was pointed in your direction by brobox, another senior member. You mention that you will need to "trick" the system to think you're running from shore power with the 50amp plug. Do you know what in the system is blocking you from just running the AC from the inverter directly (assuming you moved the wiring to the correct panel)?

I moved my rear AC wiring over to the Inverter panel so I can run the AC for a few hours when needed while boondocking without the generator. There is something in the controls 'system' that is preventing me from running the AC compressor. I can run the AC fans in low/high, but no compressor. UNLESS: When I have the coach plugged into shore power and the 50amp 2-pole feeder breaker in the coach is OPEN (off) it works just fine. But if I try that without being plugged into shore power, it won't work. It seems like it's not a straight line power feed from the shore power plug to the ATS, to the 50 amp feeder breaker. Somewhere between, the 'system' knows if I'm plugged in or not.

I'd love to know why the "trick" is needed.

Thanks,
John

Have you considered installing a Softstart on the AC you want to run from the inverter.? Assuming you have enough house battery amp hrs. This will keep the AC electrical demand from spiking. With a Softstart you can run 2 ACs (both w a Softstart) on 30 amps. One Softstart should run on the inverter. Not sure if this is a solution. Perhaps one of the electrical gurus can chime in. Just a thought.

[philnail]

Originally Posted by JohnV1964

Hi Phil,
I was asking some questions about running an AC from the inverter and was pointed in your direction by brobox, another senior member. You mention that you will need to "trick" the system to think you're running from shore power with the 50amp plug. Do you know what in the system is blocking you from just running the AC from the inverter directly (assuming you moved the wiring to the correct panel)?

I moved my rear AC wiring over to the Inverter panel so I can run the AC for a few hours when needed while boondocking without the generator. There is something in the controls 'system' that is preventing me from running the AC compressor. I can run the AC fans in low/high, but no compressor. UNLESS: When I have the coach plugged into shore power and the 50amp 2-pole feeder breaker in the coach is OPEN (off) it works just fine. But if I try that without being plugged into shore power, it won't work. It seems like it's not a straight line power feed from the shore power plug to the ATS, to the 50 amp feeder breaker. Somewhere between, the 'system' knows if I'm plugged in or not.

I'd love to know why the "trick" is needed.

Thanks,
John

I am not sure what year coach you have but ours is a Classic 2013 Anthem. Since we don’t have the Vega touch and all the extra electronics it is easy. On this coach the only breakers that are still on the 50 amp side that is not inverted are all 3 ac units, fireplace and the electric heater. Since we don’t use the fireplace or electric heater.

So when we plug the 50 am cord into a plug that comes from the 5,000 watt inverter it will work fine. Everything will continue to runoff the solar and our magnum inverters and the AC units will run off the 5000 watt inverter.

On each side of the breaker box are 2 breakers, one for each inverter. The breaker box on the right is everything that is being inverted. The breaker box on the left is everything not being inverted. The 2 magnum breakers on the left side breaker box are turned off. Since they are turned off power from the magnum inverters won’t run anything in that panel. It will only run when the power cord is plugged in so by adding a third inverter (5000 watts) just for that panel it will work just fine. I am sure I would be able to run all three but in reality we will only run 2. All 3 AC units will have micro-air soft starts

[JohnV1964]

Originally Posted by philnail

I am not sure what year coach you have but ours is a Classic 2013 Anthem. Since we don’t have the Vega touch and all the extra electronics it is easy. On this coach the only breakers that are still on the 50 amp side that is not inverted are all 3 ac units, fireplace and the electric heater. Since we don’t use the fireplace or electric heater.

So when we plug the 50 am cord into a plug that comes from the 5,000 watt inverter it will work fine. Everything will continue to runoff the solar and our magnum inverters and the AC units will run off the 5000 watt inverter.

On each side of the breaker box are 2 breakers, one for each inverter. The breaker box on the right is everything that is being inverted. The breaker box on the left is everything not being inverted. The 2 magnum breakers on the left side breaker box are turned off. Since they are turned off power from the magnum inverters won’t run anything in that panel. It will only run when the power cord is plugged in so by adding a third inverter (5000 watts) just for that panel it will work just fine. I am sure I would be able to run all three but in reality we will only run 2. All 3 AC units will have micro-air soft starts

Thanks for the reply. It's a 2021 Embark. I figured out the "trick" after looking into the VegaTouch a bit more. I didn't consider that it was the EMS also. Once I realized that there was an input that indicated" On Shore Power" I did the same thing you did. I added a 120vac out from the inverter and have it plugged into the dog bone for the 50amp shore power plug. As long as the inverter feeder breakers remain open, it stays on inverter and lets me run my AC unit. I've got nowhere near as much juice that you do, but it's enough to get me 4-5 hours of run time if needed. I really just like having that option to not run the generator.

[JohnV1964]

Originally Posted by Grower15

Have you considered installing a Softstart on the AC you want to run from the inverter.? Assuming you have enough house battery amp hrs. This will keep the AC electrical demand from spiking. With a Softstart you can run 2 ACs (both w a Softstart) on 30 amps. One Softstart should run on the inverter. Not sure if this is a solution. Perhaps one of the electrical gurus can chime in. Just a thought.

Thanks, I did install a Softstart on the rear AC unit. I did have to figure out a way to "trick" the VegaTouch EMS to thinking I was on ShorePower when I am only on inverter power. All is good!.

[philnail]

Fantastic. Enjoy the nice cool quiet times 🤣🤣🤣

[philnail]

Originally Posted by JohnV1964

Thanks, I did install a Softstart on the rear AC unit. I did have to figure out a way to "trick" the VegaTouch EMS to thinking I was on ShorePower when I am only on inverter power. All is good!.

Fantastic 🤣🤣🤣