FAQ

kwh is the standard unit of electricity. If you look at your electric bill, your utility company charges your electricity by how much kwh you used in a month.

Here is a list of estimates for electricity usage in a van:

• Fridge: 0.5~1 kwh per day (depending on environment temperature)
• Inverter: 1 kwh per day
• Microwave: 0.17 kwh per 10 minutes
• Induction cooktop: 0.67 kwh per 20 minutes
• Water heater: during the summer, it takes about 0.25 kwh to heat the tank in water heater, then it can retain heat for at least 8 hours, then it will use about 0.1 kwh to reheat it to keep the temperature. During the winter, the water heater power usage could be doubled.
• Ceiling lights: 0.2 kwh per 8 hours
• Roof fans: 0.06 kwh per hour (running both fans at high)
• A/C: 0.6 kwh per hour

Yes, you can. The inverter uses 1 kwh/day, so turning it off will make a difference on power consumption. However, if your fridge uses 120V AC, then it will lose power when the inverter is turned off. The inverter switch is on the right side of the inverter. Open the inverter compartment, you won’t be able to see the right side of the inverter, just use hand to find it and turn it on or off.

If the van is plugged to shore power, it will raise 2 bars per hour on the battery monitor. If the battery monitor shows 1 bar or no bar left, then it could take over 5 hours to charge to full.

Alternator charges the battery at the same speed as shore power. If your van was built before 2022, alternator charges 50% slower.

If you have 800W solar panels on the roof, it can charge up to 5 kwh during a sunny summer day, and up to 1.5 kwh in a sunny winter day. Therefore, solar is enough to power everything during sunny summer days, but it is not enough during the winter.

Your battery has a discharge protector so it will not be drained to empty under normal condition. When the battery monitor shows 0%, the discharge protector automatically disconnects the load. You will see that the 110V system disconnects first. The 12V system can last a few more hours after 110V is gone.

Once there is no power, you will need to charge the battery to the “jump start” voltage to restart the system. The 12V system needs 20.5V to start up. The 110V system needs 22.5V to start up. This means that you will have to plug in to shore power or run the engine for a couple of hours. We suggest that you keep an eye on the battery monitor, charge the battery when it is low, and avoid activating the discharge protector to cut your power.

The battery could be drained to completely empty under some unusual condition. For example, you put the van to storage but forgot to disconnect the battery breaker, then the battery monitor and discharge protector would still drain the battery to empty eventually. In this case, please see the section “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BATTERY IS BELOW 18V”.

The battery working voltage is 20V to 25V. If the battery is below 18V, that means the battery is drained to empty. This situation is very unusual. For example, you put the van to storage without disconnecting the battery breaker. The inverter is still running and will eventually drain the battery to empty. Once the battery is empty, you won’t be able to charge it with the camper’s charger. You will have to use a small external charger to charge it to 18V first, then the camper’s electric system will take over and charge the battery to full. There are many inexpensive lithium battery chargers on Amazon. For example, search for “24V Lithium Battery Charger” on Amazon and you will see a lot of inexpensive 24V chargers. Connect the alligator clamps directly to the battery terminals as shown in this picture . Charging the battery to 18V should take just a couple of hours. You can leave the shore power connected while charging by external charger. Once the battery is above 18V, the camper’s charger will start to work, and then you can remove the external charger.

Sometimes the battery monitor may show wrong percentage number. When the battery is full, the voltage is 25V. If you notice that the percentage number is much lower than 100% when the voltage is close to 25V, then the percentage number is wrong. This could happen when the electric system has been on for a long time. The percentage number could slowly drift. It could also happen when there is a transient disconnection in the battery monitor cable connector due to bumpy roads. To fix this issue, first charge the battery to close to 25V, then reset the percentage number on the battery monitor: press the % button, then press it again and hold it for 3 seconds, then the percentage will be reset to 100%.

It is normal to see the battery “not charging” from the monitor, while the solar panels are actually charging, especially during the winter. The battery monitor only shows “charging” when there is net inflows of electricity to the battery. If the solar charging is slower than the discharging from other devices, then the battery monitor will not show charging.

First you need to know whether the breaker trips or the inverter shuts off. If you can recover the AC power by resetting the AC breaker, then it is not the inverter shutoff. Inverter automatically shuts off when it is overloaded or when the voltage is below 20V. When the load is over 2500W and the AC breaker has not tripped, then the inverter will shut off. If your battery is low and you run a high power appliance, the battery voltage may dip to below 20V, then the inverter will shut off automatically.

If your inverter is not running (no 110V AC power), you can reset battery breaker to restart it. If this is not working, then it indicates that the battery is below 22V. The inverter needs a jump start when the battery voltage is below 22V. To jump start, just plug in to shore power or start the engine, make sure the charging switch is at the correct position. Once the inverter is started, you can disconnect the shore power or stop the engine. The inverter will continue to run until the voltage is below 20V. However, when there is heavy load, the battery voltage will dip. If it dipped to below 20V, the inverter would shut off automatically, then you would have to jump start the inverter again.

When there is strong sunlight or shore power is plugged in or engine is running, even you press the yellow button to disconnect the battery, the solar/shore-power/alternator is still providing power to the van. To completely shut off the electric system, press the yellow button to disconnect battery, press the red button to disconnect solar, and leave the charging switch at neutral (middle position).

If you are not using the van for over a month, shut off all electric switches and breakers, and set the charging switch to neutral;

If you are not using the van for over a week, disconnect the battery (press the yellow button);

If you are not using the van for over a day, shut off pump, heater, fans, all high power appliances.

Special guidelines need to be followed during the winter

If you have not run the dump pump for over a month, it may dry out and become harder for self-priming. If the dump pump runs and you can hear the noise, but it does not dump water, you can try the following steps before contacting our tech support. 1)Run faucet to fill the gray water tank to full. This makes it easier for dump pump self-priming. 2)connect an extension hose to the outside dump outlet. 3)Raise the other end of the extension hose above the ground for at least 3 feet, then add water into it. Add enough water so that the dump pump is wet again. 4)Run the dump pump. If it still does not work, contact our tech support to get a replacement pump.