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The panel is a Canadian Solar 300watt mono-Si PERC. The van is a Sprinter 170. The batteries are Victron Smart LiFePO4 200 Amp Hour Lithium Iron Phosphate. The Inverter is a Victron Multiplus

The Victron Energy Autotransformer is the one item we sell that causes the most confusion. Read about how it gets used in a US 120/240 volt system here

Camper van and RV electrical systems comprise charging from the engine, shore power and solar panels. From these sources we can charge batteries or power AC and DC systems directly allowing for extended time off grid and away from shore power.

As many of you know, on November 10, 2018, a fire broke out at the Blue Sea Systems Bellingham, WA facility resulting in a total loss of the building including the production area, office space, product, assembly fixtures and test equipment. Since then, a lot of work has been done to aid in the recovery plan. Read an update of the progress that has been made.

Galvanic isolators are a bit difficult to test.  Current ABYC standards require that galvanic isolators be self testing.  For testing older isolators without this feature there are a number of methods that can be used, the one that follows is one that I found most useful.

Arguably, there is no more worthwhile electrical project you can undertake on your boat to improve comfort and convenience than the installation of a high power alternator.  Having a high power alternator will provide you with a substantial improvement in the availability of electrical power on board. 

Amp hour meters do a great job at assisting the boat owner with battery management.  They provide an accurate reading of voltage and of amps going in and out of the batteries and by keeping track of these readings over time they can provide a reading of "amp hours" or the state of charge of the battery as a percentage.  They also often maintain a record of historical data and can use that to figure out battery efficiency.

For most people to answer to this is "as big as possible".  Charlie Wing's book the "Boatowners Illustrated handbook of Wiring"  has a very good explanation of how to calculate the capacity you need. The calculations start by working out what your daily load will be both at anchor and while underway.

There may be some disadvantages to hooking up batteries in parallel but there are also considerable advantages. The main disadvantage as I see it is that as the batteries get old one will fail first, quite often by getting a shorted cell.

Victron Energy offers a suite of equipment for use with their own brand of Lithium Ion batteries. Can that same equipment be used with other brands of batteries? See here what works and what doesnt.......

This Blog post explains why you might want to update the Firmware in your MultiPlus or Quattro and how to go about it

A new Victron forum has been launched – it’s called Victron Community. You can use it for your questions, as well as for helping other people.

This key might be helpful to identify the output terminals on your alternator

This is a collection of photos of an extreme RV that caught our eye

Victron recently released firmware update v1.37 for their SmartSolar Chargers. This fix is especially important for all 150V and 250V SmartSolar Charger models. The BlueSolar Charger range is not affected. The new v1.37 firmware fixes a problem that can, in certain cases, cause the device to fail.

The latest version of the Victron Connect App has a firmware update for Victron Smart Lithium Ion batteries that allows you to set their low temperature "allow to charge" parameters.

The terms Watts and VA are often used interchangeably when referring to inverter specifications, but are they the same?

The Victron Venus GX or Color Control GX will be able to provide a seamless plug and play integration with many models of Raymarine, Garmin and Navico MFD's starting in 2019

Many of our industrial customers would like to be able to set up data logging on their battery systems. With the Victron BMV battery monitor and the Victron BMV Reader software this is an easy project......

he standards that apply to wiring your boat in the US are the ABYC standards and the Code of Federal Regulations Title 33 CFR Sections 183.401 - 183.460 The ABYC standards are voluntary and the CFR standards are mandatory. The ABYC standards incorporate the CFR standards so a boat built to the ABYC Standards should automatically meet the CFR standards. This article is a brief introduction to the subject

Neat wiring is hard to achieve but it makes everything about the project go better. Take a look at these project photos if you need a bit of inspiration.

There are various ways to program the Victron MultiPlus inverter charger, this article details using the dipswitches to do basic programming