Remotely monitor Victron Energy equipment all over the world. Victron … Contact online >>
Remotely monitor Victron Energy equipment all over the world. Victron
Jason Svarc is an accredited solar and battery specialist who has been designing and installing solar and battery systems for over a decade. He is also a qualified engineer and taught the off-grid solar design course at Swinburne University (Tafe). Having designed and commissioned hundreds of solar systems for households and businesses, he has gained vast experience and knowledge of what is required to build quality, reliable, high-performance solar power systems.
Victron Energy’s power management components are unmatched in terms of compactness, customization, interconnectivity, monitoring, and efficiency. Nearly all of Victron’s components are designed for mobile use, making them a great fit for overlanders, van campers/dwellers, RV owners, boaters, and other explorers.
The Victron Energy power system in this vehicle consists of several components that work together in a smart network, allowing the vehicle owner to power all their needs effortlessly without having to worry about where the energy is coming from or going to.
The Smart BMS CL 12/100 safely regulates alternator charging, allowing users to limit both current and voltage provided to the Smart Lithium Battery. The BMS also protects the battery by disconnecting all loads and chargers if any issues occur. The Smart Solar MPPT 100/20 efficiently charges any battery type and is easily programmable via Bluetooth. Users can pick from easy presets for common battery types in the Victron Connect app, or create a 100% customized charging profile.
Specific product being featured on build & MSRP:
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Like many, we were excited about these “future of electrical system” kits. We bought a 5kWh kit and, initially, we were quite smitten indeed. What a beauty! A few months later the honeymoon period ended. Alas, after much testing and, trying to kindle the love, our cupid never showed.
In this post, we’ll do our best to compare an EcoFlow Power Kit (specifically the 5kWh “Independence” Power Kit) to a “traditional” system using high-quality, value-priced 12-volt lithium batteries and a bunch of top-quality Victron Energy components and explain why we’re sticking with the Blue Power.
But, You’re Biased!Yeah, that’s a bit true, but not exactly what you think. It’s worth pointing out that selling EcoFlow products is very profitable (notice how many ads there are for these things). In fact, we’d actually earn more money selling you an EcoFlow kit vs. the Victron bundles we discuss in this post. We did sell the Power Kits for a few months but decided to stop selling them recently after considering the limitations. We take our pledge to only sell the very best, road-tested products – the stuff we’d use in our vans very seriously. What follows are the reasons we wouldn’t use an EcoFlow kit in our vans – even if we were DIY’ers who were not experienced with electrical systems.
The EcoFlow products are beautifully designed and generally work well if you don’t need advanced features. By far, the biggest advantage of an EcoFlow Power Kit over a professionally installed Victron system is how simple it is for a non-experienced DIY’er to install and configure the system. This benefit does not disappoint and we were duly impressed. Here’s a photo album of us unboxing and hooking everything up. Overall, it’s actually a great system and ideal in certain situations. If the limitations we present in this post are not relevant to you, then EcoFlow is a great option.
However, as you’ll see later in this post, at today’s prices, you can get everything you need for a comparable (arguably better) Victron system for about $1,900 less than the EcoFlow kit which is about the cost of having an experienced professional installer wire up your Victron system. That is what we’d recommend to most people so that you’re not subject to the limitations we detail in this post and you can have true confidence in your system – both that it will work well and that it will be maintainable and upgradable for the life of your rig. We even have a directory of installers you can browse and, if you’re in our area (Florida) we have some trusted installers we can recommend if you reach out.
If you’re not familiar with EcoFlow Power Kits, the most popular of them is a 5kWh “Independence” version. It comes with:
Speaking of math, if you’re engineering-minded and want to dive into all the numbers, we’ve made a comparison sheet between the systems we’re discussing in this post in this Google Sheet.
Customer Service/Tech SupportIt’s no secret that EcoFlow has less than stellar customer and technical support. Some people describe it as “the worst” or “non-existent”. To be fair, others have had great luck. However, we put a lot of time and effort into having the very best customer service in the industry (don’t take it from us, read our customer reviews) and when the manufacturer doesn’t pull their weight in this regard it can reflect poorly on us. We don’t want to rely on “luck”. So, this was part of our decision to stop selling their products.
The EcoFlow Power Kits have plenty of 120-volt AC power to run a more traditional rooftop unit but if you look closely at the specifications of those they typically use about twice as much power as a 12-volt DC air conditioners. So, if you want to stay cool off-grid, you’d likely need to pay for extra batteries which are, as we’ve already noted, very expensive. The workaround is to use a 48-volt air conditioner with the EcoFlow that connects directly to the 48-volt battery “bus” but you’ll still have to fight with the proprietary connectors on the EcoFlow Power Hub/battery.
No Secondary Alternator for YouWe are big fans of getting the most out of your vehicle engine. Since you’re driving around anyway, why not get massive power from a dedicated secondary alternator or heat your water while you cruise down the road? With a Victron system, you can integrate secondary alternator charging into your system with ease and no limitations. EcoFlow Power Kits have an integrated DC-DC charger similar to the Victron Orion XS units. The input labeled for “alternator” is rated for up to 60 amps and allows for up to 1600 watts. In our example Victron system we show 2x Orion XS DC-DC chargers running in parallel for a maximum charge of 100 amps (1,320 watts).
Importantly, if you price out our Victron-based secondary alternator power system bundle, at today’s pricing, it’s about $2,800 more than the internal BMS bundle we’re using for the price comparison in this post. This is primarily due to the premium Victron batteries and the accompanying external BMS (Lynx Smart BMS) PLUS the actual Nations alternator kit and Wakespeed regulator.
There are other, even more technical issues such as what kind of charge profile would you configure on a Wakespeed regulator for something that is actually a DC-DC charger input and not a battery? Would it have to behave as if it’s in “bulk” phase always so that there is never a current drop?
Here again, the Victron system that seems complicated on the surface is, in reality, a lot easier and massively more reliable in this context. We’ve done the work to figure it all out and published it on our blog. We’ve also installed many of these systems and have high confidence in them. As far as cost, our Victron/Nations/Wakespeed secondary alternator bundle with a lot more battery storage (8,712 kWh vs 5,120) and all the benefits of a proper secondary alternator system is “only” about $1,000 more expensive.
Keeping in mind, that we’re not comparing apples to apples. Well, maybe we’re comparing different kinds of apples? Anyway, fruit aside, we tried to come up with a comparable system using high-quality, value-priced batteries like these 280Ah SOK batteries and a bunch of Victron Energy equipment. The best way to do this is through one of our many best price bundles where we can offer you the very best pricing and help you gather up compatible components. And, unlike buying from Amazon or elsewhere, we are here to help you through your installation journey. Trust us, many people learn the hard way that Alexa isn’t very helpful when it comes to electrical system troubleshooting.
1) Start with a Best Price Bundle for Primary ComponentsSo, we started with our “internal BMS bundle” which simply means that the batteries have a Battery Management System (BMS) integrated into each battery (internal). In some cases, externalizing the BMS which is then shared by ALL the batteries in your system makes sense. For instance, a secondary alternator system where the charging rates are massive.
Here’s a video of how we configured it:
By the way, we have free example wiring diagrams that pair up with all our best price bundles to help guide you, or a professional installer. We refer to them as example wiring diagrams quite intentionally. There are so many ways to accomplish the same thing, safely and effectively that there is no single way to approach a power system. However, they are a great, totally free, starting point. This is the example wiring diagram (with 2x batteries instead of 3x as shown in the example diagram) we’ll be using for our pricing comparison.
About Victron power management system
As the photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to evolve, advancements in Victron power management system have become critical to optimizing the utilization of renewable energy sources. From innovative battery technologies to intelligent energy management systems, these solutions are transforming the way we store and distribute solar-generated electricity.
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