The 3 “Off Grid” packages were designed for the customer who wants to use their camper Off grid and minimize the need for outside power sources (being plugged in, running the truck or running the generator).

The primary components in the off grid packages are.

1.  High quality 360 amp hour (The Cube) rebuildable lithium Ion Batteries with individual internal (BMS) control boards. (Qty 1,2 or 3 depending on the package) 

2.  High quality 200 watt solar panels (Qty 3 or 4 depending on the package) with a digital monitoring system 

3. High Quality 2000 or 3000 watt (depending on the package) inverter, charger, transfer relay switch with programmable digital control panel
4. Real time battery monitoring system that combines input and output of power consumption to let you know battery conditions and available power, charge times or discharge times at current rate of draw or charge.
5. Heavy duty 2 ot or 4 ot cabling (depending on the package) designed for safe operating of the system and to minimize heat

The advantages of an Off Grid Package

1. An Off Grid package  is really about power storage and how you can use that power reserve. On an off grid package we invert 12DC volt to 110 V AC so you have the ability to run appliances like your microwave, toaster, coffee pot, hair dryer etc….without having to run a generator or be plugged into shore power.  You can even run the Air conditioner for varying lengths of time depending on which package you have.

2.  With a lithium battery you get much more usable power than you do with a wet battery. Wet batteries when charging ..they rapid charge to approximately 80% and then trickle charge the last 20%…..so they may be totally charged when you first leave your home but by the end of the first day, you are most likely below 80 % and really never get above that because you are most likely using the power faster than it will trickle charge in. And on the other end.. when wet batteries get to approximately 50% you have so much voltage drop, items like the refrigerator start shutting down because they are looking for a minimum of 10.5 volts to operate safely. So you are really only running on approximately 30% of your batteries… Lithium batteries on the other hand, you can rapid charge them to 100% and can deplete them down to 10% before you have any significant voltage drop….. and at that point…. the battery’s internal control board shuts itself down to protect itself. So you really are running on 90% of the battery’s capacity. See attached sheet for more advantages of the lithium Batteries. 

3. The inverter/charger/transfer relay we use also has some great features. We do a custom charging program to maximize charging capacity and minimize charge time This inverter will also subsidise power if it senses the generator does not have enough power to handle the power demand.

4. Generator….. let’s call it like it is…. there is only one small onboard generator made for the RV industry (Onan ) and it is fairly noisy and consumes a fair amount of propane under load. So most customers who purchase the “Off Grid systems choose not to purchase the onboard generator because they don’t really need it to handle the 110 volt demands and most will carry along a Honda portable generator (a 2000 W or 2200 W) for back up. The Honda’s are very quiet and run approximately 8 hours on ¾ of a gallon of gas and much cheaper than the Onan. Approximately $1199.00 for the Honda vs. $5,700.00 for the installed Onan. 

5. Solar panels….. People often ask “what can I run with my solar panels?” and the answer is “nothing”. You run things off your batteries and the solar panels are simply a way to charge your batteries. And the more solar panels you have… the more charging capacity you have. 

6. Why the 3 packages…. It is about power reserve more available power and charging capacity….. As a measuring stick… on an older fully charged “Off Grid” package (with only (qty 2) 120 AH batteries) we ran the AC unit. It ran for an hour and 50 minutes before the system shut itself down.