Solar - Upgrade or replace outright?
The new-to-us coach has a small solar panel system. I would like to upgrade it to the point where I could reasonably hope to capture 50 or 60 amp-hours per day in light conditions that are less than ...
Forum Discussion
Empty Nest, Soon wrote:Cost wise the Trimetric is a good choice. I have the 2025 RV and would get the 2030 RV model today.
Is there a good, cost-effective choice to the somewhat pricey Trimetric monitor? I’m thinking of something that can reliably tell me how many net amp-hours I’ve used. If not, which Trimetric model do you recommend?
For me the cost was well worth it for the capability to understand loads, usage and charging. Among other things you can turn your lights, TVs, any 12V item on/off and the difference in amps is what it draws. Knowing the battery SOC, etc is very useful and it's all done inside the rig. The only downside is that you do have to install a 5 conductor cable from the battery to the monitor and you need a common ground on the batteries to install the shunt.
You can do as BFL13 suggests but about all you'll have is rough overview of your usage. You can buy very good glass hydrometers that help. But you will be outside with them and how many different days are you going to be making volt, amp and SG measurements? At least my usage varies day to day depending upon a lot of factors. And voltage measurements to determine SOC are very inaccurate unless you remove ALL loads and wait several hours for the battery to stabilize. To me what was suggested is cheaper but a battery monitor is much move valuable.
My Trimetric paid for itself on the last rig and I could say the cost is now $0.
