EKKO

[Bordercollie]

Been watching You tube videos about EKKO RV, have some questions. Some versions come with solar panels, large lithium batteries, and no generator. I'm wondering if solar panels can run the 12 volt compressor fridge, furnace blower, microwave, and other electrics for an extended period off grid. Also wondering of elderly users will be able to use bathroom and reach upper cabinets, etc. with relative ease. The examples shown are chock full of electronic items and innovations but the price tag of over 163K looks a little high for a two person rig.

[atreis]

Bordercollie wrote:
I'm wondering if solar panels can run the 12 volt compressor fridge, furnace blower, microwave, and other electrics for an extended period off grid.

Excluding the AC, yes. I had 320 watts on my last RV and a 12V Danfoss compressor fridge. If parked in a sunny location and not too many cloudy days one after the other, I could go indefinitely on just solar, even with moderate furnace use. That was with a smallish AGM battery bank.

[valhalla360]

Bordercollie wrote:
Been watching You tube videos about EKKO RV, have some questions. Some versions come with solar panels, large lithium batteries, and no generator. I'm wondering if solar panels can run the 12 volt compressor fridge, furnace blower, microwave, and other electrics for an extended period off grid. Also wondering of elderly users will be able to use bathroom and reach upper cabinets, etc. with relative ease. The examples shown are chock full of electronic items and innovations but the price tag of over 163K looks a little high for a two person rig.

If you don't expect to run the air/con, 450w of solar and a good battery bank should be fine without the generator.

I don't know why age would be any different from any other RV. Go check it out and see.

No it's not the cheapest option for RV'ing.

[pnichols]

We don't have solar, and only sometimes do we use one or the other of our two generators for sunless battery charging.

I have found that what works well for quiet and fairly fast charging of our 230 AH AGM coach battery bank is to merely idle the main Ford engine a bit and let it's alternator do the charging. There's no vibration in the coach during V10 engine idling and it can barely be heard just outside the coach.

This works very well, and from what I'm reading in the forums, seems similar in principle to certain modern Class B/C RVs using autostart idling of the main engine for non-solar fast charging of the coach batteries -> except in my approach with our 2005 Class C I have to manually start the engine to do it.

If necessary, we can maintain a slight air pressure inside the coach interior so as to keep any tail pipe fumes from entering.

[bobndot]

Its getting to be very expensive with these new lithium rigs. Larger inverters , large solar setups and auto start functions to start the rv when the batteries become discharged. The EKKO might use a generator that runs off the rv engine to charge the batteries.
Lithium batteries need to be warm enough to charge so they are not an option for me due to cold weather use. Im staying with agm.
As for those fridges, they don't have a heavy amp draw and only draw 12 hrs a day not 24. I would buy a compressor fridge without hesitation. Some of the TC guys use them.
I have 200 watts of solar now but would double it for that 12v fridge. Thats all fine as long as the sun shines. Otherwise i would run the gen while camped or drive it.