If you are looking for my favorite battery monitor here it is. amzn.to/3n4PJqk. It gives so much info and is easy to set up and the quality is amazing!
You dont consider how these cheap option dont have a convenient way to mount the shunt (unlike the Victron). Do you just leave the shunt hanging in mid air?
Your videos have been saving our family's life. We got evicted and are moving into an unfinished skoolie in 2 weeks. Thank you for these, may God bless you and your family.
You are the consummate RV authority. I understand why you have the following that you do. It’s so apparent that you know exactly what you are talking about. Bravo!!!
Thanks for giving a clear, no nonsense explanation of the monitors. It's refreshing to watch someone who can produce a video without resorting to drama. You've earned another subscriber, just wish I'd have seen this particular video one day sooner. I would have ordered a different monitor.
Timing could not have been better for me! Just bought the first cheap battery monitor in the video and played around with installing it with some success but now I'll be wiring in the DPDT switch for my application! Thank you so much! My significant other balked at spending $300 Canadian for the Victron at this point so this will appease my inner mad scientist.
Excellent presentation that is very clear and easy to understand. No distracting music in the background. Devices clearly shown, demonstrated and Amazon links posted in the video notes. Other RU-vid presenters take note - this is how to do it if you want 100K views and a grateful audience. Teach the world!
Nice job Jerod. Not only with the information but the time in presenting the information in the mockup and the diagrams you have appear on the screen. Always enjoy your videos. Thank you!
I bought the monitor (off Amazon) that you recommended for my 5th wheel. We have 30 amp service at our seasonal campground and on hot days panic to not burn out or trip appliances. It was difficult to run the wire out of the breaker box and up inside the 2” thick wall. I mounted the readout in the main room. Took me several hours. It is on 24 hours per day and our only issue is that it becomes a very bright blue nightlight for people sleeping on the pop-out bed below it. It gave us a real readout on what appliances really draw. More stuff can be used when we run the A/C than we thought before.
Just the info and instructions I was looking for. I didn't realize this type of monitor was a one way only, but the switch idea is great and I will be using it like per your instructions to monitor my battery on my small 200 watt solar setup that I am building for the first time. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience, it is very much appreciated for noobs like me.
I know I'm a couple of years late on reply as I just saw the GREAT video!! I would only make one suggestion to the wiring and that would be to put the power lead that feeds the indicator to the plus side of the battery disconnect switch so when you disconnect batteries it kills power to the indicator. I could not find where they show current draw of the indicator but would think that leaving an RV over the winter for example and draw of the indicator powered would run the batteries down. Just like a vehicle powering the backup for the clock etc. After a long period of time you end up killing the battery. Just a thought.
I have watched several of your RV battery posts and I am an electrical engineer with an RV. You provide excellent info. I do the AGM for my occasional boon-docking. Well done!
So I installed the DROK monitor as I mentioned in a previous comment and ended up purchasing another. I have wired them across the same shunt so I can measure incoming and outgoing power at the same time. What two monitors gives me versus the DPDT switch solution you mention (and I previously considered) was now I get to see aggregate power consumption and charging as opposed to momentary. If I reset both Power meters at the same time, I can see over the course of a day or weekend just how much power I'm "making up" versus consuming. One other thing I noticed is that the consumption meter only factors in consumption OVER AND ABOVE whatever is being charged by solar or other means. Which is to say, if I have a 10 amp load and my solar is putting 8 amps in, the consumption meter shows NET consumption of 2 amps, not the 10 amp load. I suppose this is a result of the solar energy in the circuit being more "available" than the current that would need to travel across the shunt to the load. Essentially, following the path of least resistance. Thank you so much for sharing.
Great video, that said, I believe I would fuse the positive side between the monitor and the battery, near the battery to protect in case of a short. Just a thought, I guess it comes to mind since when we travel in our Class A (we used to snow bird but had to take a couple of years off due to illness in the family) we usually spend nights while en-route at truck stops, parked between semi's. My daughter, who lives with us, is on the Ambulance Squad as an EMT. She had to respond at 5:00 AM to a truck fire at the local grocery store/fuel stop at the junction of the two highways that transect our little village. A trucker had been asleep in his sleeper when his heater apparently shorted out, caught the truck on fire, and they had to remove his chard body from the remains of his tractor. Not a pretty sight, but you take the job and you deal with what comes, much as I did when I too worked as an EMT while on the Police Force for 24 years. Fuses can, and do save lives, especially in a rig where you intend to spend time sleeping.
Not Sponsored? You must not be sponsored, because this is an incredible video instructing the common layman how to hook up sophisticated monitoring for very small amount of $$$. I loved this video, and commend you for giving us people on a tight budget, a chance to hook up great power and voltage monitoring at affordable prices. This is an example of helping our common man, or neighbor, on how to wire things up, like the big boys do, but on a very tight budget. Hooking up a switch to allow the viewer to see both power out versus power in is a lot of help.
Clear and easy instruction on install and switch schematic for dual operation. The second one with Hall effect sensor is definitely a better option. But the aili is by far #1 and much, much less expensive than the $200 alternative 👍 thank you.
Okay , so I'm an idiot and followed the diagram on the back but.... But....... I found it much more explanatory when you showed that 10 second connection from the battery to the shunt on the table .... Thanks !
great demonstration and explanation, thanks. i have 4 of the "small ones". one for battery in, one for battery out, one for solar in, and one for inverter out. BUT, what you brought to my attention is the shunt limit of 100A! my inverter output exceeds that, and while i have not had a problem with it, i may switch that monitor to the mid grade one you demonstrated. I also put an on / off switch (same one you show) to turn the monitors off, for 2 reasons: 1) to stop the small draw when not in use, and 2) to stop the monitor glow when i am sleeping at night as 4 of them does light up a dark room. much thanks again.
Great video. Energy monitoring and management are difficult concepts to explain, this demo will answer alot of basic questions for ppl. I have all three of the meter types you showed here, they all work great and serve their purpose. My next project is to install one on my engine alternator output and set up the field current wire to a relay so I can disable the alternator when my solar is putting out enough to run the chassis while on the road (old GM CS series alternator). Handy little devices
Thank you! You did an awesome job with explaining what the numbers one the monitors mean and how to calculate them. I learned so much and I only had to watch it once to understand it! lol
Gatdangit, Jared Gillis! Once again, another one of your videos came in clutch! Super appreciative! Clever trick with the double polled/double throw switch. Maybe one day we'll see you on the road. Jared Gillis, THE RV GOD WITH ALL OF THE ANSWERS!
I saw the version of this thing with 200 Amps shunt, but I'm not sure, if the concept of using shunt for current measurement is applicable to high-current setups... I can't say for sure about the shunt for the power meter from the video, but usually such shunts have voltage drop of 75 mV / 0.075V. For applications with little currents, it's not gonna be a problem. But for currents with tens of Amps, let alone hundreds of, this will definitely generate a lot of heat! Let's say, we're taking 50 Amps from the battery. Then, P = U x I = 0.075 x 50A = 3.75W. OK, it's not too much... But for 100 Amps it's already 7.5W, and for 200A - 15W! Of course, if take 100A case, when you're consuming 12V x 100A = 1200W, 7.5W is negligible addition for you... I agree, but the heating may be the problem! Therefore, my overall verdict is to use only the meters with hall counter for high-current applications, and for low-current ones (up to 20Amps in total), I'd suggest using the version of meters with integrated shunt. At least, it seems way easier to use: less wires, better accuracy (in theory). And usually low-current versions of power meters go with integrated shunt. In particular, I saw such version for the meter from video, and for many similar meters like that.
Good stuff and very succinct explanations of things. I would only add one word of caution. When working with electricity of any kind, please remove ALL jewelry. That ring on your finger could cause you to lose that finger (or worse) if you touch the wrong thing with it. I've seen it happen. I worked in the avionic and defense industry as both a radar and system engineer and safety is absolutely paramount when working with electricity. Aside from that, great stuff!! Thanks for sharing!
Keep the videos coming, lots of good information. I am exploring expanding my 100watt factory installed solar arrangement and want to add 300more watt solar panels and two 12v 100amp lithium batteries to my 2022 Winnebago 2108FBS trailer
Wow...it's like you read my mind. That victron battery monitor is nice but our budget is more like $50 bucks since we're not full=timing and there are more doodads to buy. Thanks for another informative video!
sean808080 I’ve got all the doodads I need, I’m now looking for all of the gadgets, gizmos, thingamajigs,and other geewhizmo’s! All that treasure, just no place to put it! Dang!
Bogart Engineering Trimetric, or the PentaMetric which will log your battery cycles over time (pricey but well worth it, and cheaper than a new set of batteries). I like the Penta's ability to send/log data to a PC or laptop and/or remote display, and can monitor more than one battery bank and solar input separately. I'm not affiliated in any way, just a happy customer.
As usual, a very well done explanation of things of which I have little expertise. Outfitting our 5th Wheel with a second battery for the occasional overnight boondock. Your information is very helpful in my planning and power usage strategy. I am going to try out the Aili with 350 amp shunt. Thanks so much!!
Jerry, The Drok looks like a nice solution, "except" for a major flaw. It's hall effect sensor comes with a very short cable..!! Not enough to do anything with, unless you plan to strap the display directly to your house batteries, or other... They need to supply a long shielded optional cable so one can mount this inside the RV and still have the sensor outside on the battery set....
I purchased two of the cheap monitors a couple years ago and have one coming in from the solar panels and another heading out from my battery. It’s not the most elegant solution but it works well. I can see how much is going in and goi g out at the same time without switching back between screens so that is pretty nice.
I've found that I really only need a cheap volt meter wired to my solar charge controller. An ammeter wired to my solar panels cable to know how much power in getting from them is nice too.
Great info, thanks! Nice to know there are lower cost items that can meet our needs. The tutorial and switch wiring animation are great too - excellent work.
hey Jared, the amazon reviews say that there is a bug with the BMV-712. here is a piece of the review from amazon: "..the purpose of this device is to monitor battery capacity so you are never left on the water with a dead battery and it does a spectacular job measuring load coming off your battery; however it does not measure the power which the gauge consumes on its own and it will consume every last amp left in your battery until it is completely dead and unusable. Unfortunately when it does this, the capacity will still show 99.9% or 100% of your battery remaining but in reality your battery is dead as a doornail and cannot be used. I have had 2 instances of this happening. One final thing I will mention is that the BMV consumes 4ma of power at idle and the Bluetooth dongle consumes 1ma of power at idle so there is always a parasitic load of 5ma of power on your battery. If you do the math that would be a .005amp per hour draw so every 8 days the BMV + Bluetooth has consumes 1 amp of power. On a standard 100amp battery, only 70amps would be usable so it is only a matter of time (depending upon the age and state of your battery) before your battery is dead leaving you stranded with a false sense of security of having 100% charge. In conclusion, after owning this BMV unit for 2 years and seeing the bugs first hand with 2 instances of dead batteries and the BMV telling me I still had 99% charge remaining I would NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT TO ANYBODY. Purchase at your own risk, you have been forewarned." what is your experience with this, Jared? p.s. disconnecting the shunt is an unacceptable solution bc the device loses all of it's saved settings and will have to be reconfigured. thought?
Good question, I haven’t had that issue at all. The amount that the BMV uses is so small I have a hard time thinking it is the only contributing factor. The math in the review doesn’t quite add up. It makes sense that it uses an amp in 8 days but that would leave you with 99 amps after the 8 days which will be completely fine. If I’m reading between the lines it looks like this happened in a storage situation and RV batteries need to be charged every few weeks to keep them charged and healthy anyway. A small solar battery tender in storage or charging every few weeks will keep your system working regardless of the monitor you have. The monitor will only calculate what passes through the shunt not what it naturally looses as it’s stored. I hope this helps.
Hmm, based on your impressive vid on the BRV-712, just received my order 2 days ago. Still believe that the blue tooth app will provide so much more info and history, and thus justify much of the price premium. I do appreciate that you are trying to provide solutions at multiple price/function points.
Sorry, that is the BMV-712. Have you considered implementing mid point monitoring or the battery balancer solutions for your monitoring with the BMV-712??
Hi ! I'm looking to buy an RV but first I watch your vids and it helps me alot to be aware what I need to know and do on how to / what to look for before making the rights decisions. Thank you very much for your infos. Montreal, Quebec, Canada ✌
The 'less featured' one is perfect for a teardrop setup. The only issue is learning the adjustment procedures of the meter, i.e.. setting the alarms and resetting the accumulated Whrs.
Thanks Jared. I’ve been wanting a battery monitor and you helped me decide what to get at a reasonable price. Now I can move on to solar panels. Thanks again for another awesome video
I never knew that shunts could meter in both directions; I thought in DC, voltage always travels plus (positive hot polarity) to minus (negative ground).
Very informative info. Most of it I already know but I really like the way you take the time to explain it in the simplest way possible for the less informed. For that I will subscribe to give you more exposure. The switch idea is excellent and I will use as I have the same battery monitor. Thanks.
I wish you had demonstrated how to hook up the Aili, you say they are all the same but for people who know zero about this stuff, I need to see it done. Also, at the beginning you were hooking up the red and black wire and it sounded like it doesn't matter where they go.
Great presentation, have been using a Blueseas M2 for 3 years and its having problems, Blueseas tech are giving support but its good to know what is out there.
Depending on the battery type and age, lead acid batteries of any flavor need to be charged 105-115% of the amount of discharge. If I don't know a given system, I'll go with 110% - you use 50AH, you put 55AH back in. I have an inexpensive monitor with a 200 amp shunt on my solar generator (420 AH of AGM batteries, 2000 watt purse sine wave inverter, up to 1600 watts of solar panels). While the monitor recognizes power into and out of the battery and counts AH up and down, it always counts WH in the up direction: an Oops! on the part of the programmer but I'm only interested in the AH in and out. It was in the $15 range; the display is removable and talks Bluetooth to the measuring portion of the unit.
I have that one. It worked well for a few days, now it’s stuck on 100% and never moves no matter what I do. The quality of these seems to be hit or miss
you can easy order 5 of them, after around 12 month of use the display was showing incorrect voltages. So i changed it and now it is good since a couple of weeks. But I ordered 2 more just to make sure. If I can see a major difference between Inverter, charger and monitor system in Voltage, I check my battery bank by hand and mostly it is the monitor. could be a difference of 0.2 to 0.8 volt sometimes more. Its cheap, yes but you still need to monitor by hand ...
Hi Jared, thanks for all wonderful informative videos, we are going to build our camper van , we are wondering that the need of bus bar ( either neg and pos ) is necessary for hooking up power inverter to house battery as we plan to have Renogy DC DC charger with Bigbattery Lithium while we drive? Very confuse about how lithium battery is be able to feed Inverter while charging at same time as battery only has 1 neg and 1 pos post, there is no such input or output posts😅😇.
This so great. I really need to monitor my battery as I mostly boondocks, but am not ready to go to the Victron. However, I don't understand where you put all this stuff--is inside the battery box or do you need to get wires inside the RV somehow? Would love to see an installation video. Thanks for your super helpful and thorough videos!
I have a battery lighting emergency system at home with the 1st meter to monitor battery but i also have a batt charger connected to it but going directly to battery bypassing meter. Do you have a circuit diagram of how i can connect the charger also to operate through the meter so i can also monitor the charging process and see the amps and watthrs going into battery. Thanks. ALL YOUR VIDEOS ARE EXCELLENT and you are a natural. Wish i had had you as my teacher in college. MAN YOU ARE GOOD !!! Keep up the good work. .
I am in the design phase to transform a Sprinter 211 cdi, new (2021), L1H1, all a little tight !!!!, but perfect for use here in Europe and exploring small towns, easy to park ... etc But now I got to the point of doing the electrical project, which I'm not used to doing, I'm a civil engineer, I understand 110 / 220v AC circuits. I wish you could help me with that part. I'm Brazilian, but I also live a lot here in Portugal, where I'm going to do the conversion. Well, I started making a spreadsheet, with the equipment, the necessary power and time of daily use, I have no intention of filling the motorhome with things, not least because it is a Sprinter L1H1, and I would like to have a simple electrical installation, but I would not like have gas inside, so I would prefer a stove with only one induction zone. To heat the water it would be a D6 truma, which is diesel. But from the calculations I made and compared with others I saw on the net, it seems that it ends up consuming a lot of energy, making the electrical part more expensive. I don't want to spend so much just because of induction. I don't know what other electrical equipment I would still need for everything to work, still using the car's alternator and an external 220v point when stopped at a camping site. In your opinion, which a good configuration sufficient to have a quick meal, with induction and stay out of the network for a day or two? Well, the result of the spreadsheet was: 220V equipment notebook - 65w - 1 hour of use - 5.4 Ah induction cooker - 1800w - 0,4 hour of use - 60 Ah 12V equipment USB - 50w - 1 hour of use - 4.2 Ah refrigerator - 45w - 8 hours of use - 30 Ah lights - 15w - 3 hours of use - 1.3 Ah water pump - 42 w - 0.5 hours of use - 1.8 Ah exhaust fan wc - 40 w - 1 hour of use - 3.3 Ah I will be very grateful if you can help me by presenting an wiring electrical diagram with the necessary equipment. I appreciate if you answer. my address is: joaolp55 @ gmail com Thanks
