Solar Phase 3 - The Inverter - Mortons on the Move

The third and final phase of our solar installation on our RV was installing an inverter to convert the 24V battery power into 120V for general receptacles and higher power appliances. We chose to install a Victron Multiplus 3000W inverter.

We also had to choose how to wire the inverter into the existing 120V AC system in the RV. We chose to install a transfer switch that would allow us to use power in 4 configurations:

1. Shore power only (Inverter Bypass)
2. Shore power to RV and Shore power to inverter to use it as a battery charger
3. Inverter power only using battery and solar
4. Hybrid power combining battery (and solar) and shore or generator

Disclaimer: While Tesla batteries are a very high quality and safe when handled and run within operating characteristics, if something goes wrong they can be quite dangerous. It is your responsibility to fully understand and make sure the system is safely programmed and installed if you choose to take on an install like this. Furthermore, this build is not endorsed or supported by any manufacturers of the compenents used in this build, and they may not provide support on an install like this if you run into trouble. I am not able to provide individual support on these builds. You might be able to find community support over in the Second-Life Batteries Facebook Group.

There are a few different ways the inverter could have been wired into the RV but we felt this would give us the most flexibility. This configuration however requires some monitoring as when running the whole RV you can easily overload the inverter if you attempt to run the AC, Fridge, Stove and other large appliances at once.

This is the schematic of how this is wired in our RV.

You can find a list of components in this blog post: Updated Tesla Module RV Installation You will notice that since our RV is a 50A split phase RV we needed to jumper the single leg from the inverter to power both sides of the RV’s breaker panel. The reason for this is explained further in the video we made on the install. http://www.youtube.com/embed/GKt9A93-CGY?wmode=opaque So far this configuration has been working very well for us. We love being able to power the entire RV including the AC through the inverter.

At this point our solar installation is finished! I am sure however we will be making upgrades and tweaking it in the future.

UPDATE: After running this system for a while I’ve made some tweaks to my design. Check out our post on Updated Tesla Module RV Installation that has a schematic and list of components I’d recommend for an installation.

Also, check out the previous 2 phases of our solar install:
Phase 1 – Installing the Solar Panels
Phase 2 – Installing the Tesla Battery module

*Note: This article contains affiliate links.

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