I am shipping my overlander from Europe to America.
We have 1400w of solar on the roof, and a reasonable battery bank, DC t DC charges etc, but sadly still need to plug into power occasionally. The batteries are 24v, and we have 240v, 24 an 12v feeds in the truck.
For shore power and charging/inverting I am running a Multiplus 2.
My understanding is that in the US some RV sites have 230v power but at 60hz not European 50hz. Can the Multiplus 2 handle that?
I don’t really have the room to fit an auto transformer, so I was thinking of fitting aVictron Energy Smart IP43 24-Volt 16 amp 85-250v.
Do I feed this to my battery via the Multiplus2 input- ie put it inline with my current shore feed? Or does it go to the batteries direct?
I am currently in the UK, so my plan is to do this part of the install in the UK, and then buy the American style shore feed plugs etc in America, as I can’t find them over here.
What you are most likely to find at US RV parks is 120/240 split phase power. (This can sometimes be two legs of 120/208 3-phase power.) Otherwise it will be 120 volt single phase. Using split phase power to feed your 240 volt loads isn’t ideal because the “neutral” will be at 120 volts relative to ground. To be safe you would need breakers on both the hot and neutral lines to each load.
The Smart IP43 charger is probably the best way to go as it will accommodate pretty much any shore power you will encounter globally and your AC loads will always see 230 (or 240) volts at 50 Hz. The Multi’s AC input would not be used, at least when you don’t have 230 volt 50 Hz shore power.
One charger provides about 380 watts. If you need more, you can always connect them in parallel. Victron makes larger chargers with wide AC input voltage and frequency ranges like the IP43 but they are larger physically as well.
In terms of wiring could I wire the IP43 to either the battery studs in the Multiplus 2 or a bus bar between the Multiplus battery cables and the battery?
It’s all the same connection relay. You can choose a wiring method however is easiest. The Victron “Wiring Unlimited” is a good read.
A couple of things to remember:
If you have a shunt, make sure the charger connects to the “load” or “system” side of the shunt. If connected to the “battery” side the charging current will not be included in the SOC calculation and you definitely need it to be included.
You need to fuse the connection to the charger. The fuse will protect the wiring from a short so it needs to be close to the source of uncontrolled current, so in this case the battery. (The charger’s output current will be limited by the charging current so a fuse at that end of the connection is optional..)