With the Renogy battery Monitor, we fell fully in control of our battery system while camping off-grid. The Renogy Battery Monitor lets us know when we’re reaching our batteries’ 50% discharge limit even when it is still powering devices. To maintain their health they are not supposed to be discharged more than 50% of their total capacity. Our trailer batteries are of the traditional flooded lead-acid variety. We then plug in and turn on the device and the monitor lets us know how many watts it uses. Measuring power usage is as simple as turning everything else off to get a zero power reading on the battery monitor. In the trailer, we use the battery monitor to test the true power usage of any new devices we plug in, charge, or use as a part of our overland setup. We have one in our Outward Overland Trailer to monitor our 200Ah battery bank with 180 watts of solar panels. How We Use The Renogy Battery Monitor Our Renogy Battery Monitor on the Outward Overland Trailer helps us know exactly how much battery capacity we have left during our trips. Curious to know how much solar you’re currently generating? It’s just a short tap away. At under $100, Renogy’s monitor lowers the barrier of entry to closely monitor smaller power systems and large systems alike.Īdd the optional BT-1 Bluetooth adapter and you can see your real-time power usage right on your phone using Renogy’s DC Home app. With the Renogy Battery Monitor, we discovered that the LED strip lighting in the boat that we thought was energy efficient actually uses 5x more power than the simple overhead lights we’d been avoiding.īattery Monitors like the Renogy Battery Monitor have been around for a long time, but they have traditionally been in the $200 – $300 range. We were experiencing battery problems but struggled to diagnose the cause. Knowing how much each electric device in your van, RV, or boat allows you to be informed in your decisions of what devices to use and for how long.Īs an example, we recently installed a Renogy Battery Monitor in a 46ft sailboat. For example, if you have a 100 Amp Hour battery and use 50Ah of power per day, your system isn’t going to last through a 5-day RV trip. Knowing how much power you’re really using is important to ensure your batteries last. Basically, the Renogy Battery Monitor shows you your net power flow at any given moment AND keeps track to let you know the current level of your battery. Using this internal calculation, the battery monitor also displays your current battery percentage. The battery monitor “monitors” your net power flow at all times and calculates your net power flow against your battery size. For example, if you are generating 40 watts of power from a solar panel, but have 60 watts of lights on at the same time, you are using 20w of your battery’s capacity. At a quick glance, the Renogy battery monitor displays your net power consumption. As your power system’s current flows (both in and out) through this shunt, the display on the battery monitor shows you how much power is being consumed (going out of the batteries) vs how much power is being put back in your batteries through charging sources. Once the shunt is installed, a small wire is connected between the shunt and the battery monitor. You install this shunt between the negative terminal of your battery and the negative side of your power system. The Renogy better monitor comes with a shunt – a low-ohm resistor used to measure current.
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