The Millers in Motion Podcast
The Millers in Motion Podcast
Join Ryan and Lauren Miller as they take you beyond the world of RVing to explore all things travel! Whether it’s road trips, flights, cruises, or the hidden gems of small towns and big cities, the Millers bring you along for the ride. In each episode, we’ll dive into our latest adventures, share insider tips, discuss travel challenges, and meet fascinating people along the way. Whether you're an experienced traveler, a weekend wanderer, or just looking for inspiration for your next trip, we’ve got stories and insights that will inspire your journey. Let’s keep those wheels rolling—wherever the road, sky, or sea might take us!
The Millers in Motion Podcast
ULTIMATE Solar / Lithium Battery Build w/ Todd Henson from Big Beard Battery
Our ULTIMATE Solar / Lithium Battery Build w/ Todd Henson from Big Beard Battery
We couldn’t imagine camping with out a Solar or Lithium setup anymore! After filming Season 1 of RV unplugged and only having a small Lead Acid Battery we knew that we would always want to have some sort of system to help up stay off grid, enter Big Beard Battery and our great friend Todd Henson! Now that we are in our new Alliance Valor 44V14 it was only a matter of time for us to get the Solar system installed! We spend a week with Todd at the NRVTA getting the system installed, and we couldn’t be happier with it! We will have all the specifications below if your curious about what was installed, but if you reach out to Todd and Big Beard Battery and chat with them, they can do exactly what they did for us, or build you your own custom system!
Our Build:
· 900 Amp Hours of 24V Lithium from Big Beard Battery
· 2 Victron Quatros inverters (4,000 Watts continuous power, max 5,000 watts)
· 2,690 Watts of Solar on the Roof (We may be expanding with deployable panels in the future)
· 5,500 Watt Generator (This was installed from Alliance and came with our RV)
To Learn More visit: http://www.nigbeardbattery.com
Links:
Big Beard Battery: http://www.bigbeardbattery.com
RV Unplugged Watch and Win: http://www.rvunpluggedtv.com
Millers in Motion: https://www.millersinmotion.com
Liquified Tank Treatments
· 32oz Bottle - https://amzn.to/430ysj7
· 16oz Bottle - https://amzn.to/49KZIVe
· Drop In Pods - https://amzn.to/3SZA0VT
For more Travel Videos check out our Main Channel
http://www.youtube.com/ @Millers_in_Motion
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🎧 Tune into our RV Shenanigans Podcast for more on-the-road stories and laughs:
- Listen here: https://rvshenanigans.buzzsprout.com/
- Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/ @RVShenanigansPodcast
For More Featured Products visit https://www.millersinmotion.com/partners
🌐 Visit Our Website:
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🤝 For Business Inquiries & Collaborations, please reach out via email at: info@millersinmotion.com
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RV Unplugged Season 2 is about to release. Plus, it is rally season. If you're coming to the Alliance National Rally, it's going to be our first one of the year. We look forward to seeing you there and later on in the show we are going to sit down with our good friend RV Unplugged host, owner of Big Beard Batteries, Mr Todd Henson, because we're going to talk all things solar. That coming up next on the RV Shenanenanigans podcast, brought to you by liquefied. Welcome back to the rv shenanigans podcast, again brought to you by liquefied.
Speaker 1:My name is ryan. Along with my wife lauren, we make up what is known as miller's in motion. We've been full timing now for a little over two years in our fifth wheels and we are currently living in our 2024 Alliance Valor 44 V14 that has a brand new power system on board Spoiler. We haven't been plugged into power now for about three, four days and it's amazing. We are going to get into all of that here in just a little bit. First, ironically, is the first episode RV Unplugged Season 2. If you know, we competed on Season 1 of RV Unplugged. We had an absolute blast. We've said it many, many times that is some of the best two weeks that we've had camping. We've made amazing friends with not only the cast but the crew, as well as the host and co-creators. So with that, the season two airs May 29th. Make sure to tune in early, because Todd and Tony are going to be doing a pre-show the half hour leading up to it and then, immediately following the airing, they're going to be doing a post-show called Plugged In, where they'll answer some questions. Bring on some of the cast that were active in that season. Plus, in addition to all that, just like we did our season, they are also going to be doing live chat. So most of the cast will be on there assuming they can be on there and they will be chatting while the episode's going on. You can learn more at rvunpluggedtvcom.
Speaker 1:Plus the rally I'm not going to leave out the finale rally. Come join us in Auburndale, Florida, at Camp Margaritaville in August. Watch the live finale with the cast, the crew, a little bit of season one cast will be there, I'll be there, Lauren will be there and a handful of other cast and the entirety of cast and crew for season two. It's going to be a blast If you attended season one rally, just like the show is going to be higher produced. The rally is going to be higher produced, so we've got some fun things in store. It's definitely something you will not want to miss out on. Also, if you are coming to the Alliance National Rally, you will be there during season one airing. Well, Tony is going to be in town, along with a few of the contestants that are also allies with Alliance, and so they will be there as well watching the show and then a few season one casts. Again, we will be there, so make sure and join us. If you're there, we're going to watch it live in the main hall. I believe that could change. I'm still working on where and hearing back from the Alliance people. But in addition to that, rally season is here Segway. You see how I like that.
Speaker 1:That's when a bunch of pretty much organizations, manufacturers, start to do all kinds of fun things, and the beginning one for us is the Alliance National Rally. At the time I'm recording this, which we're going to get into our interview with Todd here in just a second. We filmed that a few days ago when we were having the solar system still installed. I'm recording this literally the day before you hear it. I like to keep this portion of it up to date and we are getting ready. This is the last kind of technical thing that I'm going to do before we start packing up and getting ready to head towards Elkhart, Indiana. So if you're going to be at the Alliance National Rally, we would love to see you. If you want to see the new solar system live and in person, it's amazing, Shocker. The next video full-length video on the Miller's In Motion channel you'll be able to see that and the installation process.
Speaker 1:Last week we talked with Todd a little bit about, you know, kind of picking the solar system and all those things. But make sure and check that out, because in addition to I already mentioned it before but we also have the RV Unplugged Season 2 Finale Rally. This rally is way more on the fun side. We have a bunch of games, a lot of games that were in Season 2 and maybe a few games that didn't make Season 2. Plus, if you're looking to potentially get on RV Unplugged, in other words, be a contestant in Season 3 or beyond, there is no better place than right here to get the attention. The people that do our casting Stacey will be there, as well as Tony Todd and the rest of the crew and management team behind RV Unplugged. So, with that all being said, we hope you have a great kickoff to your summer. But now we are going to get into our interview with Todd, because we're going to go through solar system and shocker. We're going to talk a little bit about cost. That's normally something people avoid, but we're going to talk about it because that's a real thing when you're picking out a solar system. So stay tuned for just one second and we'll be back with Mr Todd Henson from Big Beard Batteries.
Speaker 1:What's the worst part about RVing? It's the black tank. No one likes to have to deal with a stinky or messy black tank. Let the team over at Liquified RV Black Tank Management help you out. Created from the team over at Matt's RV Reviews, this is a 100% biodegradable product made right here in the good old US of A. Liquified will help break down your black tank waste as well as help with those odors. In addition to helping with those odors, it's got an actually really great orange smell to it. So not only does it help break down those odors, it also helps freshen the bathroom.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite features is actually this easy measure pour spout. Because it's designed this way, you don't have to bring in other cups or measuring devices of any kind. Dump what you need in for your size tank, put the cap back on and you're done. To learn more about liquefied rv black tank treatment, you can visit liquefiedrvcom. Do us a favor. Please support the brands that support us, because they enable us to be able to bring you the podcast and the regular videos to purchase liquefied Treatment, please see the link down below. Well, welcome back. We now want to welcome not only our good friend, but owner of RV Unplugged and host of RV Unplugged, a master certified technician with the NRVTA, the keeper of all your tech tips on Tuesdays.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Mr Todd Henson and also the owner of Big Beard Battery, because that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for letting me come on actually into your RV, into your rig and doing the podcast with you.
Speaker 1:Well and fun disclosure at the current moment, this entire podcast and this RV is being powered by well you, yeah, well, yeah, because you can see I'm very active right now. You are very active. It's like a bike you just keep going. We got power.
Speaker 2:That's how this goes. Got a new knee, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1:I'm like the Energizer bunny Exactly no, but we are actually unplugged up a solar bill, which we're going to talk a little bit more about here in just a second. Absolutely, this whole thing's being powered by your batteries right now. Yes, it is. Cross my fingers. So what made you really want to start a battery company and kind of toss into the mix of all these things? Right, didn't want to start a battery company?
Speaker 2:right, Perfect. Like I said first, it was because, as a master certified tech hey look, there's a little spider I'm going to move this over here real quick. Hey, you go find your home over there.
Speaker 1:And full disclosure. Todd, we don't edit a whole lot because that kind of stuff people enjoy.
Speaker 2:That's fine. Yeah, have you seen my stuff? Does it look like there's edits?
Speaker 1:Yeah, if it makes the bloopers section, just know it got real weird, right, real weird.
Speaker 2:So, no, I never intended to start a battery business but, as someone who really delves into everything, figured out that batteries were component-based. There was already people out there taking them apart, kind of reviewing them, and I'm watching them taking them apart and they're not picking up on some things. I'm like, hmm, look at the small amount of copper. You can only get so much power through there. Yada, yada, yada. So I decided well, you know what I'm going to do this. I'm going to do it right, because I want to show my students how to build these. And so that's where it started, just showing students how to build these.
Speaker 2:The problem was it's so extensive in order to do it right that it just didn't make sense for students to do it. So they were like well, you know what? What if we just bought, bought them from you? So I started down that road. Okay, you know what? I will just sell them to the students. Because the whole thing was is I want students to be successful in their business and they can either sell someone else's battery, or what if they made their own, you know, and maybe made a little bit more spread? And it turned into you making it for them. Yeah, it turned into me making it for them. Well, over the years you know switching out the boxes, you know still trying to get everything right we finally got the mix and then, just this last year, we decided we'll go public with it. So that's kind of where it went, that, and quite honestly, it's for my kids.
Speaker 1:Build a business for them, to kind of work at slash manage Right.
Speaker 2:Learn things you don't learn in school anymore. That's how to run a business. So you're talking inventory control, you're talking customer service, you're talking sales. You know all of these different things. That it's. You know, quite honestly, we don't focus on that stuff anymore.
Speaker 1:No, that's very true. I mean, you go through school and it's technical training which is great, or a business degree.
Speaker 2:that is pretty much useless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. It got me interviews until I said I hate making money for other people, right, realized I could do it for myself. So making money for other people right, realize I could do it for myself. Um, so was there one defining thing that really said in the marketplace that you wanted to change?
Speaker 2:but besides, I mean with, with the bigger companies, not the amazon kind of knockoff stuff, the big guys yeah, so honestly, it was really about the, the size, uh, of the total power, okay, inside the batteries, right, because in rv space we're very limited on space and you know the average offering that came out was 100 amp hour batteries and you would end up with 12, 13, 14, just depending on the size I mean so now you got all of these different batteries.
Speaker 2:it's taken up a lot of space and I said, well, what if we can make bigger cells or find bigger cells? Not that we make them, um, but and put it, you know, just put a bigger capacity inside these batteries. You've got less batteries to deal with less balancing issues. So that's kind of the whole premise, right? Big beard batteries, always trying to give you the most amount of power in the smallest box possible, because, as RVs, that's what we need.
Speaker 1:So when it comes down to looking at that kind of stuff, when you're looking at the size and all those things, is that something that there's added benefits from picking a bigger battery and going that? Oh, yeah. It's not necessarily the 12, 24-volt conversation, which we'll get into in a second, but just versus having. You're right versus 600. Where does that balancing start to come into play? Balancing issues right.
Speaker 2:So, just like anything else I call it like herding cats or anything else right, the more batteries you have there's, you know there's little internal differences between each one and we want these batteries to all work as one, right? So I usually tell a story in class about, you know, push starting a car or anything else. Right, we all have to push on three Is everyone pushing at the same pressure? You know some people are pushing with one hand versus two hands.
Speaker 1:Why are we leaning to the right guys?
Speaker 2:Right. So the more batteries you have, the harder it is to keep everything balanced. So, if we can condense that down to one battery, we don't have balancing issues.
Speaker 1:So is that, in the combination of the controlling systems, the technology side of it, or is it also the physical side?
Speaker 2:Right. Still, physical side. Even when I build batteries, I do everything I can to make them exactly the same. The internal resistance may be slightly off, okay, between each one. Well, not a big deal the first year or two, but over time what's going to happen is is you know they're going to, they're going to get out of their balancing issue. You know if they're completely charged at the same amount. One may be 28 volts, one may be 27 volts. The 28 volts can always win. 27 volts needs to get up there. So the less batteries we have, the less balancing issues we have.
Speaker 1:So what from the end user experience? If you get some batteries let's say that they have a larger, smaller capacity battery, let's say they got 10, 100 amp hour, 12 volts and you start to get over that line of where you should have gone to a different type of system. Oh, absolutely, what starts to happen to the end consumer that they actually see? Oh yeah, I understand, they're getting out of balance, but what actually is happening?
Speaker 2:I had a customer who bought a lot of these mini 100-amp-hour batteries about 15 of them. Oh boy, and he goes. I didn't know that you had offered these. I do want you to put it in, so it was. The last one I did was someone else's batteries and literally within three weeks he's calling me up. My system is saying low voltage, he goes, but, todd, I've got over 12 volts. I said, well, what I need you to do is get out there with a multimeter and check each one Right, cause if you got 12 or 13, no matter what you do, there's no way they all get to that inverted evenly. And sure enough, he had some that were at 12 volts, some that were at like 11.6, simply because distance is resistance. You know, the middle batteries were not getting fully charged and they were just staying down Gotcha.
Speaker 1:So, like I said, it's a balancing issue. Essentially, his system would just not work, even though he's seeing one thing and experiencing another.
Speaker 2:essentially, Correct, because the inverter, you know, is reading the voltage coming in Gotcha Right and sometimes it'll catch the low voltage and it says, oh no, we're not going to deal with this Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when people start to look into building out a solar system, do they? Because we're going to talk a little bit about solar, not just the lithium, but the entire system here for a little bit. But you where?
Speaker 2:where's a good starting point for somebody? Um, well, so I try and make it as simple as possible. I always ask them to give me the vision. What do you see yourself doing If you could take your power with you, right? What do you want to run? Where do you want to go? Cause each person's different. Some people they like cold weather, right, and so they're going to use more propane. Well, they want to go to the coast, right, and they're, you know, trying to go to the coast with one AC.
Speaker 1:You know you're not going to make it right.
Speaker 2:The Keys is beautiful in August, but Right, you know. So I would say what do you want to do? And then I ask them when it comes to power, power consumption, power delivery, what we're looking for is what is the largest appliance that you need to run? I need to have a system big enough to run that largest appliance. Again, cast your vision. What do you want to see yourself doing? There are some people that travel around don't need air conditioning because they stay in 70 degree weather. Not a problem, small system. But if they want to run that ac, um run the refrigerator and everything else. That's where we start looking. What are the larger uh consumption items?
Speaker 1:gotcha, we build it, build a system around that so from that point do you typically go to the capacity side or the inverter and then work off a capacity or well.
Speaker 2:So with that. It gives me two different things. One is the. I want to find out. What do they want to run? Yeah, because I need an inverter big enough to run, you know, whatever they see themselves wanting to run. One of the things I still have a problem with is they're putting in these smaller inverters and putting in sub-panels and all you can run is your GFCI outlets. Okay, well, that's fine for some people, others it's just not Right. Some people.
Speaker 2:Others. It's just not. So we start from there. So that would be like what size engine do you want? That's what the inverter is. Then, from there, how long do you want to run it? Well, that would be your fuel and that's going to be your batteries and your solar panels.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is difficult because it's hard to talk about cost when you get in the solar system, but it's also one of those necessary things you have to talk about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it costs a lot.
Speaker 1:Well, it costs a lot and it fluctuates quite a bit because the batteries themselves cost quite a bit. There's a lot of fluctuation in that market, right.
Speaker 2:Well, not so much that, especially over the last three or four years, because of inflation going up and everything else. Resources there's only certain places that are mining this stuff right, so prices are going down a little bit on some things, but going up on others, but it does have to do with this quantity, right? So there's a huge variance in one person's system versus another person's system, because of what they want to put in there.
Speaker 1:And that's the hard part of trying to talk about dollars, because that's probably the biggest question we get with our old system. I know we're going to get it with this. One's like oh, what's that? Like, what's something like that run you. It's like well, it's a loaded question, because if it's two years later, I mean it's it's different, like we still get questions on our old system and I'm sure that system now is more expensive than it was when we did it. Yeah, and so for, for the purposes of this conversation, we're just going to kind of refer to more entry level, mid range and upper end.
Speaker 2:Sure, and that's going to be some numbers capacity. I mean, if you want to throw out numbers, that's fine. I got no problem, because for a lot of people, um, the sales cycle on something like this is very long. Okay, because they like, oh, I want this, and then they go Holy cow.
Speaker 1:Maybe not Right. And that's kind of like when you go to the restaurant, right, you're like, well, there's a 20 minute wait and it's a five minute wait, you're all excited. Versus it's like oh, it's a five minute wait, it's a 30 minute wait. Now you're mad or in hell. So it's kind of that same thing of like kind of expectations and make sure we're also saying the accurate thing. So, um, if you don't mind, I'm going to run through just kind of some ideas of systems and you can kind of throw out some what it is and then maybe a rough estimate on range one million the yeah right, how much do you want to give todd?
Speaker 1:um, so let's start with the entry level side. Let's say somebody just has, like a, either a small travel trailer, 30 amp coach or doesn't need to do a whole lot. Um, maybe doesn't care about running an AC, but wants to run everything else in the coach as far as maybe the microwave every once in a while.
Speaker 2:Sure. So the funny thing is, the microwave by itself is almost as powerful or almost as consumptive as an air conditioner. And so this is where, again, I have problems with OEMs that would put in a smaller, say 2 000 watt inverter because that can't run the whole household. No, so they would spend more money putting in what we call a sub panel. And the money you saved and putting in a 2 000 watt inverter, you ended up blowing on putting in a sub panel. So how about we do this? No matter what all builds, we'll just say one inverter large enough to run anything in the RV At one time, at one time, and I'll tell you it's about $1,000 for that inverter. Yeah, okay, to get one that's 2,000 watts, same brand, you're looking at about $800. And you're going to spend about $200 putting in a subpanel, gotcha. So to me, $1,000 for one inverter to run anything. So that could be the microwave, that could be the air conditioner, refrigerator, all of that. So $1,000 there.
Speaker 1:Batteries right Depends on how long you want to run it. So for the assumption, we'll just say you want to run it, for at the moment we'll start small and we'll say, let's say four hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we'll say one battery. Okay, right, so they retail for 2000. Okay, right, so they're um solar panels. Honestly, you know, just to kind of give you a cost per watt, every place is a little bit different but between um we'll say 75 cents per watt, unless you go with the really small panels.
Speaker 1:Okay, then they're a dollar a watt just because they're more. Are they more efficient or are they? Just now?
Speaker 2:there's less people that make them and we've got this stigma that the 200 watt panels are what we call rv panels. There's no such thing as an rv solar uh panel or a residential solar panel, just size gotcha right so obviously.
Speaker 1:I saw obviously on an rv. It's more of a jigsaw puzzle up there where the house, you have a little bit more space to work.
Speaker 2:Quite honestly the bigger the size, the cheaper cost per watt it is sure okay, you know, it's just like buying in bulk. Yeah, it's going to Costco versus Target Correct or the convenience store. How about that? Yeah?
Speaker 1:that's probably better. Yeah, where?
Speaker 2:you buy a 16-ounce soda for $2.25,. You can go get a two-liter for $1.99.
Speaker 1:So the next step up in system would really realistically being maybe like- Two Well I was going to say that one AC, but now for maybe eight to 10 hours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so now all you're doing is just increasing your fuel. So it'd be capacity.
Speaker 1:It'd be more solar panels, more batteries, gotcha, yeah, and then from there. Now we're up to okay. Well, now I want to run a couple of AC. One AC all night, two ACs, well.
Speaker 2:I do want to cover one thing. This is where a lot of people go. We'll cover the major items inverters and batteries and solar panels, and I've kind of given the numbers there. It's all the stuff in between. That's about a third of the cost. Cables, cables, disconnects, um, oh, labor separate, right. But you know cause? There's a lot of people that can DIY it and, um, some people that semi DIY it. If they just had a hand walking them through it. That's my category, yeah, but right now you're paying for someone's knowledge, right, right, to do that, and so you're looking at about 125 to $175 an hour, gotcha.
Speaker 1:For that individual who knows what they're doing. And some of these systems especially, the bigger they are and the more cumbersome of whatever coach you have, the more cumbersome of system you have. They could be up there a week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Potentially about 35 to 45 hours, depending on how big the system is You've got a nice little simple coach that it's easy, then it's not quite that much. So now we're going to move up, because at some point we'll talk about what we just got done doing, I think, before that, let's talk about the old system because that's kind of the mid-range.
Speaker 2:That was the mid-range.
Speaker 1:So on our old system we had dual multi-plus inverters. We had about 1800 amp hours of batteries, 12 volt, and then we also had about 1800 watts of solar on the roof.
Speaker 2:Okay, yep, so that's our mid-range system and, by the way, that system smalls between six and eight thousand dollars, right, total, all total, to put that in, not counting labor. Right, the next system up right, you're adding a second inverter. And if you're adding a second inverter, right, not much cost there, it's another thousand dollars. But, quite honestly, you need to increase your fuel, right, right, so you almost double your batteries and whatnot, and that's where the cost comes in. So you're looking between 14 and 16 thousand. Okay, to go to a double inverter setup, right, double multi-plus setup with everything, yeah now, that's complete head and toe and there's also other things.
Speaker 1:Obviously we start running to run acs. You want to put soft starts, easy starts, something like that on to help out. So there's not that they're horribly expensive and, quite frankly, they're pretty easy to put on. Um, you guys did it for me otherwise I'd right that's one of those things I probably could have done right.
Speaker 2:But especially when they give you a qr code, you click on it and it gives you a little oh okay, this goes here, this goes there, got it.
Speaker 1:I do like it when it's easy like that. Right Um, now we're going to talk a little bit about what we've put on, and this podcast is coming out slightly after our main video. So if you're curious about kind of the visuals and a lot of other stuff, make sure, sure and check out the youtube video over on the miller's emotions channel, right um, but yeah it's. I pretty much came to you and said we're getting a new coach, yeah it's a toy hauler.
Speaker 1:I have a little extra weight capacity. Um, I don't, I don't want to worry about this right, and that is.
Speaker 2:That is the big difference between a mid-level system and a huge system. So a mid-level system, like you had the double multi-plus that can run two ACs or one AC and one microwave, but now you've got all the other stuff right. You have your refrigerator, that's on. There may be some anything else that are what we call wall warts that you're plugged into Washing machine Dehumidifiers yeah, dehumidifiers, whatever it is, and the hotter it is, and that's really where I think a lot of people don't quite understand. Whatever it is and the hotter it is, and that's really where I think a lot of people don't quite understand that the air conditioner can consume so much more energy. The hotter it is outside, right, right, and so they don't quite understand. It'll increase by four, five, six amps per hour. That it's drawing from. Well, that puts the system in peak mode, right?
Speaker 1:Just because it's working harder Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you guys learned that and you spent a couple hours trying to detail. I could turn this on and this on, but not this right.
Speaker 1:So what it came down to is after talking with todd a lot, I've learned the basics, I would say, in usage, consumption, those types of things, and so power management yeah, I essentially went through for lauren because what she requested was that I just need to know what I can and can't do, essentially.
Speaker 1:So I made a map. If this says this, you can only run these items, you can only run by themselves or you can run everything else. If you turn these off, you can do that. I kind of did that for both legs because we were not it was leg to leg, because in a 50 amp coach you've got two power legs Right and so, yeah, I did that and we still overloaded some stuff.
Speaker 2:So, Yep, and especially well, even during, you know, RV unplugged rally. I think you had some issues with that right, we did yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was hot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was hot. So you know you spend a lot of time in Texas. It's going to be hot, so that's where I went to the next level. So still the same amount of batteries, right, and you know our goal Amp hours, right, same amount of, they'll say, total power Spoiler. I got less batteries, right, less batteries, but yeah, more power, right, or same power, right? Actually a little bit amount All right, but we did increase how many solar panels you have.
Speaker 1:That almost went up by a little over right around 1,000 watts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's pretty good there. But we basically enlarge the inverters to a 4,000-watt inverter, so two of those 8,000 watts instead of the two multi-plus 3,000s and I know this is kind of confusing. It's a 3,000. It's not 3,000 watts, it's 2,400 watts, it's 3,000, for a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they kind of say what their max capacity is, and that's not a sustainable thing.
Speaker 2:It's a power factor, so they follow the generator type. When it comes to nomenclature, yeah, what they put on there. Then you've got to read the data plate. Let's say soap, your chaos. Yeah, and a lot of other inverters, different brands. They will say, no, we can maintain it, each brand is a little bit different. Right, so we went to 8,000. Now, 8,000 means you can run two ACs on one leg, right? Right, so you only have three ACs, that's two ACs on one leg, an AC and a microwave on the other. Yep, and still have just a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1:Residual stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit more, we have a 12-volt fridge.
Speaker 1:So that's going to be our DC power and that is all right through the same batteries, right? We?
Speaker 2:didn't. So there's no power factor there. The battery know, the battery can handle that, um, depending on the batteries, sure, right? So yeah, now, basically, you've taken the mid-level system and went to an advanced system where there's far less detail in what you could turn on right now. Is it still possible, uh, for you to peak this system, sure? Oh yeah, right, because you still have a dryer. And if you're running two acs and the dryer, yeah, now you got, yeah, you could peak it, you know, but far less, far less time at that point.
Speaker 1:So typically on that you go from three acs down to two acs well and run your other things and what's interesting too is when you start getting into that power management stuff like we were talking about this yesterday, just kind of reviewing my breaker panel okay, well, for balancing the loads right. So, for whatever reason, on one leg, my. So we're in a toy hauler now, if you're not familiar with that. So our first reaction is going to be, if we need to cut power to anything for management systems, it's going to be a toy hauler space Right. When we're in transit it's really almost non-usable for us. I mean kind of how we load it. So I really wanted to have air conditioner and our bedroom air conditioner on separate legs. Yeah, because it spreads it out. And of course, not a jab at alliance or anything, this is just all oems. They don't necessarily pay attention to that they don't balance it.
Speaker 2:Not only that, but you, the rv user, you may want this mid level, uh, so mid bomb, or I'll say this again um, how about your kitchen ac and your bedroom ac on? The same time another person may. Their lifestyle may be kitchen, ac and rear.
Speaker 1:AC. Yeah, and they don't know what your preferences are going to be, and so for us it made the most sense to separate our kitchen and our bedroom air conditioner, and then they can be on the same leg or at least get the microwave off of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say that. Don't put two ACs and the microwave on the same leg, which is what our coach had yeah, now I will say that Don't put two ACs in the microwave on the same leg, which is what our coach had. Yeah, and that happens and you know, I and I know if you ask the people who know at the OEMs, they know it just gets all the way down and sometimes you know people are people.
Speaker 1:It happens, yep. Sometimes labels are put in wrong has done it perfect. No yeah, exactly, even custom-built. You're going to go back and go. And it was your fault. You designed it. You said you wanted that. I didn't know what I wanted.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's totally true.
Speaker 1:I'm guessing you get that sometimes when you're actually designing systems for people of callbacks Like this is actually I didn't need as much or I wish I had I have yet I've heard and that's actually the Wayward Wags.
Speaker 2:Now they're a little bit thinner than the rest of us.
Speaker 1:What are you trying to say, Todd?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just saying they're not average. I still think I could take Dustin, Just depends on what it is. So they start off with a single inverter system. They drank the Kool-Aid and within two days, hey, let's go with the second one. It they drank the Kool-Aid and within two days, hey, let's go with the second one. It happens, but I've gotten word. They're like hey, we don't need to run two, because of course they travel and stay in fair weather, they can get by with one. They were so far the only couple that ever said well, maybe I didn't need this much, Because I used to say I've never had someone say, darn it, I bought too much, Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, darn it, I bought too much, right? Yeah, that's also true, because it just works and you don't really care how efficient or anything at that point because you don't have to worry about it. But they also might have been a little scared of what they were getting into at the time.
Speaker 2:And that's part of it. Yeah, because you still don't know, especially if you're new to boondocking like, ooh, I need to go ahead and prepare for maybe the worst, and then you find out. Well, wait a minute. What I always say is they may RV right, they go where the temperate weather is.
Speaker 1:Again. I feel like you're taking shots at me over here.
Speaker 2:No, no no, it's just some people full-timers they can move and for those of us that are full-time and not telecommuting or whatnot, we're kind of relegated to wherever we're at, and that's what happens to us so we're not our being right, because we still got businesses and everything else right.
Speaker 1:So so when you do like and that's one of the things that you and I talked about because I didn't know you guys very well when I came to season one production, yeah, we didn't know you at all. And then we got to know you throughout the course of that and then I remember somewhere around the first week mark and you and I started to realize we kind of could you know, yeah, we did smartasses together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did like each other. Yeah, repercussions for everybody else. It's like he's my brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry for everybody else that got sucked into that, right? We don't poke fun at anybody ever. We're angels, that's right. It's all about other people. Yep, so I told you. Because you mentioned. You said well, if you want to do something, just like, think about it for the next week, like what, what do you really want to have on right now? Don't think about the fridge, we'll take that into consideration.
Speaker 1:Don't think about all this, like what there's the, what do you want to get to get by, what would make it comfortable, and then you know we'll talk about where that lands as far as dollars and all of those other things and for the next week, as I sweated because it was 90 um and I had my one lead acid battery with the inverter that barely ran my fridge um that I took that into consideration, especially the second night when I was actually sitting outside at three in the morning because it was so hot inside the coach yeah, the best time to create awareness is in the summer, when people start thinking about it.
Speaker 1:Yes, it was um, but no, but that was a serious like I kind of said, like, well, I really would like to run one AC overnight if it just stayed on constantly, assuming it's under a reasonable amount of load. And that was the bedroom AC, because I told myself like sweating, sleeping and the bed's amazing. We've got a Brooklyn bed or rvmattresscom from Brooklyn Bedding Bed, which is great. Unless you're hot, then that big squishy thing just becomes a heat tortilla.
Speaker 2:Well, and you've got to think as well. I mean, heat is going to go into the surfaces and if you only have one AC trying to draw all the heat out, it takes forever to get it out of physical surfaces.
Speaker 1:The temperature in the air may be fine, but this still may be three or four degrees warmer Right, and so now you've knocked that AC down a little further to kind of get it to that point, and or basically 2 am 3 am by the time you get rid of swamp butt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much so that's why we and you even asked me that well, what's overnight mean to you? I remember that question because I was like that's a really good point. Because I said we go to bed around 9 or 10 typically, we're go to bed early, get up early people. And then remember you said like okay 10 shoot, let's.
Speaker 2:What is that? I've already got up for my first. You break.
Speaker 1:Insights to Todd's bathroom schedule. That's right. But, no, but you need to turn the AC on a little bit before, because RV air conditioners are nowhere near as efficient as house air conditioners.
Speaker 2:Well, I wouldn't say, the efficiency is not so much in the air conditioning, as it is the RV itself. It's a two-inch wall. There's a lot of sliding parts. Heat comes in.
Speaker 1:And it just takes a minute for it to cool off up there. So, we've gotten in the habit of starting it, so I remember you saying well, if you want to run it for, let's say, eight hours overnight, it's really like 10.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so typically, yeah, what I do is I say, knowing the RV industry, every place you go there may be quad hours, so you can't run your generator right and your solar panels don't work. At night you may see voltage, but it ain't doing jack until the morning. So to me I always ask what do you run at night? Because at night, during that time frame, batteries are the only thing you have. You got what you got, that's it. So tell me what you normally run, Because some people, like I said, I'll even ask them what temperature do you set your thermostat at. Ask them what temperature do you set your thermostat at? Oh, I like 68. Oh, that means it's on 24-7. All right, so, yeah, this is how many batteries you need. Oh, you know I'm skinny, so 78 seems cold to me. Oh, shoot, here's one battery Also.
Speaker 1:True, right, so as far as our system, when you start talking about cost, just to kind of put a bow on that side of the conversation, what I know, unfortunately, yeah, between $24,000 and $28,000.
Speaker 2:Okay, right. So I know, and people are like, drop the phone right now. Right Now, here's the thing You've got to think now. There's two different ways of looking at this, right? What I'll say is the intangibles, the conveniences that you get from this. It's hard to put a dollar factor on it. It is. But if we look at an ROI return on investment, hey, why would I put in a $28,000 system when I can go to RV parks? Average overnight stay used to be $45. Now it's about $60. I know it's gone up, right, so you just take that average overnight stay of 60 and divide that into whatever the cost of the build is Okay, and on that $8,000 system, that's half a year. Yep, right, all you got to do is spend half a year not at RV sites. Now you get to open up where you're going 16,000, roughly one year.
Speaker 2:Right, right 28,000, two years for your ROIs.
Speaker 1:So it is. I mean, if, if we had an rv and I'm like I'm only going to keep this thing for a year, I wouldn't have put this system in oh, that's another thing I always ask him is this the rv?
Speaker 2:you're going to keep right, because it's kind of like a swimming pool.
Speaker 1:You're not going to get back everything which and I will say that is different for motor homeowners versus trailer owners right, motor homeowners can like, oh like, at least 20 years, and they could if it's a diesel pusher and they'd maintain properly all those things. Yeah, could do that hypothetically.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Trailers? It can, but depending on how you're using it how you've retrofitted it.
Speaker 2:I will say that's pushing it on a trailer, though, Again, kind of like a pool. It will be the first to sell Right Apples to apples, one with a solar system and one without.
Speaker 1:Ask me how I know, because they're sold really fast thanks to the system.
Speaker 2:But it's kind of like a pool versus a really big pool. You're not going to get back as much on that really big pool.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's where the intangibles come in, but it is the convenience of doing all that and I think one of the biggest conveniences that you didn't mention, but it happened to us is we actually at an RV park and there was a storm that rolled through Transformer went down. Power went out. Well, what's the transfer rate on these inverters?
Speaker 2:1 20th of a second In other words, barely blink. And the power went out. And if it's at night, nothing blinked because nothing was on. That's also true, except for the AC, ac doesn't see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go. So the power went out. We were inside, it was just after dinner sometime, it was happening, so it was a little darker. It was a little darker, it was a little cooler, so the acs weren't necessarily on for this scenario. Right, the power went out. We literally had no idea. And then we went to go take the dogs on their, on their walk, and there's, you hear generators running and people are outside with flashlights looking around and we're standing out in front of our coach and realizing that the power went out, talking to some of our neighbors and one of our acs kicked on.
Speaker 2:yeah, uh, yeah, I got the stink eye real fast this is, yeah, I know, that's just how you pull your blinds down, you know but let everyone know that you're. You know you're rving right.
Speaker 1:You have all the power everything still works, even though we're sitting right there and, ironically, the power went out for almost three days. Yeah, I mean, people were bailing at that point, right, they're going to hotels, they're going to stay with friends, friends and family and we literally I mean we had to obviously go into consumption power management mode and worry about our consumption, but it really worked, for the most part, flawlessly. There was a couple of times we had to pull out. We actually got and I want to talk about kind of backup systems in a second Right absolutely.
Speaker 1:We had a backup system in that I had an off-board generator. Our old coach was a traditional fifth wheel so I didn't have an on-board generator on that. So we just bought an off-board and kind of put it in the back of the truck and needed it when we had it kind of a thing Known as a portable.
Speaker 2:Or a portable. Well, it depends on which industry you're in. Yes, and I will tell you, in all systems I will recommend a generator. Right Again, I look at law of diminishing returns. Well, what if I get one more battery? Well, you know, it'd be cheaper at this point, if it gets you through the night, to get a generator, because there's going to be certain days where not enough sun, you're under a tree or anything else like that, where having that generator will definitely help out or it gets really, really hot.
Speaker 1:Right, let's be honest. If it gets to 105, 110 degrees, you're in the Arizona desert in the summer. Right, sun's beating down on the coach cooking you.
Speaker 2:These systems have what's called a power assist. It allows the power to go through the generator, so the inverters aren't working as hard, but they make up the rest of it Right, so you can extend your stay.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly what we did. We would just run the generator in the evening hours when we're cooking dinner. When we had some of our higher loads, the microwave might turn on.
Speaker 1:A few other things. We got the TV going. Acs might have kicked on because we're cooking inside all that. So we would turn the generator on for four-ish hours in the evening and it always would almost support what we were doing. We'd have a little bit of power assist, but then as we started to wind down, we left the generator on a few more hours. Just charge up the batteries.
Speaker 1:Yep it's just charging the batteries and we typically get it back up to near capacity maybe not all the way, and then enough to get you through the night enough to get me through the night and I started to learn where that percentage on the batteries or the volts that you're reading coming out of it gets you to that point. And then then I would turn it off and we'd go to bed and wake up the next morning, and typically we get up about when the sun comes up, and so it we. If we had a good enough battery, I'd leave it and see what the sun did in the morning. We had good morning sun for the panels where we were situated in that in that scenario, right, and so I didn't have to use it until again, probably about four or five o'clock the next day, ran it for about four hours and that was our transition.
Speaker 2:For those, that's quite honestly the difference, because I had the same system that we put in yours, other than the quatt, but I had eight batteries instead of six, and so it only took me two hours of generator time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, because with more capacity, yes, it does take longer to charge up, but I didn't need to, right, because I had more. So the question is is the cost of the you know two more batteries worth it versus the fuel of the generator? That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:If it can get you through the night and you figure that out, you get more efficient with it, because you're not running the generator for four hours, you're only running it for three or whatever, or two, or just essentially whatever that need is, and there's times where you might need it a lot more and times you'll never need it, but it is nice to have that backup.
Speaker 2:And that convenience of not knowing when the power goes out, because we have never experienced more power outages than living in the RV, especially in Texas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have a power problem, apparently, and when you think, man, there's ways to mitigate this.
Speaker 2:That's what I need, Right, you know, for us intangibles driving down the road with the air conditioners on, even in a fifth wheel, because they've got a system that'll do it. Yeah, you know, get your side off, get into your site put your landing gear down, get your slides out.
Speaker 1:She already has 70 degrees. Well, that's what I was joking with, lauren, because I'm getting ready to head back and pick her up spoiler, she's not here for the filming of any of this stuff, because she has to work. Yeah, she's. She's that, I'm just kidding. Sorry, baby, there's no one there. Um, um, wow, thank you, todd. Um, we're cutting all of that now. Thanks a prick. We're cutting all of that now. Thank you, prick. You made me have to edit. I don't even know what I was saying.
Speaker 2:Now I got focused on that, oh, that you were about to drive out, maybe with the AC on.
Speaker 1:So not only am I going to go up to Fort Worth with all the ACs on, but when I get there I'm not overly concerned about getting the electrical cord out first. Right, and all that stuff. I can kind of get the slides out and worry about that.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's one of those where it's like I want to get the ACs on, so I pull up and, as it's leveling, I'll worry about the ACs. Right Now, let it level, get the truck out of the way and I can go right in and start setting as all get out. They can come inside. She can start doing her thing. At the end of the day, it actually makes us more efficient. Yes, and it's not 90 degrees in the coach when we get in here, so it doesn't take an hour to cool off.
Speaker 2:It's just there already essentially those are the intangibles. It's hard to put a number on it, but man it changes the way you RV, especially on travel.
Speaker 1:Started talking a little bit about kind of recharge and discharge rates when we were talking about consumption a little bit. So what a lot of people hear 12 volt, 24 volt, 48 volt and all of those types of things like what I mean. Where do you even start at that point when you start talking about moving from a 12 volt system into a larger capacity?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, okay. So here's a couple of things. The debate between a 12 voltvolt system, 24-volt system and a 48-volt system the closer the voltage is between the two conversions, the more efficient it runs. So a 48-volt system will always be more efficient than a 24-volt, always more efficient than a 12-volt. What does that mean? I can get more out of the batteries. I can transfer that over into true power, right, because 48 volts going into 120 is a little over two times, right. 24 volt going in there, five times 12 volt going into 120, 10 times. So there's a power factor there. It takes energy to change energy, right? So I lose some of the capacity out of my batteries just converting it over.
Speaker 2:Some people say smaller cables and all that. It's really not about that. It's honestly up to you on what you want to do. Here's a consideration your RV runs on 12 volts, right? So if you go with a 24-volt system or a 48-volt system, there's considerations. Do you leave your existing 12-volt system in to run your 12-volt system, right? Or do you buy more components to drop down to 12? I will say, though, the bigger the system, right, um, going with a like yours, in your case a 24 volt system, on these big um five, um, quattro, 5000s. Right one, the inverter is gonna be a little bit smaller. Uh, a 12 volt versus a 24 volt. The 24 volts smaller, yeah, because smaller size coils in there don't have to it doesn't have to work as hard Gotcha.
Speaker 2:That's where the efficiency comes in, so it's a little bit lighter, so it's all on the margins, but a lot of people typically, when we go to a double inverter setup, that's where we start recommending do you want to go 12? This is what it would look like.
Speaker 1:I mean, do you want to go?
Speaker 2:24? This is what it would look like. But quite honestly, you know, I have the guy who trained me has a system just as big. He went 12. He just did a cost analysis. He said, Todd, there's really a hundred dollars.
Speaker 1:Difference between the two.
Speaker 2:So I'd rather do that and then run all my 12 volts off of my new system, gotcha.
Speaker 1:So it just depends At my new system, gotcha.
Speaker 2:so so it just depends at the end of the day, it's really just what the person's going to use it for. The solar controller is really the biggest part. Gotcha right, the solar controller. I can go with half as many solar controllers, uh on the uh on the solar side. Simply because 24 volts, it can push out twice as many watts.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's all all right, todd, besides your batteries, because obviously when you start talking about, this is kind of the todd's favorites things section of this. So, other than your brisket, brisket and whiskey, um besides the batteries, because obviously I think you're a fan of your own batteries. Um, are there particular kinds of equipment? You prefer to stay with brands yeah.
Speaker 2:So because there's a huge learning curve when it comes to this, and if I'm putting in a system, you know, in an RV for a customer who doesn't know electricity, all they want to do is just go experience life, right, right, I want a system that communicates with that individual and tells them what's going on, what everything is, and so for that I mean, right now it's Vitron. Vitron has a communication system that is far and above any one other system out there. Something goes wrong, it can tell you.
Speaker 1:Not only will it tell me, but because he helped install, he did install it and it didn't help at all, it actually tells him too. So if I have a problem. It's nice because you have access to my system via the solution.
Speaker 2:I ain't going to look at it 24-7. You're going to have to alert me.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I mean, though, is if. I'm experiencing a problem. It's kind of handy because then you can go oh hey, this is what's going on versus the whole. Go get a multimeter, do this, what's that say? Do this, what's that say?
Speaker 2:Oh, completely, because it captures all the data, and that's that's the neat thing. Is that's all free when you buy the system? Yep, you just got to set it up, right, right. So, um, yeah, you have all that. You have that connectivity. There are some other brands that I'm, you know, working with that, are you know? I'm trying to get in the rv market, uh, solark, because they have a wonderful all-in-one system, but there's certain things in RVs kind of quirky that we don't have in the residential.
Speaker 2:But that's really what I'm looking at is what can inform the RV owner what's going on with the system?
Speaker 1:Very cool. Well, hopefully you have some questions about batteries, inverters, all of that stuff. So make sure, brisket, brisket, we're good with those questions too. I'll answer those. We'll get Todd's opinion on that later. Depends on how you want it to taste Good or adequate, wow, good. Adequate, wow, we don't get along at all, by the way. Nope, but man big, thank you. Where can everybody find to order Big Beard? Where can everybody, where can everybody go to order a Big Beard battery? Or just find out more information?
Speaker 2:Not only that, but if they want the one thing that we do at our company, which is BigBeardBatteriescom or BigBeardBatterycom Doesn't matter, you can actually go over there. We can actually even help develop a system for you can actually go over there. We can actually even help develop a system for you. We actually do full of solar installs, uh, so, um, kind of a turnkey situation here.
Speaker 1:Well, you've got some cool stuff coming which obviously we're not going to talk about because it's still teetering in there, but uh, but you have some really cool things coming to the, to the new I'm just gonna call it compound yep, uh, and things that will go in along with solar installs, solar clinics, yeah.
Speaker 2:We actually just released that, where you have some of those that want to DIY, but maybe they don't have all the tools and they just need someone to sign off on it, right? So they don't want to spend the money, the complete, you know amount, of having someone install it, but it's just beyond their reach. Well, what if we grab five or six of you and did a little clinic and give you all the stuff that you need to build it and watch over it? Right? So we're looking at creating some solar clinics. There you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:Man, thank you so much. Thank you for everything with the RV. Obviously, we're going to have big plans to take this thing out in the middle of nowhere and chill for a little while and find some scenic views Right. So make sure and stay tuned we have a lot more coming up with todd as well, because we are at the day of the release of this uh two weeks out, two weeks out from the premiere, is it two or is it one?
Speaker 2:well, so it starts on wednesday.
Speaker 1:Today is saturday so well, but it's not.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to release date oh, I don't know when you're releasing, that's why I'm trying to do math in my head. It might be one week week, so it might be one week. Yeah, we're a week out, a week to ten days out.
Speaker 1:From the season two premiere of RV Unplugged. Make sure and go over to RV Unplugged TV, sign up for the watch and win, because there is a ton of stuff, a ton of giveaways. Yeah, you can win all kinds of stuff $70,000 is what we have so far. Can I have some?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, that's not safe. You just got a lot of batteries. That's true, I did.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, man.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys and we will catch you guys next week. I'll see you later, Thank you.
