question

johnbflat avatar image
johnbflat asked

SmartShunt Purchase Question

Considering purchase of a SmartShunt 500 for our new RV.

Question:

I believe the SmartShunt 500 is adequate to handle our charging and usage power configuration at this time. Looks like there is a little buffer. However, this does not account for any unforeseen future upgrades on our new RV trailer.

Am I thinking about this properly and should I purchase the next level, SmartShunt 1000?

I don't want to make an unnecessary purchase.

Thanks much for any input.

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400 amps......Four 100 amp Battleborn Li Batteries

18 amps.......Two 190 Watt Roof Solar Panels

11 amps.......200 Watt Portable Solar Panel

???...............DC to DC Charger Truck Alternator

429? amps.....Total

SmartShunt
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2 Answers
Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

It doesn't matter how many Ah (amp hours) you have. Only the maximum current flow (A) matters.

The small SmartShunt can handle 500A continuous that are 6000W at 12V, 12000W at 24V or 24000W at 48V.

So als long as you are below 500A you are good with the small SmartShunt.

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forester15 avatar image
forester15 answered ·

As an RV owner who just installed a 500A unit, I can't imagine you would pull more than that through the shunt. Disregard everything that runs only on 120V and consider only the 12V appliances or the AC/DC appliances running in DC mode (for example the refrigerator on propane plus a tiny draw for 12V control board, and same for water heater on propane plus tiny 12V draw). Even if they are all on at once, they wouldn't add up to a whole lot. Perhaps the largest draw would be the DC fans on the furnace, ceiling vent fans and such. Now if you are running an inverter to draw DC power to run AC appliances, you will have to add that in at its likely full draw. Even so, say 20A at 120V would be 2400W which at 12V draw would be 200A, assume a little more for inefficiency of conversion.

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