Plug an play powerstation VW Grand california

[leeb]

Hi

Seen this advertised on Grand Cali.com, a german website selling all things upgrade for Grand California.

Plug and Play Powerstation Integration VW Grand California - Ecoflow,

With our plug and play mains priority circuit, you have the option of integrating your power station (Ecoflow, Jackery, etc.) into your Grand California within just a few minutes. To do this, unplug a plug from your Grand California's original 230-volt fuse box and connect it to our...

shop.grandcali.com

Has any one on this group seen/used/installed this device?

Experience if so

Cheers

 

[GordonH]

It’s a new unit from Maddin Rabe so unlikely anyone has fitted it as yet.

 

[leeb]

Gordon....any views on its design then.?..I'm not sure I know enough about Maddin Rabe.
I thought that once hooked up to external mains the vans electrics start to charge the leisure and top up the starter batteries. If Ive got this correct won't this plug and play device just drain the power station into these batteries?
Maybe I'm missing something

 

[GordonH]

Gordon....any views on its design then.?..I'm not sure I know enough about Maddin Rabe.
I thought that once hooked up to external mains the vans electrics start to charge the leisure and top up the starter batteries. If Ive got this correct won't this plug and play device just drain the power station into these batteries?
Maybe I'm missing something

Maddin is a well known GC enthusiast and on GCs he is certainly very knowledgeable, I don't know of his skills/knowledge/experience regarding 230Vac electrical systems.
His design appears to use an electrically operated changeover switch which means when EHU power is present the system automatically switches to that source which is certainly a valid approach, there are many equally valid alternatives each with associated pros and cons. If I have interpreted the intended connection point to the GC correctly then, yes, I agree with you, it will mean the power-station supplies the entirety of the GC, including the EHU charger which in turn means it will charge the leisure battery which may be what is wanted as it is a common use case. The 'gotcha' is it will also by default charge the starter battery and will continue to power the EHU charger even after both batteries are fully charged.
From what I have measured float charging via the EHU charger consumes around 30W - 50W which is more than the average power draw of the rest of the GC habitation system so in practice you will want to turn the power-stations 230Vac output off once used or waste energy float charging the batteries, but that is probably good practice in any event as even without any external load the inverter on the power-station will consume energy.

 

[leeb]

Thank you for this rather expert response. I have swapped out my VW leisure battery for 150Ah Lithium and Victron 50A charger...so far we have never been short of 12v power when off grid for up to 5 days (so far)...especially if the sun shines. I have a ecoflow river pro which will power up my pod coffee machine and rather than go to the expense of installing an inverter just for this I am exploring options to mak this a little more integrated than plopping the power station on the end of the bed when off grid!
Your interpretation is very helpful
Thank you

 

[GordonH]

Thank you for this rather expert response. I have swapped out my VW leisure battery for 150Ah Lithium and Victron 50A charger...so far we have never been short of 12v power when off grid for up to 5 days (so far)...especially if the sun shines. I have a ecoflow river pro which will power up my pod coffee machine and rather than go to the expense of installing an inverter just for this I am exploring options to mak this a little more integrated than plopping the power station on the end of the bed when off grid!
Your interpretation is very helpful
Thank you

Its likely Maddins solution could be interfaced to the socket outlet circuit alone avoiding unwanted charging of the batteries by using the output connector that feeds the 13A socket circuit as the new source rather than the EHU feed and then connecting the output feed of the changeover system to the 13A sockets, again all plug and play, identical connectors are used throughout the GC so its a matter of choosing which circuit you want the changeover to interact with. I’ve uploaded a file that may explain it a bit better. This is a simple manual changeover switch approach for such a solution. This file and the schematic of a more sophisticated variant is available on the GC UK facebook group in the files section if you have the confidence & skills to build your own setup.

 

[bungiebananahead]

Circa £30 this is a game changer just tap into the 12V where you want too as it don't allow reverse flow so no charging the leisure battery.
Fitted one recently to my other van and works a treat.

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[leeb]

Its likely Maddins solution could be interfaced to the socket outlet circuit alone avoiding unwanted charging of the batteries by using the output connector that feeds the 13A socket circuit as the new source rather than the EHU feed and then connecting the output feed of the changeover system to the 13A sockets, again all plug and play, identical connectors are used throughout the GC so its a matter of choosing which circuit you want the changeover to interact with. I’ve uploaded a file that may explain it a bit better. This is a simple manual changeover switch approach for such a solution. This file and the schematic of a more sophisticated variant is available on the GC UK facebook group in the files section if you have the confidence & skills to build your own setup.

Interesting. I assume the white cable circuit from the GC 240 v consumer unit supplies the four (680) 240v outlets and the black circuit "other stuff"...truma heater, battery chargers and so on...correct?
In which case option 2 would be ideal.

 

[GordonH]

Interesting. I assume the white cable circuit from the GC 240 v consumer unit supplies the four (680) 240v outlets and the black circuit "other stuff"...truma heater, battery chargers and so on...correct?
In which case option 2 would be ideal.

Correct. There is a 1:5 way wago splitter on the ‘white’ circuit with 3 feeds, one to the socket in the garage, one to the one on the rear bench and the third to a further 1:5 splitter on top of the freshwater tank that feeds the 2 sockets above the kitchen worktop and the one in the ‘outdoor kitchen’. Truma, charger and habitation air conditioner , should you have that option, are on the ‘black’ circuit.

 

[leeb]

Brilliant...that was my hunch....plus i'd figured out the white splitter over the water tank with my trusty multimeter!
Regarding "safety issues" with ecoflow power pack ...I assume that the necessary features are built in. A search of the internet is a bit vague in this.