RV Roddy

Having a whole house (trailer) Inverter is a fantastic boondocking solution but it does bring power conservation to the forefront. My Inverter consumes a constant 55 Watts just being powered on before any loads are considered. Fortunately, much of the RV is powered by the 12 volt system where the Inverter is not needed. With 700 Watts of Solar, 400 Amp Hours Lithium Battery Bank, and a 3000 Watt Inverter, it's good practice to turn the inverter off when it's not absolutely necessary. Why not expand your 12 volt capabilities so you can do more while the inverter is off saving that 55 Watt overhead and the DC to AC conversion loss of 10% or so? I built a 12 Volt Breakout box directly connected to the Battery Bank Bus Bars with:

Five 3 Amp USB Charge/Power Outlets

One Cigarette Lighter Power Socket

One 3 Amp 5 Volt Step Down Converter

My remote Inverter Switch is mounted on the shelf on the far right of this photo.

12 Volt Breakout Box [Enlarge] 5.4mb

I have my trailer Router and Jellyfin Media Server secured with Velcro to the project box lid with separate power switches. My Jellyfin Server is running on a Raspberry PI 4. I can stream vast amounts of content locally or via the Internet without the Inverter. Of course I am limited to using my tablet, laptop, or phone. When I have the Inverter on or shore power connected I do stream the Jellyfin server to my AC powered Smart TV. I will most likely replace that TV with a 12 volt model eventually. I originally had two step down converters for the Router and Jellyfin server but one of them was DOA and zapped my Raspberry Pi 4. Although I'm powering the Router from the one good step down converter I decided to power the Jellyfin Server from one of the UBS outlets so I CANNOT recommend these step down converters. The four remaining USB Charge/Power Outlets are great for charging many devices. I do use the Cigarette Lighter Power Socket to power an 18650 battery docking station. Finally, I did install an inline fuse holder at the connection to the positive buss bar and loaded it with a standard 20 Amp automotive fuse. I found the 1 1/4 inch hole saw to be the perfect tool for drilling the Power Socket holes in the Project Box.

Jellyfin Streaming Server [Enlarge]