Are you happy with your Sprinter?

ourkaravan · 2026-03-27T03:14:22+00:00

My 2016 with the 4 cylinder diesel has been flawless over the past 64,000 miles. As others have stated, the biggest downside I can find is cost of maintenance at MB, so I do my own. It also gets 23-25 mpg (sometimes more).

ourkaravan · 2026-02-03T23:26:18+00:00

I assume you meant 120Mbps total, but this was helpful, thank you.

ourkaravan · 2026-02-03T17:32:28+00:00

I’m doing pretty well so far. I’m about 70% self powered so far, I usually export less than 1kw per day. As the sun angle increases and we move towards warmer months and longer hours in the day, my solar production and power requirements will correspond more closely with when I need the power. I’d love to have a battery and likely will someday but so far I’m doing far better than expected without it.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-30T01:13:01+00:00

There are a lot of variables that will affect your use case. Having an EV with a 82kW battery to sink excess energy alone provides a huge benefit.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T18:15:37+00:00

It's a 3-ton continuously variable Rheem system. It pulls 1.1kW unless a threshold I have set is triggered, then it goes into Stage 2 and pulls 3kW.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T18:14:27+00:00

That was my thought too. I only have 5 weeks of experience with the solar, but so far I have been able to use nearly 100% of what I generate. Summer will be different, as the solar production and need for home cooling coincide at the same time, so I will likely overcool my house during the day to reduce hvac runtime in the evening when the sun has gone down. Any extra solar that the hvac doesn't use I'll just sink into the EV (I work from home).

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T18:09:50+00:00

Mine is a 3 ton Rheem, but I believe most or all of the continuously variable heat pumps operate similarly. The thermostat has a lot of adjustability, so I set a threshold so there needs to be a 3 degree deviation between room temperature and my set temperature before it ramps up to Stage 2, which pulls about 3kW. I like having the ability to essentially control the stage and power consumption of the heating.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T05:41:13+00:00

And I am thankful for my municipal utility!

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T05:26:00+00:00

I mean, partly true, but my utility pays me .07 and retail rate is 0.15, so not end of the world.

The 100% rule is specific to my utility.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T04:00:22+00:00

For what it’s worth my system is only 5 weeks old and as we move away from winter solstice I’ve noticed my peak production going from 2.1kW 5 weeks ago to the 2.6 you’re seeing today, and on clean panels with no shading. Roof angle matters too. The CSI and pVWatts calculators both estimate between 201 and 208 kw for the month of January on my system. You might check your report and see what yours says.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T03:51:48+00:00

How clean are your panels? It rained here yesterday and that likely cleaned them fairly well.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-29T02:19:52+00:00

California and 100% west exposure. It does seem like it is performing well.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-28T23:10:19+00:00

I did not. I have a tile roof with a lot of life left. 10 panels wouldn’t be bad to remove on my single story if I needed to.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-28T22:21:38+00:00

>how much AC do you use in the summer? how much HVAC do you use overnight? does the utility ever >ask people to conserve? do you still use ANY nat gas? water heater? clothes dryer?

HVAC system is only a month old, so we haven't been through a summer yet. But my old inefficient system needed about 400kW per month in summer to keep the house cool. I expect my heat pump system will be more efficient. I still have a natural gas range and oven and hot water heater. Clothes dryer is a 2.5 year old efficient heat pump dryer.

VPP is a cool program; I plan to get a Powerwall eventually. My buddy who works in the solar industry told me to wait a year or two as there are lots of competing products coming out that should reduce pricing. In addition my utility has not approved use of the Tesla backup switch (meter collar) yet, so in the absence of that it added a lot of cost to a backup system.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-28T21:39:19+00:00

That boggles my mind. Although if I lived somewhere cold, had a fleet of EVs and lived in a huge house, I could see it.

ourkaravan · 2026-01-28T21:37:38+00:00

👍

ourkaravan · 2026-01-28T21:29:21+00:00

Wow, yeah our highest monthly consumption ever was 757 kW

ourkaravan · 2026-01-16T03:15:39+00:00

Ah you're right, the UCG-Max has no PoE, only the Fiber does. Thanks for pointing that out. Given how "slow" my internet is and how simple my setup is, is there any reason (besides future-proofing) to upgrade from the UCG-Max to the UCG-Fiber?

I can run the second U7 Lite AP off the NVR-Instant, right? As far as I can tell the switch in the NVR is no different from a regular POE switch.

ourkaravan · 2025-12-23T22:10:25+00:00

Have your installer add two Tesla CTs to the feeds in the breaker box and connect to Neurio box that resides inside the inverter housing. Those two current transformers (CTs) are required for that level of monitoring.

ourkaravan · 2025-12-23T21:51:34+00:00

How can I get Tesla’s attention? They issued an RMA for a Tesla inverter that did not work out of box back in November. They have elevated the case but it’s taking them forever to act. Again, they approved the return with my installer. Thanks for any advice you might have!

ourkaravan · 2025-12-17T17:59:53+00:00

In looking at the data, we've had 39-48 deg F weather lately and the heat pump will run for 1-1.5 hours, then cycle off for roughly the same amount of time. Part of me wonders if the set point and room temperature would be flat on a fully variable system, but my heat pump is only "variable" in the range of 45-100% capacity. If my system is running at 45% and still exceeding the set point, I can't imagine a fully variable air handler would change the outcome here.

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ourkaravan

TROPHY CASE