{"id":31336,"date":"2025-06-17T10:25:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T08:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=31336"},"modified":"2026-03-05T17:39:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:39:04","slug":"shaving-ice-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/17\/shaving-ice-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaving ice in the desert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOne of the best things about running a mobile Hawaiian ice business is that your customers \u2013 aged from 2 to 92 \u2013 are always excited to see you!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Sisters Tamie and Linda have been operating The Polar Express<\/em> from a retrofitted school bus for 23 years. It seems their bus doesn\u2019t even have to be open for business to attract customers:\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI remember one day our bus broke down when we were driving through a residential area; while we waited for help, kids started lining up on the sidewalk, waiting for us to start serving<\/i>!\u201d<\/p>\n

With growing competition, regulation, and operating costs, the success or failure of their business depends on a good deal of planning, paperwork, and reliable electricity. Their equipment has to work faultlessly all day.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine you\u2019ve paid to bring the bus to a music festival, and now there\u2019s a line of 50 customers when all of a sudden everything shuts down and you have to leave the counter to see why your battery isn\u2019t working<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last twenty years Tamie and Linda have tried dozens of inverter, battery, shore power, and backup generator combinations, resulting in all kinds of failure: overheating batteries, machinery shutting down at random, blowing the breakers at the event venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ice cream needs to be stored overnight in the vehicle, and every season something would go wrong. More than once we\u2019ve left the truck plugged in overnight only to return in the morning and find the freezer had lost power, and all the ice cream melted. That\u2019s several thousand dollars of product literally down the drain<\/i>,\u201d says Tamie.

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Hawaiian Ice draws more power<\/h4>\n

Linda and Tamie began selling Hawaiian Ices in response to a shortage of pre-packaged ice cream during the COVID pandemic. Shaved ice was a hit with customers, but it complicated their power needs – requiring more freezers, a bigger refrigeration system for liquid ingredients, and an instant hot water heater to meet health code requirements.<\/p>\n

With all these power-hungry appliances, Tamie and Linda didn\u2019t dare to use an Air Conditioner for their own comfort. \u201cHot weather is good for business, but for us working a hot tin box all day, usually without shade, it makes you sweat just thinking about work.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Needing a better solution, Tamie reached out to Jason Sloan, owner of Slung-Lo Solar,<\/a> in Montrose, Colorado. Slung-Lo specialises in the custom design and installation of Victron Energy solar power systems for recreational vehicles and off-grid applications.<\/p>\n

After years\u2019 of disappointment, Tamie was reluctant to spend more money on a new power solution. \u201cWe grilled \u2013 and I mean <\/i>grilled<\/i><\/b> \u2013 Jason over two or three meetings, asking him every question in the book. He was so patient with us, asked a lot of questions back, and showed us several systems they were installing in his workshop to explain how they worked, and how simple they were to manage.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Free From Worry…<\/h4>\n

\u201cTamie and Linda are not technical<\/i>,\u201d says Jason,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cthey want to show up, flip on the lights, and start selling shaved ice \u2013 and we wanted to make sure they could do that<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jason works with Victron Energy devices because of their advanced custom programming capabilities, and the possibility of split-phase and three-phase configurations: \u201cMany of our customers want programming flexibility. RV owners travelling across the country want to maximise their solar usage and minimise costs when connected to shore power at campgrounds. We customise how their systems manage shore power\u2014turning it on and off based on battery charge levels and solar system performance. We design battery capacity to match their desired days\u2013 or hours of autonomy, then balance the loads accordingly<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Building a business with Victron Energy\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

With a background in building data centres, Jason loves the remote monitoring capabilities he builds into his installations.<\/p>\n

\u201cLinda and Tamie haven\u2019t been able to depend on their power system in the past. With the Polar Express installation it was important to me in the early days to see how it would cope with a long weekend. I wanted to monitor it to see that the temperatures were where they should be, and that there was no overload. We\u2019re looking for consistency and reliability during operation \u2013 and with Victron Remote Management (<\/i>VRM<\/i><\/a>), we can confirm that without needing to be on site<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked with other manufacturers, and we replace a lot of them for our customers. When I started researching who we wanted to partner with from a business perspective, we were looking for quality; a good reputation on warranty; and continually improving equipment, systems, and services. With Victron being a global company with equipment used in a variety of different applications, it helped us make that choice.\u201d<\/i> In 2022, Jason partnered with Victron Energy distributor Intelligent Controls<\/a> to access the vendor pricing, system design, and troubleshooting support he would need to grow his business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe also do a lot of three-phase and split-phase systems”; <\/i>he says, “the ability to size them based on customer\u2019s need makes it nice to install inverters in parallel to increase the capacity. We do a lot of large RVs which are full-time homes and have 3,600 watts of solar on the roof, and two 5,000VA <\/i>MultiPlus II<\/i><\/a>\u2018s in split-phase \u2013 running dryers and three air conditioners.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a 140-amp service to the environment! <\/i><\/p>\n

“Victron gives us the ability to blend solar and shore power. On our really large systems, when we hit a certain wattage draw, we\u2019ll activate shore power to offset the draw on the battery. And then when loads are reduced, we turn it back off. It saves them several hundred dollars a month.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Public Event Power Grid<\/h4>\n

Tamie and Linda almost always have a grid connection, but when they don\u2019t they need to be able to power all their loads. By adding even a small amount of solar on top of the bus they can maintain all their refrigerated equipment and run their shaved-ice machine and other appliances without being plugged in.<\/p>\n

Just last weekend, they attended an event at which vendors paid for a power supply using a generator mini-grid. Unfortunately, the site generator broke down and it took almost two hours to get it back up and running. Tamie and Linda\u2019s solar system provided uninterrupted power \u2013 resulting in their best weekend on record for sales! \u2018If we were wondering about our investment before \u2026.we\u2019re not wondering now<\/i>!\u201d they say.<\/p>\n

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They also enjoy the benefits of an air conditioner on hot days; they have fewer hours of autonomy when it\u2019s in use \u2014 resulting in the battery State of Charge (SoC) dropping to 20% after six or seven hours of operation. But they can go all day without plugging in and still drive home with some battery power remaining.<\/p>\n

Jason’s System design considerations<\/h4>\n

The vehicle spends considerable time parked between events. To maintain optimal SoC levels, Jason incorporated a second 230Ah smart battery that integrates directly with the Cerbo GX<\/a>, which manages battery charging across all devices through direct connection and the inverter via the VE.Bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe installed a 30-amp shore-power inlet RV connection\u2014similar to what they\u2019d encounter at shows. We then used a dogbone adapter to step down to 15 amps and configured their system with a 13.5A current limit to prevent blown breakers. Nobody wants to be that person at an event!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cBased on their consumption patterns and system requirements, we installed a <\/i>Quattro 24\/5000\/120 <\/i><\/a>inverter\/charger. Given their high amperage draw we opted for a 24-volt system with a 230Ah battery<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSizing the battery bank largely revolved around being able to travel between shows in Utah and Colorado. In desert areas where it\u2019s warm, they needed to run the air conditioner for at least four hours or use the generator<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen planning the installation, we needed to decide where the equipment would go and how to keep it cool \u2013 and dry. The freezers generate significant heat, and onboard the bus the atmosphere can be humid, necessitating a watertight electrical system. We also needed easily accessible emergency shut-offs. Our solution was a waterproof aluminium enclosure for the Victron equipment. The box features a floor-level vent for cool air and a top exhaust vent allows airflow across the equipment. A <\/i>Ruuvi<\/i><\/a> temperature sensor connected to one of the Cerbo GX<\/a> relays automatically controls internal fans based on the box temperature, ensuring the Victron equipment and battery stay cool and dry<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir generator sits on a custom rack at the back of the vehicle with a cable running to a port on the van\u2019s side, allowing them to plug it in. When the generator starts, there\u2019s a delay on the AC switch to allow for proper warm-up\u2014particularly important at altitudes of 6,000 feet and above, where they often attend events<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

An automatic start\/stop generator function is triggered by battery state of charge. \u201cWe allow the batteries to run fairly low before the inverters automatically shut off. On the DC side a BatteryProtect device is configured to shut off their LED lighting at 30% state of charge acts as a friendly reminder to those working inside that it\u2019s time to start the generator!<\/p>\n

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The power system in The Polar Express includes:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n