jgerqano wrote:Yes I do want a battery. Thanks for the info. It is a starting point.
dancam wrote:jgerqano wrote:Yes I do want a battery. Thanks for the info. It is a starting point.
You want to charge it off the car battery only while your driving, and have it disconnected from the car battery like 99% of people do right? Thats the way to go, its a lot harder to wire the other way.
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
tony.latham wrote:Your next decision is whether you want just a 12 volt system or 12 volts plus a 120 volt system. 120 volts is more complicated.
We mostly boondock (no access to power and have a hatred for generators) and have no need for 120 volts, so all's we have have is a 12 volt system for lights, charging phones, watching a movie, and preheating the bed with a (12v) electric blanket. It works great for our needs.
Tony
dancam wrote:^ yes, you are better off buying everything that you can in 12v. There are threads about 12v televisions. Try to install your larger loads as close as you can to the batteries or the batteries as close as you can to the big loads. This reduces the thickness of wire that you need and voltage drop.
For 120 volt most things that you cannot buy 12v plugs to run them require a lot of power. We want to use a toaster. Its 750 watts. Thats 63amps at 12v but inverters are only 85-90% efficient. So it actually takes a 75 amp load off the battery to run the toaster and toasters run for a while. Inverters also shut off when the battery drops to a certain voltage, usually 11volts. Inverters also take 1-2 amps when they are on but not being used. So consider it carefully, buy all the 12v appliances you can. Spending more on them is worth it as the extra battery size you need to run an inverter, wiring for it and the inverter itself cost a fair bit.
Easiest is probably 2 good deep cycle batteries, one 12ga wire from the tv to charge them while the tv is running-never when its not running, a battery charger hardwired to the trailer batteries for when you have shore power. All 12v appliances if you can.
Where you plan to camp- what % of the time will you have shore power?
What specifically do you want to use thats 120v?
This has some good info it it.
The RV BATTERY CHARGING PUZZLE | HandyBob's Blog
I am planning on having shore power or a generator 100% of the time. I never considered running everything off batteries. I an planning on running the tv and lighting off of 120V as well as the air conditioner and heater. Is this a bad plan?
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the ... -puzzle-2/
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
jgerqano wrote:dancam wrote:^ yes, you are better off buying everything that you can in 12v. There are threads about 12v televisions. Try to install your larger loads as close as you can to the batteries or the batteries as close as you can to the big loads. This reduces the thickness of wire that you need and voltage drop.
For 120 volt most things that you cannot buy 12v plugs to run them require a lot of power. We want to use a toaster. Its 750 watts. Thats 63amps at 12v but inverters are only 85-90% efficient. So it actually takes a 75 amp load off the battery to run the toaster and toasters run for a while. Inverters also shut off when the battery drops to a certain voltage, usually 11volts. Inverters also take 1-2 amps when they are on but not being used. So consider it carefully, buy all the 12v appliances you can. Spending more on them is worth it as the extra battery size you need to run an inverter, wiring for it and the inverter itself cost a fair bit.
Easiest is probably 2 good deep cycle batteries, one 12ga wire from the tv to charge them while the tv is running-never when its not running, a battery charger hardwired to the trailer batteries for when you have shore power. All 12v appliances if you can.
Where you plan to camp- what % of the time will you have shore power?
What specifically do you want to use thats 120v?
This has some good info it it.
The RV BATTERY CHARGING PUZZLE | HandyBob's Blog
I am planning on having shore power or a generator 100% of the time. I never considered running everything off batteries. I an planning on running the tv and lighting off of 120V as well as the air conditioner and heater. Is this a bad plan?
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the ... -puzzle-2/
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
dancam wrote:jgerqano wrote:dancam wrote:^ yes, you are better off buying everything that you can in 12v. There are threads about 12v televisions. Try to install your larger loads as close as you can to the batteries or the batteries as close as you can to the big loads. This reduces the thickness of wire that you need and voltage drop.
For 120 volt most things that you cannot buy 12v plugs to run them require a lot of power. We want to use a toaster. Its 750 watts. Thats 63amps at 12v but inverters are only 85-90% efficient. So it actually takes a 75 amp load off the battery to run the toaster and toasters run for a while. Inverters also shut off when the battery drops to a certain voltage, usually 11volts. Inverters also take 1-2 amps when they are on but not being used. So consider it carefully, buy all the 12v appliances you can. Spending more on them is worth it as the extra battery size you need to run an inverter, wiring for it and the inverter itself cost a fair bit.
Easiest is probably 2 good deep cycle batteries, one 12ga wire from the tv to charge them while the tv is running-never when its not running, a battery charger hardwired to the trailer batteries for when you have shore power. All 12v appliances if you can.
Where you plan to camp- what % of the time will you have shore power?
What specifically do you want to use thats 120v?
This has some good info it it.
The RV BATTERY CHARGING PUZZLE | HandyBob's Blog
I am planning on having shore power or a generator 100% of the time. I never considered running everything off batteries. I an planning on running the tv and lighting off of 120V as well as the air conditioner and heater. Is this a bad plan?
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the ... -puzzle-2/
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
Oh, ok. If your going to have shore power or a generater all the time is there anything you need to run with 12v? Or can you just do it all for 120 shore power?
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
jgerqano wrote:dancam wrote:jgerqano wrote:dancam wrote:^ yes, you are better off buying everything that you can in 12v. There are threads about 12v televisions. Try to install your larger loads as close as you can to the batteries or the batteries as close as you can to the big loads. This reduces the thickness of wire that you need and voltage drop.
For 120 volt most things that you cannot buy 12v plugs to run them require a lot of power. We want to use a toaster. Its 750 watts. Thats 63amps at 12v but inverters are only 85-90% efficient. So it actually takes a 75 amp load off the battery to run the toaster and toasters run for a while. Inverters also shut off when the battery drops to a certain voltage, usually 11volts. Inverters also take 1-2 amps when they are on but not being used. So consider it carefully, buy all the 12v appliances you can. Spending more on them is worth it as the extra battery size you need to run an inverter, wiring for it and the inverter itself cost a fair bit.
Easiest is probably 2 good deep cycle batteries, one 12ga wire from the tv to charge them while the tv is running-never when its not running, a battery charger hardwired to the trailer batteries for when you have shore power. All 12v appliances if you can.
Where you plan to camp- what % of the time will you have shore power?
What specifically do you want to use thats 120v?
This has some good info it it.
The RV BATTERY CHARGING PUZZLE | HandyBob's Blog
I am planning on having shore power or a generator 100% of the time. I never considered running everything off batteries. I an planning on running the tv and lighting off of 120V as well as the air conditioner and heater. Is this a bad plan?
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the ... -puzzle-2/
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
Oh, ok. If your going to have shore power or a generater all the time is there anything you need to run with 12v? Or can you just do it all for 120 shore power?
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
I was thinking it would be nice to have batteries in case I pull in someplace and just want to sleep. Lights would be nice in this case so yes I think I should have a 12volt system as well. So my original estimate of having a generator or shore power 100% of the time is inaccurate. The number is probably more like 90%.
dancam wrote:jgerqano wrote:dancam wrote:jgerqano wrote:dancam wrote:^ yes, you are better off buying everything that you can in 12v. There are threads about 12v televisions. Try to install your larger loads as close as you can to the batteries or the batteries as close as you can to the big loads. This reduces the thickness of wire that you need and voltage drop.
For 120 volt most things that you cannot buy 12v plugs to run them require a lot of power. We want to use a toaster. Its 750 watts. Thats 63amps at 12v but inverters are only 85-90% efficient. So it actually takes a 75 amp load off the battery to run the toaster and toasters run for a while. Inverters also shut off when the battery drops to a certain voltage, usually 11volts. Inverters also take 1-2 amps when they are on but not being used. So consider it carefully, buy all the 12v appliances you can. Spending more on them is worth it as the extra battery size you need to run an inverter, wiring for it and the inverter itself cost a fair bit.
Easiest is probably 2 good deep cycle batteries, one 12ga wire from the tv to charge them while the tv is running-never when its not running, a battery charger hardwired to the trailer batteries for when you have shore power. All 12v appliances if you can.
Where you plan to camp- what % of the time will you have shore power?
What specifically do you want to use thats 120v?
This has some good info it it.
The RV BATTERY CHARGING PUZZLE | HandyBob's Blog
I am planning on having shore power or a generator 100% of the time. I never considered running everything off batteries. I an planning on running the tv and lighting off of 120V as well as the air conditioner and heater. Is this a bad plan?
https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the ... -puzzle-2/
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
Oh, ok. If your going to have shore power or a generater all the time is there anything you need to run with 12v? Or can you just do it all for 120 shore power?
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
I was thinking it would be nice to have batteries in case I pull in someplace and just want to sleep. Lights would be nice in this case so yes I think I should have a 12volt system as well. So my original estimate of having a generator or shore power 100% of the time is inaccurate. The number is probably more like 90%.
Ok, if lights are all you would need that you wouldnt want to start your generater for would you consider battery powered lights? You can get ones that stick or screw on, are led so they hardly take any power and are real bright, and get good batteries that will last several years unused. Look for lights that take aa batteries or bigger.
That would save you a lot of money, weight and time as well as some space.
However if you want to use other stuff with the generater off then were back to at least 1 battery and all that wiring.
Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests