Did everyone get all their questions answered ok -
I camp off the power grid alot and seem to be getting away with around 300WATTS of power drain from my battery bank in a one day/night camping run off my 255AH capacity battery bank. I have a 600WATT Inverter direct connected to the battery bank that runs my 120VAC home entertainment items as well as several other 120VAC must have small items. I will draw around 20AMPS from my battery bank between 8PM and 11PM and then draw around 1-2 AMPS DC the rest of the time directly from my battery bank to run all of the keep alive 12VDC items during the one day/night battery run. All of this draws down my 255AH capacity battery bank to around 12.0VDC the next morning which is when I run my 2KW Honda generator during breakfast to re-charge my battery bank back up to its 90% charge state. I connect my trailer shore power cable directly to the 120VAC receptacle of the generator and this allows my on-board smart mode technology Converter/CHarger re-charge my 255AH capacity battery bank. This takes around three time of generator run time.
This is also the time I make up my fresh ground bean coffee while the generator in running and pour up into a thermos for the day. Sometimes were we are camping we are only allowed two hours in the morning to run the generator so I will charge for that amount of time and then I get to charge again in the early evening when I am usually allowed to run the generator again. This gives around 5 hours of generator run during the day which definitely gets my battery bank back up to its 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again for that day/night camping runoff the batteries.
My success is to keep an eye on the battery drain and hopefully I have it all planned out just right what 120VAC items to use with the inverter and direct connected 12VDC item to the battery bank to get my battery bank DC Voltage no lower than 12.0VDC the next morning which is telling me I am pretty close to having my battery bank down to around 50% charge state (12.0VDC). This is where everyone want to recharge to batteries.
I can do around 10 or so of these 50% to 90% battery bank charge cycles when camping off the power grid before I have to run a full 100% charge state which takes around 12 hours of charge time without doing any damage to my 255AH battery bank. We normally camp off the power grid over the weekends and sometimes as much as a couple of weeks and get to do my 12-hour battery 100% charge state after we get back home. 12-hours of generator run time is not allowed at most camp ground we end up at here on the East side of the US...
Got to play all their noise games with the generator at most camp sites we go to...
Took some planning on our part getting to this point but right now we are pretty successful camping off the power grid and get to do almost everything we would normally do at an electric site except NO air conditioning or high wattage microwaves. Camp site is lit up inside and outside just like we do at an electric site. Momabear gets to watch her HDTV everynight...
However when heat is required it really messes up to the normal camp run routine thru the night as the propane furnace 12VDC blower pulls to much from the batter bank running all night long. This makes us warm up things real good before going to bed and then just use the furnace set to a low temp setting and get under the covers.... Cool mornings make the coffee really taste great the next morning anyway... I'm working on a hydronic heater plan to use my hot water heater for a steady heat source to keep from having to use the propane furnace at all when camping off the power grid.
What we found out is you just cant run to the camping off the power grid sites and expect it all to work without planning involved. It will get dark on you around 10PM at night with depleted batteries and that makes for a long dark night until the sun comes up again haha...
We get by great with smart mode converter/charger, LED lights, more batteries, PSW Inverter, and a 2KW Generator. Our game plan is to do all the things we want to do using our 120VAC appliances and 12VDC direct connect items in the one day/night camping experience and then be able to re-charge all of this back up the next morning with the 2KW generator when allowed to run one. This is our daily routine camping off the power grid. Good for 10-14 days camping back in the woods.... Been doing this for the past five years now using this setup...
Other campers coming down the forest service roads are amazed at how we are all lit up outside enjoying ourselves around the camp fire after a good day of enjoying the back woods country. This is the time we catch up with the radar weather-watch a couple of favorite shows we like on HDTV, visit with the kids at home on the internet, pay some bills, and I get to play with my Ham Radio sometimes.
For us this is pure bliss...
If we need to have some air moving around us to keep the mosquitoes off of us back in the woods we just plug in a fan...
My camping off the power grid story -
Roy Ken
Linear Mode
