|
One of things I did with the coffee situation was to make my coffee for the day in the morning after 8AM when allowed to run my generator. My duty INVERTER is only rated at 600WATTS and I can't imagine how I would handle a hugh 2000WATT Inverter off my battery bank. That large of an INVERTER will draw at least 180 DC AMPS from my batteries if fully loaded.
We are fresh ground bean coffee drinkers and I will grind and make our ten cup coffee into a thermos carafe using the CUISINART DGB600B coffee maker. This only draws power from the generator for around 5 minutes and pours up the fresh ground bean coffee directly into the thermos carafe. This keeps the coffee hot all day long. Then I make another pot in the early evening when allowed to run the generator again.
My OFF-ROAD camping is done using 255AHs of battery capacity and have changed out my older converter/charger to a smart mode charger. I installed additional batteries and 4AWG battery cables. We also replaced the high current automotive incandescent lamps for LED BOARDS.
Our biggest drain is of course from 4PM to 11PM and then we have to deal with the normal parasitic drains with the trailer 24/7. We camp doing very much the same as we do at electric sites but of course no air conditioner or high wattage microwave use. We light up our surroundings and watch HDTV, run our computers, check in with the kids, pay bills, some surfing of the internet, I get to play with my Ham radio some. Our cooking is mostly from the Propane fired Grill. We usually heat our hot water on the gas stove and do stand-up bathing at the sink when camping off the power grid.
All of this was planned to drain my 255AH capacity battery bank down to it 50% charge state by 8AM each morning. Then I can connect my 2KW generator to the 30A shore power cable using a RV30A-15A adapter and let the on-board smart mode recharge my 255AH capacity batteries in a quick three hour generator run time. Some places only allow 2 hours of generator run time in the morning which makes have to do this all over again during the evening allowed generator run time but takes less time to get up to the 90% mark as the batteries are almost charged anyway..
We are very successful now doing this method of keeping our battery charged up over the past few years. We can do 12-14 50% to 90% charge state cycles on our 255AH capacity system but then have to do a full 100% charge mode which takes around 12 hours of generator run time. This of course isn't allowed at the camp ground so this is usually when we head for the house.
Adding solar power is my next add-on but will need several solar panels to charge my batteries in the one high sun day. A typical 120WATT Solar Panel will only produce around 5-6AMPS of DC Charge current and my three batteries want to draw 52-53AMPS DC current for the first 30 minutes or so to start their 90% charge state mode. Without this much DC current available from the solar panels will require a much longer time to get the batteries charged up before you run out of high sun. In my case the plan here is going to be to run the generator for the first two hours until I get to the 13.6VDC MODE in my charge cycle and then allow the solar panels to continue the charge until the batteries reach their 90% or more charge state. I can get around 18AMP DC current from three 120WATT Solar panels up to around 4-6PM each day here on the East side of the US.
My success is to never let my batteries drop below the 50% charge state which means I have to start each evening heavy battery drain time with at least a 90% charge state. Otherwise the lights will go out on me around 10PM at night. Also in my case it is also very hard on the battery life expectancy to let them go below the 50% charge state. My lifestyle usually draws around 20-22AMPS from my batteries from 8PM to around 11PM at night. Then I draw around 2AMPS the rest of the time to cover the parasitic drain.
Just some thoughts from this end on my camping off the power grid experiences using my OFF-ROAD POPUP camper since 2009.
Always interested in how others do this real life problems keeping the batteries charged in the one day/night from the batteries.
Roy Ken
__________________
Roy and Carolyn
I claim Horse Creek Country in Southern Ill - Momabear is from North Texas
We live in King George VA
RETIRED DOD DOAF DON CONTRACTOR Electronics Tech 42YRS
"We're burning daylight" - John Wayne
2008 STARCRAFT 14RT OFF-ROAD POPUP with PD9260C and three 85AH 12VDC batteries
2010 F150 FX4 5.4 GAS with 3.73 gears - Super Cab - Towing Package - 2KW Honda EU2000i Gen
K9PHT (since 1957) 146.52Mhz
"We always have a PLAN B"
|
Linear Mode
