how long can i run the heater on 12V battery?

[Rapidly]

We're heading out for camping tomorrow afternoon in our 2010 Jayco 1007 popup. Western Minnesota, predicted lows around 50 (nice weekend!). We won't have AC hookup, so question is, how long can I run the heater on battery alone? I realize it's very dependent on temps and settings and other draws (lights, etc.), but just trying to get an idea of how many hours that squirrel cage fan could run on a fully charged 12V. I would not expect to run it all night but bedtime and wakeup would be nice. We have a solar charger to top it up some in daytime.

[Terry]

Depends on a lot of factors as you said....also add battery condition....

I would not see having any problem running at night and in the am. If you are conservative...it will last quite a while...Does your camper have a 7 pin that charges the battery from the tv? You could also give it a little extra juice by running the tv for a while.

[LongIslandCamper]

It's manageble for one night, but that's it as long as you're frugal with the other lights, water pump, radio, etc...

[RoyBraddy]

I would carry along a MR BUDDY 1lb propane canister heater (LOWES-WALMART) and use the POPUP furnace as a back-up. The furnace fans draws around 6-8 AMPS DC and thats alot of drain if you plan on running it all night long. We also heat a big pan of water on the stove...

The MR BUDDY heater will run around 7 hours on one propane canister. We sit our Mr Heater on a shelf we use and just open the roof vent right above it a tad. Keeps us warm and snug all night and safe to use. We also have one of the AC/DC O2COOL 10-inch fans (LOWES-WALMART) to move the air around the POPUP.

We also use an electric blanket which is run by an inverter but you have to plan for these kinds of things with your whole battery system to be successful about it and not run out of battery in the middle of the night. My battery system includes a smart-mode Converter/Charger, LED replacement boards, Inverter, larger battery cables, additional batteries, to operte all we want to use when camping off the power grid in a one day/night experience. Then we re-charge our battery bank with a 2KW Honda generator to 90% charge state in 2-3 hours the next morning during breakfast so we can do this all over again for the next day/night camping experience.



sample photos from google images

[tlhdoc]

If you only use it at night and in the am you should be fine. If you have a second battery, or can borrow one for the weekend you won't have to worry.