Battery Life off the grid

[Marteau-JAY]

Deer camp is about a week away. I will be camping off the grid. I am taking my Yamaha 2400 inverter with me. If I am using the furnace at night will the battery last all night or will I need to run the generator? I have a 19H and will be turtled up.

 

[SkyBound]

You will probably kill your battery in one night. The 12V blower fan draws a lot of power. The problem is that batteries will be seriously damaged if they are drawn down below about 50%. The more you do it, the more damage you do, and it could ruin your battery in a season. Running your furnace on battery all night will almost certainly draw your battery down below 50% or 12.0 volts. You can either run your gen all night, buy another 12V battery just like the one you have (assuming yours is nearly new - don't mix new and old) and wire it in parallel, or cough up the $ and go to dual 6V in series for maximum increase in amp hours.

If you elect to run your generator, I would just run a 120V space heater. No sense in burning gas and propane.

 

[Clayton4971]

I would run the 2400 Yamaha I have had one for several years and they are very quiet. And would just idle with the furnace. I have used the furnace before and on a cold night you may get half the night on the battery .

 

[ottor]

1st night out with our new (at that time) 18BH ...... battery ran out at 3:00AM ... got so cold in that trailer that it froze an Onion as hard as a softball .... can't believe I didn't blow out any pipes... Got lucky, but learned. Now, I have 2 6V batteries, a 180Wt portable solar unit, and a Champion 2000 watt gen... All that, plus my new 19RD and a 90 Gal water tank, I can go forever... Well, almost.

 

[Marteau-JAY]

Thanks for the replies! I have my camper winterized at this time. I'll just be staying in it at night, we have a cabin at that location to congregate in. Probably run the generator and if the fuel runs out will have enough battery to run a couple hours easily according to your info.

 

[campingva]

Can you run a cord from the cabin? That way you could use AC to run your heater and fan.