Camplite Battery Charging

[daplumbr]

[quote timestamp="1466343625" source="/post/22325/thread" author="@exploringcarolina"]One guy on the Oliver forum with factory installed solar panels and 2000W inverter figured out how to run his 13.5K ac with on-board batteries for a few hours while at rest areas.


http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/ac-running-on-batteries/
[/quote]Very cool, so to speak. I'll look into that Atwood AC if/when we give up on the noisy 9.2K Mach 8.

[spot1]

[quote source="/post/22327/thread" author="@sandroad" timestamp="1466349870"][quote timestamp="1466343625" source="/post/22325/thread" author="@exploringcarolina"]One guy on the Oliver forum with factory installed solar panels and 2000W inverter figured out how to run his 13.5K ac with on-board batteries for a few hours while at rest areas.


http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/ac-running-on-batteries/
[/quote]Very cool, so to speak. I'll look into that Atwood AC if/when we give up on the noisy 9.2K Mach 8.[/quote]Like his AC system too, he has the Blue Sky Solar package, we don't have that system on our Ollie. We have a 2400W Yamaha gen-set when away from shore power.

Merlin,

Our Daughter and family are being transferred from MI back to the Carolinas, so not sure when we will be back in your area again.
Please let us know if you will be camping in the SE and we will try to visit or camp again!

[david]

You can run the A/C for a short period using an inverter, but you need a big inverter, and a large battery bank to do it. His A/C draws 12.5 amps AC. That will take more than 130 amps DC input to the inverter. That will take a pair of golf cart batteries down to 50% state of charge in less than an hour.

David

[spot1]

Believe he has 320W roof mounted solar panels with 2000W inverter. He might have had 4 Trojan T-105 or 4 Trojan AH T105-AGM batteries during the test.

Repeating what trumpetguy indicated: Running 12.5 AMPs is high from his actual experience with his unit. AC running is 4.5 to 5.5 amps.

http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/ac-running-on-batteries/

This is very interesting for me.

[daplumbr]

[quote source="/post/22327/thread" timestamp="1466349870" author="@sandroad"]Very cool, so to speak. I'll look into that Atwood AC if/when we give up on the noisy 9.2K Mach 8.

Like his AC system too, he has the Blue Sky Solar package, we don't have that system on our Ollie. We have a 2400W Yamaha gen-set when away from shore power.

Merlin,

Our Daughter and family are being transferred from MI back to the Carolinas, so not sure when we will be back in your area again.
Please let us know if you will be camping in the SE and we will try to visit or camp again!
[/quote]I hope the job transfer goes well. I'm sure we'll be heading to the SE sometime. The Okefenokee (Stephen Foster State Park) in GA is one of our favorite places in the winter. 

[silverfox]

Question's...I ran an underground 30AMP service to my trailer where I park it in my backyard. I have been keeping it plugged in between camping trips all summer. My wife leaves some food items in fridge between trips so I leave the frig on the AC setting except when towing when it switches to propane. Am I damaging my Interstate Deep Cycle Battery (provided by the dealer) or my charging system for that matter by keeping it hooked up to AC power for most of the summer? Seeing that we're on the subject.....I'm thinking of disconnecting my battery from trailer, leaving it in place and using my trickle charger to maintain charge for the winter, or will the rv charging unit do the same thing for me? Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks

[admin]

The on board charger controller is multi stage so it should kick into float mode when the battery is full. It shouldn't harm it at all.

[fasteddieb]

I keep our 21BHS plugged into our 30A service whenever it's at home.

Our original battery is coming up on 3 years old and has not seemed to suffer any ill effects from that practice. We now have that battery and our newer rear battery wired in parallel and they both seem to be charging properly.

[daplumbr]

[quote source="/post/24105/thread" timestamp="1472044760" author="@silverfox"]Question's...I ran an underground 30AMP service to my trailer where I park it in my backyard. I have been keeping it plugged in between camping trips all summer. My wife leaves some food items in fridge between trips so I leave the frig on the AC setting except when towing when it switches to propane. Am I damaging my Interstate Deep Cycle Battery (provided by the dealer) or my charging system for that matter by keeping it hooked up to AC power for most of the summer? Seeing that we're on the subject.....I'm thinking of disconnecting my battery from trailer, leaving it in place and using my trickle charger to maintain charge for the winter, or will the rv charging unit do the same thing for me? Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. Thanks[/quote]The electrics will be fine leaving the camper plugged in all the time, but you'll have to defrost the fridge once in a while  .  However, the absorption refrigerator is not very efficient when running on AC (it uses resistance heating to run the cycle), so your electric bill may see some effect. It is not at all like the compressor refrigerator in your house that likely has extremely efficient energy usage. 

[silverfox]

Thank you Gentlemen, that's just what I wanted to here. Except of course the part about the extra energy use. I just today installed a Dometic fan kit that clips on the fins inside my fridg. It's supposed to help with frost and comes with an on off switch. It also has a cool blue led light that illuminates the inside of fridge with seperate on off switch. Tomorrow I install another fan kit in the rear of the fridg to exhaust warm air build up. It has a thermo switch so it will only turn on when temp in rear of fridge reaches 130. The fans don't draw much but I'm sure it will add to the electric bill.