Battery questions for boondocking

valhalla360 wrote:
When you say "portable inverter set" are you talking about a "portable inverter generator" that burns gasoline to generate 120vAC power or an inverter that takes 12v battery power and converts it to 120vAC power. Results in a totally different answer to your question but it sounds like you are talking about a generator.

If it's a generator, a couple 6v deep cycle batteries and then run the generator in the afternoon for an hour or two to recharge them, should allow you near unlimited time away from shore power and should be plenty to run the furnace overnight. Just plug in the normal shore power cord and your onboard charger will take care of charging the batteries (don't use the 12v outlet on the generator, it's very low amperage (7-10amps vs 40-60amps) and it's unregulated). For 5-6 weekends per year, I wouldn't mess around with a solar system.

If it's an inverter, you really need to consider what you are using it for. 120vAC items tend to use a lot of power and a battery bank to support it will be pretty big if you are using a lot of power.

PS: Inverter Generators are a generator type that generates DC power and using a built in Inverter converts it to AC power. A traditional generator develops AC power as it's native output but requires the engine to run at a speed that corresponds to 60hz AC power. A couple of big advantages to inverter generators, they typically use high quality inverters that generate much cleaner AC power compared to old style generators and second, unlike old style generators, they can throttle back when loads are light to reduce fuel consumption and noise. The old style try to maintain an exact engine RPM that corresponds to 60hz...typically either 1800 or 3600rpm. Even with little demand, it takes more fuel to keep the RPM up, it makes a lot of noise running so fast and when you add a heavy load, the RPM sags resulting in poor quality power which can damage sensitive electronics.

Yes I meant inverter generator. I use 2x 2000 w Champions with a parallel kit and a 50amp plug. Works great and is relatively quiet, but even still we dont like to run it for more than a few hours per day, and do not want to run it over night. When traveling long distances and stopping at walmart just to sleep I dont mind running them at all, but when we are in the woods we prefer the natural quiet. Thanks for the suggestions!