Battery bank in 35' 5th wheel
We recently bought the 5er in my sig, and I transferred the two new Rolls Surette 250 amp 6v deep cycle batteries from my old TT to the new 5er. I am tempted to buy 2 more batteries, but not sure if I...
Forum Discussion
We camp up-Island for weeks at a time off-grid in the open in summer so we get solar, pigging out on 12v with lots of inverter use too.
With the 5er we had same thing. Two batteries with lots of solar was plenty, only needing the gen a few times. We had four batts anyway for use in the winter, no solar, but didn't need all four in the summer.
In winter at Rathtrevor in the trees, no solar lots of furnace time it takes four batteries. Recharge with generator every second day. (every day with a lower amp charger) Gen hours are limited if you don't cheat. 9-11am . ( the 6-8pm time allowed was in the dark, so useless for us with a portable gen--be different with installed gen maybe) How many AH can you restore in two hours?
Your 1600 gen (Honda 2000?) can run a 55 amp converter. So less than 100AH in two hours allowing for tapering amps for the second hour. Furnace alone can use over 100AH in one day in Jan or Feb .
We have a higher amp charger for that reason, to get more done in the two hours, but that takes more of a gen to run it. We had a Honda 3000 to run a 100 amp charger and four batts to get by ok for a few days at Rathtrevor in Jan -Feb with temps just above freezing.
You only charge to 80 or 90% SOC by generator and stay above 50% so you operate between 50-90 say. Takes many hours to get from 90-100%, so no gen time for that! With a 500AH bank of four of those 6s, that means using 40% of your AH, so 200AH. With the 5er barn, it would sometimes take over 100AH a day just for the furnace. No way with just the two batts.
So if you only go out in the sunny, warmer half of the year and park in the open to get solar, two batts is enough. How much solar is enough depends. Two 130s would work for us most of the time. Wegosolar in Chemainus is where we get solar when needed.
With the 5er we had same thing. Two batteries with lots of solar was plenty, only needing the gen a few times. We had four batts anyway for use in the winter, no solar, but didn't need all four in the summer.
In winter at Rathtrevor in the trees, no solar lots of furnace time it takes four batteries. Recharge with generator every second day. (every day with a lower amp charger) Gen hours are limited if you don't cheat. 9-11am . ( the 6-8pm time allowed was in the dark, so useless for us with a portable gen--be different with installed gen maybe) How many AH can you restore in two hours?
Your 1600 gen (Honda 2000?) can run a 55 amp converter. So less than 100AH in two hours allowing for tapering amps for the second hour. Furnace alone can use over 100AH in one day in Jan or Feb .
We have a higher amp charger for that reason, to get more done in the two hours, but that takes more of a gen to run it. We had a Honda 3000 to run a 100 amp charger and four batts to get by ok for a few days at Rathtrevor in Jan -Feb with temps just above freezing.
You only charge to 80 or 90% SOC by generator and stay above 50% so you operate between 50-90 say. Takes many hours to get from 90-100%, so no gen time for that! With a 500AH bank of four of those 6s, that means using 40% of your AH, so 200AH. With the 5er barn, it would sometimes take over 100AH a day just for the furnace. No way with just the two batts.
So if you only go out in the sunny, warmer half of the year and park in the open to get solar, two batts is enough. How much solar is enough depends. Two 130s would work for us most of the time. Wegosolar in Chemainus is where we get solar when needed.
