Charging Strategy, 1994 RoadTrek
Hi all, I've been diving back into how to upgrade my battery system in my class B and was hoping someone here could sanity check me. I have a small 100AH 12V coach battery and I'm upgrading to a pai...
Forum Discussion
4gnomad,
You are partly right and partly wrong. The question is not straight forward at all.
120 amps is correct--but there is a duty cycle. Operating the alternator above 80 amps may push it too hard, and let out the magic blue smoke. Monitor voltage closely, if it drops below 12.3 shut down the inverter *right now*. That is unless you prefer smoked alternator with your eggs and toast.
In a modern vehicle probably 35 amps are consumed by the chassis--leaving 45 amps for other uses. At night there will be less as the headlights are often energy hogs. 45 amps may sustain a load of about 450 watts from an inverter after accounting for losses.
My MPPT charge controller plays well with the alternator.
The 130 amp alternator in my RV can sustain a 1200 watt load for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then I turn off the load for 30 minutes allow the system to recover and reduce the load on the alternator.
I'd prefer to see you "aim" a little higher in quality than the aims (which makes a bad door stop and is not repairable).
Is there some reason you MUST have 3000 watts?
To feed a 3000 watt inverter means having 6 to 7 thousand watts of battery bank (600 amp-hours). AGM 12 volt jars may be a better choice than 6 volt units, for such a large inverter.
You are partly right and partly wrong. The question is not straight forward at all.
120 amps is correct--but there is a duty cycle. Operating the alternator above 80 amps may push it too hard, and let out the magic blue smoke. Monitor voltage closely, if it drops below 12.3 shut down the inverter *right now*. That is unless you prefer smoked alternator with your eggs and toast.
In a modern vehicle probably 35 amps are consumed by the chassis--leaving 45 amps for other uses. At night there will be less as the headlights are often energy hogs. 45 amps may sustain a load of about 450 watts from an inverter after accounting for losses.
My MPPT charge controller plays well with the alternator.
The 130 amp alternator in my RV can sustain a 1200 watt load for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then I turn off the load for 30 minutes allow the system to recover and reduce the load on the alternator.
I'd prefer to see you "aim" a little higher in quality than the aims (which makes a bad door stop and is not repairable).
Is there some reason you MUST have 3000 watts?
To feed a 3000 watt inverter means having 6 to 7 thousand watts of battery bank (600 amp-hours). AGM 12 volt jars may be a better choice than 6 volt units, for such a large inverter.
