Kayteg1 wrote:
What you might want to know, roof AC takes equivalent of 1 - 1.5 HP, so even with 3 of them, the 400HP + engine will never notice the load.
I am intrigued with 4 alternators though. My vintage conversion has single alternator, what I figure out is about 8,000W (it is in size of good bucket) and that alternator was build with passenger bus in mind, with lot of (incadescent) lights and gadgets.
What would make one putting 4 alternators?
Kayteg1,
The alternators are not the huge type. The extra alternators are to power the four 3,500 watt inverters so we can have full house function driving down the road. And, we can run any house item on battery power, just not all at once or we will drain the batteries quickly. The Lithium Ion batteries are expected to last 10 yrs. and can be rebuilt at a much cheaper cost vs. replacement. The price of the batteries have really come down over the years but still are a big commitment.
We lost power the other night at a RV park in Mississippi. About 1 AM, a car hit the telephone pole at the street. At 4 hrs. of inverter use (fridge on, hot water tank on, two small fans circulating air, engine battery charger on, air compressor for air seals activated).... we had 69% of battery life left. At 30%, the batteries will cut off and go into 'safe mode' (coach will be totally dead) if I didn't have the genny set to come on. Somewhere above that 30%, the generator will pop on automatically to recharge when the 'low battery' feature is activated. I can also set the generator to come on the second power is lost (didn't have that part activated).
To extend battery power, I could turn on the Espar to heat water and turn off any chargers, compressor, etc. (temporarily).
MM.
