Forum Discussion

relaxin's avatar
relaxin
Explorer
Feb 19, 2022

fuel cell????

Anyone seen any set ups utilizing a fuel cell to maintain a battery charge in an RV, a couple places I like to go are heavily shaded (in a forest) so solar is not very efficient, want to avoid using a geny and just maintain a battery with say 100 to 200 watts /hour (24/7) to offset normal usage, excluding any 120 volt appliances.

curious if the technologie is coming along.

I use to use a couple batteries, and then a generator to charge them when we went more than 4 days, but that sucks having to replace them every 5 years or so, for just a week or so of dry camping in a year.
  • For the price of a fuel cell you can build a monster LFP battery and simply not recharge. Should last 15 years with minimal cycling.
    Fuel cell degrades with use also.
  • valhalla360 wrote:
    StirCrazy wrote:
    didn't say they havent been around for a long time, saying this itteration of them is fairly new. if you average consumption in your rv is 50AH per day, whats wrong with having somthing that is capable of supplying more than that in the same day? and if you looked I said it would be great as an emergency back up for solar. I have never run out of power with my solar but I have come close several times as I don't live where it never rains and the sun always shines, I also don't limit my camping to july and augest when ther is lots of sun. I camped from march to november up north here where the solar footprint is also lower. so if we get threee days of rain the charge your getting is minimal and depending on your battery capacity is how long you can go. an example last october I was camping just outside of edmonton and hit three very overcast and rainy days and I got close to 50% of my capacity on the batteries (asid batteries in the camper still) but the next day the sun came out and I was good. if the rain and such would have carried on I would have had to look for a campsite with power to charge my batteries. having somthing like this could have topped me up again in under a day and I would be good for another three days of rain. this is why I was originaly looking at them a few years ago, but untill the price drops to under 1000 bucks I think they arnt worth it as its cheeper to expand your solar and battery capacity. both thoes companies do make bigger units that can be used like plugging in, but there big and bulky and expensive. not somthing you would have in a camper, where these ones can be used in a rv to offset battery usage and charge batteries when your not using power.


    If you are only using 50AH/day, just add an extra battery or two if you are worried about a cloudy day limiting solar output.

    If you really want a backup, a 1000w generator is small, cheap and puts out a heck of a lot more power.

    Other than to say you have some neato technology, these make zero sense in an RV application.


    thats what I did in the 5th wheel, but to even get 3 to 4 days of power in my camper I had to take the outside storage bay and shoe horn 2 GC2 batteries in there. eventualy I will be changing them to Li but thats all the room for batteries for now. no space for a genny and the gas to run it, nore the desire to ever have one of thoes noisey things. if it wasnt for the price they would be a nice quiet alternative to a generator, no polution, no noise and can recharge your batteries in under a day (for most people) will they work to run microwaves and such, no but I don't use mine when Im not pluged in unless we have the grandson with us and need to warm a bottle. if the 80ah one was priced in the sub 500.00 range it would be very handy to have and not just for the camper.

    Steve

About RV Tips & Tricks

Looking for advice before your next adventure? Look no further.25,102 PostsLatest Activity: Jan 18, 2025