Upgrading power system
I have an old camper but I would rather just take care of it and fix/upgrade it as necessary as opposed to get rid of it and spend tens of thousands for another one. With that in mind, I'm at the poi...
Forum Discussion
I did the same in my 2008 OFF-ROAD POPUP camper... Did all the things to make it more green power wise and added a big battery bank... We use ours OFF-GRID alot with the concept we will run all the things we want to use including Ham Radio and have it planned out to drop our battery bank down to its 50% charge state by 8Am the next morning when we hook up our 2KW Generator to the trailer and let the converter/charger unit re-charge our batteries back up to their 90% charge state.
Most place we camp allows the generators for a few hours in the morning and early Evening (Never after 8PM)...
I went with the PD9260C Converter/charger unit as I want to be able to re-charge 3-4 batteries in a quick three hour time frame using my 2KW Generator connected to the trailer. Battery science tells us to recharge a wet cell battery in a three hour time frame you will need to have 14.4VDC with the capacity of 17-20AMPS DC current for each battery in the bank. Doing three batteries i can do this just fine in a three hour generator run time period. Four batteries take alittle bit longer but doable within the generator run time restrictions I keep running into... I might cheat alittle some sometimes and shut down when I get caught haha My 2KW Honda is pretty quiet anyways.
Your lower wattage unit will charge just fine but will take longer to do it...
Seems like where we camp we are always running into generator run time restrictions so when it is allowed I want to get it done as quick as possible...
The same rule also holds true for Solar Panels. You will want to have 17-20AMPs of DC current for each battery during the high sun period. A typical 120WATT Solar panel will only develop around 5-6 AMPS of DC current when in the high sun. This will require a longer charge period depending on how long you stay in the high sun... One of these days I am going to install enough solar panels to give me the 20AMPS I need for one battery and perhaps play the game I have high sun for 6-8 hours during the day to get them all charged up. I will most likely have to run my generator for the first hour of re-charging and then let the Solar panels take over for the rest of the high sun day. I really think of the solar panels as top off charges anyway and over time you just keep the batteries charged by by trickle charges...
If you really want to be able to keep your batteries charged you will need to have the generator for sure and let the solar panels supplement the charge. You will find some camping trips where you will not have high sun long enought to do much at all for charging. Got to have the generator for sure...
It kinda all depends on what you are wanting to do when you are camping off-grid and what you are willing to give up...
A typical early evening we will pull a good constant 20AMPS from our battery bank from 6PM to 11Pm each night with all of our toys... Not all that easy on batteries for us...
Just my thoughts here...
Roy Ken
Most place we camp allows the generators for a few hours in the morning and early Evening (Never after 8PM)...
I went with the PD9260C Converter/charger unit as I want to be able to re-charge 3-4 batteries in a quick three hour time frame using my 2KW Generator connected to the trailer. Battery science tells us to recharge a wet cell battery in a three hour time frame you will need to have 14.4VDC with the capacity of 17-20AMPS DC current for each battery in the bank. Doing three batteries i can do this just fine in a three hour generator run time period. Four batteries take alittle bit longer but doable within the generator run time restrictions I keep running into... I might cheat alittle some sometimes and shut down when I get caught haha My 2KW Honda is pretty quiet anyways.
Your lower wattage unit will charge just fine but will take longer to do it...
Seems like where we camp we are always running into generator run time restrictions so when it is allowed I want to get it done as quick as possible...
The same rule also holds true for Solar Panels. You will want to have 17-20AMPs of DC current for each battery during the high sun period. A typical 120WATT Solar panel will only develop around 5-6 AMPS of DC current when in the high sun. This will require a longer charge period depending on how long you stay in the high sun... One of these days I am going to install enough solar panels to give me the 20AMPS I need for one battery and perhaps play the game I have high sun for 6-8 hours during the day to get them all charged up. I will most likely have to run my generator for the first hour of re-charging and then let the Solar panels take over for the rest of the high sun day. I really think of the solar panels as top off charges anyway and over time you just keep the batteries charged by by trickle charges...
If you really want to be able to keep your batteries charged you will need to have the generator for sure and let the solar panels supplement the charge. You will find some camping trips where you will not have high sun long enought to do much at all for charging. Got to have the generator for sure...
It kinda all depends on what you are wanting to do when you are camping off-grid and what you are willing to give up...
A typical early evening we will pull a good constant 20AMPS from our battery bank from 6PM to 11Pm each night with all of our toys... Not all that easy on batteries for us...
Just my thoughts here...
Roy Ken
