Furnace and battery
We have a 5 year old 30' Rockwood trailer that we often use dry camping at a local county park that can get cold at night. We have two 6 volt batteries and a solar charger. Before we leave home I ha...
Forum Discussion
pnichols wrote:MrWizard wrote:
my Furance draws approx 6amps when running, i have a good monitor connected to my batteries, depending on ambient temp, furnace run time etc.. i use 20-40 amphrs per night
a 50% run time cycle from 8pm to 8am , 6 hrs of running would equal 36ampHrs
you have battery and/or wiring connection problems
200+ ampHr of deep cycle golf cart batteries should be about to lights and furnace for at least one night and maybe 'two'
poor dirty loose connections will lead too battery problems
Your data about equals what I have found - except that our smaller Class C requires only about a 33% or less run time per cycle.
your lucky, 6A is on the low side for current draw. Many are 8-12A, mine is 8A. But a 50% duty cycle sounds about right depending on furnace and trailer size and temp.
In any case, yes a pair of GC should easily get you through the night along with some other carefull electric useage.
Now we hate the furnace cycling during the night, wakes us up, so I have a setback thermostat set at 45F at night, pile on quilts, then have the thermostat set to turn on such the temp is 68F at 8am. so furnace usually comes on between 5 and 6am, and will run constantly till 8 or 9 to get the temp up. then it cycles quite often for another hour or two before settling down.
