power converters, and beyond.....
So, as I've been looking into developing my dry camping ability, I have noticed that battery charging has come to revolve around having a good converter/charger. I keep hearing about pitiful charger...
Forum Discussion
We have used our Parallax 7300 while boondocking, a few hours a day on the generator kept us going but the resting voltage in the morning was a 10th of a volt or more lower than had the battery been fully charged at home or using our solar.
We did it that way for up to two weeks at a time that season. No inverter so at times there was additional run time for cooking and such. A few times we were able to get the A/C started once the batteries had charged for a while. The 95 Ah grp 27 marine battery was steady at 12.4v every morning after running the LEDs and furnace over night. Fully charged it would be 12.5v and with solar 12.57v.
Had our needs stayed small like that some solar to finish the job after the generator run would have been great. A different converter would be better but on a small scale the solar will make up the difference. A few hours with the 45a converter and a 100w panel would whittle away at the last 10% all day. Some charge like this daily, I'd do it if we got caught in a extended cloudy period.
We did it that way for up to two weeks at a time that season. No inverter so at times there was additional run time for cooking and such. A few times we were able to get the A/C started once the batteries had charged for a while. The 95 Ah grp 27 marine battery was steady at 12.4v every morning after running the LEDs and furnace over night. Fully charged it would be 12.5v and with solar 12.57v.
Had our needs stayed small like that some solar to finish the job after the generator run would have been great. A different converter would be better but on a small scale the solar will make up the difference. A few hours with the 45a converter and a 100w panel would whittle away at the last 10% all day. Some charge like this daily, I'd do it if we got caught in a extended cloudy period.
