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RnTBnB's avatar
RnTBnB
Explorer
Jan 25, 2016

Questions about power for overnighting

I tried the search feature, but I didn't find what I am looking for. My wife and I travel with a 5er and we do not have a generator, so overnighting on a parking lot in hot weather is not an option for us. What setup would I need in order to be able to run a fan in the bedroom all night and a coffee maker the next morning? Running the 13.5 BTU AC in the bedroom overnight plus the coffee maker the next morning would be even better, so what setup would I need to be able to do that?

Thank you in advance for your input.

68 Replies

  • If you have a drip coffeemaker with a top filter basket, just heat up a pan of water on the stove and pour it into the basket to make your coffee.
  • RnTBnB wrote:
    I tried the search feature, but I didn't find what I am looking for. My wife and I travel with a 5er and we do not have a generator, so overnighting on a parking lot in hot weather is not an option for us. What setup would I need in order to be able to run a fan in the bedroom all night and a coffee maker the next morning? Running the 13.5 BTU AC in the bedroom overnight plus the coffee maker the next morning would be even better, so what setup would I need to be able to do that?

    Thank you in advance for your input.


    Pull-Thru campground with electrical power.
  • 3000 watts of generator will start a 13.5k A/C unit and run it just fine. 4000 watts should start a 15k A/C unit. General "quiet" hours while camping are 10 pm to 6 am for the generator needing to be shut down and turned off. So running the A/C during those hours, short of being tied in to a power pedestal, is not going to be happening via a generator.
  • RnTBnB wrote:
    Running the 13.5 BTU AC in the bedroom overnight plus the coffee maker the next morning would be even better, so what setup would I need to be able to do that?
    A trailer full of charged batteries and a big inverter.
  • To ventilate the bedroom I recommend a Fantastic Fan(or equivalent) in one of the vents to pull cool air into the bedroom vent or window. Add a 12v fan for additional circulation. Make coffee on the stove or French press etc. A second battery should be enough. Need 1000w to 2000w inverter to make electric coffee from the battery. Best to have 4 batteries for this but 2 might squeak by.

    Or 2000w generator should make electric coffee fine.

    Or you need 3000 to 4000 watts of generator to run the air and/or the coffee.
    Generally not practical to run the air conditioner from a battery.
  • Like others have posted.

    Generator.... for air conditioner

    Inverter and batteries for fan and coffee

    Ryobi sells a battery operated fan that will last many hours... they show 10 hours but we only get about 6 hours.

    In our bedroom over the bed we have a Fantastic Vent fan which we often use like a ceiling fan it will pull in smells when you're parked in a truck or rest stop. It runs off of our four house batteries.
  • There is only one way to run 13k A/C for more than a few minutes
    And that is a generator

    But you can run a fan all night from batteries
    Either a 12v fan direct or 120v fans from a 300w inverter
    You need at least (2) batteries and (4) would be better
    We have several 6" clamp on desk top type fans and a 20" box fan

    For coffee you need (4) batteries and a 1200~1500w inverter
    Coffee maker is around 900~1100w for a drip maker
    1500w for a kuerig or similar
  • Old percolator on the stove top would solve the coffee issue. A small invertor for the fan. The rest of the stuff you want to run seems like it is not possible without a gen.

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