Solar Questions
I'm interested in adding solar power and lithium batteries to our trailer, but I'm getting lost in the weeds. For starters I calculated what I think would be our worst case power need (without u...
Forum Discussion
BeerBrewer wrote:
TV & DVD = 30.3 AH (using and inverter for 4 hours)
Misc Lights = 5.0 AH
Furnace = 48.0 AH (4 hours at 12 amps)
Dometic Frig = 72.0 AH (24 hours at 3 amps)
Water Heater = 6.0 AH (6 amps for 1 hour)
Water Pump = 7.0 AH (7 amps for 1 hour)
Power Vents = 5.0 AH (5 amps for 1 hour)
Misc loads = 7.2 AH (LP and smoke detector, power awning use, antenna booster, etc)
Total: 180.5 AH
!
I think your numbers may be a little out to lunch. ;)
if you have a new trailer the manuals will have the actual running amps of each piece of equipment. a fridge will ramp up with it lights then drop off to almost nothing just for the control system, a furnace does the same but had a fan draw, and water heater is the same as a fridge. the furnace is probably closer to 3 ah/hr a fridge running on propane will be about 1.7 ah only when its running so depending on temp that may be 4 hours a day to about 12 hr/day, water heater same thing, almost no draw as its only the ignition then its propane . if you install LED lights and don't have them all on at the same time you could drop that down to 1 or 2 ah. as for your inverter you need to take the power consumption of what you are powering and add a few percent for the efficiency of the inverter. I only use about 70 ah/ day in a 39 foot fifth wheel and that's about 2 hours of running the converter for the coffee pot and 2 hours for the kids to watch a movie and the furnace in auto all day in September up north here.
I have 480 watts of solar and four, 235ah 6v batteries and I never have to worry about power.
Steve
