Another Generator Thread
I'm looking into generators and I'm in option overload. Somebody help me sort it out? We're taking a trip in November, pretty much overnighting at Overnight Parking or Walmarts along the route. I...
Forum Discussion
Hi,
Solar generates just fine as I trundle down the road.
A group 29 battery contains about 1300 watt-hours. A golf cart jar holds a bit more. That leaves a usable capacity of 650 watt-hours per unit. It is unlikely that the entertainment devices would use more than 100 watts per hour.
Without knowing the duty cycle (how much time per hour does the furnace run) it is not possible to gauge what the demand is. I can't help, as I simply don't use my furnace much at all. For me the furnace is an emergency back up heat source.
A guesstimate based on a 1/3 duty cycle for heating for nine hours would be about 400 watt-hours.
With twin batteries 50% capacity is about 1300 watt-hours. Demand for furnace and entertainment are about 700 watt-hours. That leaves lots of power to keep the fridge running on propane, and for led lighting.
Solar generates just fine as I trundle down the road.
A group 29 battery contains about 1300 watt-hours. A golf cart jar holds a bit more. That leaves a usable capacity of 650 watt-hours per unit. It is unlikely that the entertainment devices would use more than 100 watts per hour.
Without knowing the duty cycle (how much time per hour does the furnace run) it is not possible to gauge what the demand is. I can't help, as I simply don't use my furnace much at all. For me the furnace is an emergency back up heat source.
A guesstimate based on a 1/3 duty cycle for heating for nine hours would be about 400 watt-hours.
With twin batteries 50% capacity is about 1300 watt-hours. Demand for furnace and entertainment are about 700 watt-hours. That leaves lots of power to keep the fridge running on propane, and for led lighting.
el.jefe wrote:
Solar is great in theory, but 2 problems 1) I'm driving during the day and stopping after dark and 2) counting on solar in November in this part of the country seems like a bad idea.
Even if I invest in the kind of battery capacity that will let us run a 300w inverter for a couple hours in the evening plus run the furnace all night, I can't imagine I'll get more than 1 day of that with a battery setup up, will I? 300 watts for 2 hours would be about 60 amp hours, wouldn't it? Can I get significantly more than that with a 2 12v parallel or 2 6v series setup?
