Battery Question
Hi, I have a bunch of questions about batteries, invertors, charging, solar panels, etc. So I'll start off with batteries... My TC came equipped with 2 Interstate Marine/RV Deep Cycle SRM-27 b...
Forum Discussion
Kayteg1 wrote:
Some people are full-timing in their campers, so they have different needs.
Where I camp I need AC almost every night, so it is either generator, or shore power.
Generator is close to 20 years old, so don't have to worry about its amortization, when I spend in the range of $25 per season for generator gasoline.
My house batteries come from boat and sedan, so are free as well.
Why would I spend over $10,000 on big solar and bank of lithium?
If you are spending $10,000 you are doing it wrong. I would venture to guess that nobody in the Truck Camper forum has even spent $5000 on their battery / solar system. If there is one or two people that have, they are the exception and not the norm.
A couple of years ago the LiFePo4 batteries where expensive. Battleborns are a favorite around here because they are made in the USA (with foreign cells I understand). Their 100AH battery I think goes for $850 last time I checked. There are also some cheaper (Sub $500) batteries on Amazon as well. You need to do your research though as not all of them are the same with some being very poor quality and some being very high quality. This is one example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBonGQe363g
For myself, I stick with Battleborn just because I am partial to American companies but I won't knock others when price is more critical.
I only have a single 100AH Battleborn and it really is sufficient for most situations. I also have just 200w of solar plus a 20amp DC to DC charger so I can pull from solar or the truck if needed.
That 100ah battery is nothing to sneeze at either. Here is a test where one powered an air conditioner for almost three hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LL7lE4wXvs
That is very impressive. Tack on 400w of solar and maybe another 200AH of battery and you could easily run your AC all day without a generator. In fact, with this setup, I would sell the generator, shave a few hundred pounds in the process and be able to run AC all day anywhere I want.
All for well less than $10k...
