How many amps

[Hobo2]

Going to be dry camping at me Mexico balloon fest first week October. From 9pm to 7am batteries only. Have residential refrigerator and maxxair fan in fifth wheel. How many amps total in batteries would get me by? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[beemerphile1]

Hobo2 wrote:
...I will bring 3 spare batteries in series....

Hobo2 wrote:
...Have not tried the solar system as of yet. We are full-time now. Have not done any dry camping as of yet....

You are talking about October, you have lots of time to prepare.

Hook up the solar panels, disconnect from shore power and give it a try. At any point you discover that your current batteries aren't sufficient, plug back into shore power. Keep experimenting and by October you will be able to lecture on the subject rather than guessing based on internet chatter.

[Bumpyroad]

dons2346 wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
" dry camping .... residential refrigerator" equate only with many dollars spent.

Well, this is a worthless post. It is obvious that you have no idea about the requirements needed of a residential refer. We manage a refer with 500 amp hours of battery for almost 20 hours without needing a generator

congratulations for not spending many dollars to be able to maintain your residential refrigerator
bumpy

[dons2346]

Lwiddis wrote:
" dry camping .... residential refrigerator" equate only with many dollars spent.

Well, this is a worthless post. It is obvious that you have no idea about the requirements needed of a residential refer. We manage a refer with 500 amp hours of battery for almost 20 hours without needing a generator

[MrWizard]

When at the balloon fest
Deploy your solar use it to augment aka add to what the converter is doing with the generator running, you want to try and be at full charge every night, when quiet hours start, even if that means running the generator all day

Your 12v add on batteries , all connect parallel, aka plus to plus, neg to neg with the end of your 6v/12 system
The sixes are really one 12v that is in two pieces/boxes, remember it's just one big 12v , power leads are the two end points

[Hobo2]

Yes we have 2 generators that can be hooked together for 30 amps or just run one. We also have two folding 150 solar panels. We are drug store cowboy and girl when it comes to rving. Our DRV has two 6 volt batteries on it and I carry a spare marine grade 122 amps. Have not tried the solar system as of yet. We are full-time now. Have not done any dry camping as of yet.
Thanks again for your input

[MrWizard]

Yes we spent dollars on solar and batteries and generator fuel
And we have a fridge that gets cold fast, food doesn't spoil, and it doesn't have to be level, and it works just as well at 110* as it does at 50*

After our repaired l.p. Fridge blew up 6 years ago, we went residential, it's been great

As some users on here like to say, you get what you pay for,
That's a phrase I don't like to use, and I think gets over used
But yes we have paid to have a residential fridge

[time2roll]

So 9PM to 7AM is quiet hours? Are you running a generator the rest of the day?
Time to review your charging system to make sure you are close to 100% each day.

Consider adding some solar if parked in the sun.

[Lwiddis]

" dry camping .... residential refrigerator" equate only with many dollars spent.

[MrWizard]

I think that max air uses 3 amps on high less than 1 amp on low
30 amps hours would be halve of one small car battery
Not RV house batteries

kohldad wrote:
The residential fridge is going to be the biggest problem. If you don't open up the doors and have some ice jugs you can put in there, it would help the load. An alternative would be a few pounds of dry ice wrapped in a towel.

Doing a quick internet search, it seams for 11 hours you will need 200A/hrs which includes the inverter draw, so about 182 A/hr for the 10 hours you specify. This will required 4 batteries to provide the power.

The maxair set on it's lowest setting will draw about 3A/hr for the 10 hours means 30A/hrs. That is a little over 1/2 of one battery. The other standard parasitic draws will require the rest of the battery. This also means very little light usage.

Therefor, you may squeeze by with 5 batteries unless you help the fridge with ice jugs (which you can refreeze each day while on the generator). The ice jugs would probably give you enough to spare for the lights.

Edit: Here is the article for reference on someone who put a residential fridge in their RV: Article

[MrWizard]

It's three spare 12v in "PARALLEL"

Series is when you use 6v pairs positive connected to negative to make 12v

We have a residential fridge, with fridge, tv pc lights, and some electric blanket use
We avg about 135 amp hrs over night
Any thing from 300 ampHrs up fully charged , should be no problem overnight and keep you above the 50% line

We have 675 ampHrs use 20~25% overnight
But we full time and I don't want to drag them down to the 50%
If it can be avoided

[Hobo2]

Thank you very much so I will bring 3 spare batteries in series. You've been very helpful. That's the only drawback to my new DRV. A gas refrigerator would have made dry camping so much easier.

[kohldad]

The residential fridge is going to be the biggest problem. If you don't open up the doors and have some ice jugs you can put in there, it would help the load. An alternative would be a few pounds of dry ice wrapped in a towel.

Doing a quick internet search, it seams for 11 hours you will need 200A/hrs which includes the inverter draw, so about 182 A/hr for the 10 hours you specify. This will required 4 batteries to provide the power.

The maxair set on it's lowest setting will draw about 3A/hr for the 10 hours means 30A/hrs. That is a little over 1/2 of one battery. The other standard parasitic draws will require the rest of the battery. This also means very little light usage.

Therefor, you may squeeze by with 5 batteries unless you help the fridge with ice jugs (which you can refreeze each day while on the generator). The ice jugs would probably give you enough to spare for the lights.

Edit: Here is the article for reference on someone who put a residential fridge in their RV: Article

[Bumpyroad]

and do you want to run the batteries dead or 50% down, etc.
bumpy

[beemerphile1]

I would suggest you try it in your driveway and see how your batteries hold up.

[EsoxLucius]

Do you mean amp hours?