Power supply & Power inverter for boondocking
I am preparing to go full time and have already recieved a wealth of valuable information on this forum. Right now gathering information and starting the search for the right 5er/TV. Selling off all...
Forum Discussion
NINERBIKES - Sorry I didn't respond sooner....
My battery bank is the standard issue GP24 85AMP Interstate Batteries that came with my off-road trailer. I started out with four in parallel and lost one rather quick due to my older converter/charger boiling out the fluids before I caught it. Bee running only three of the 85AH batteries since then. They are just now needing replaced as their performance is not what it used to be.
I probably getaway with using these batteries by watching everything real close with my BATTERY METER PANEL I made up of DC VOLTMETERS and DC CURRENT meter. I never let my batteries get below the 50% charge state (approx 12.0VDC) and re-charge back up to their 90% charge state as quick as I can.
My converter/charger is the PD9260C 60AMP smart mode charger and draws right at 1000WATTS from my 2KW Generator when being used to re-charge the battery bank. Being smart mode this will re-charge my three 85AH batteries in around three hours. I don't think the 1KW HOnda will be big enough to run my PD9260C. Its 1KW output will only give you around 800WATT of usable power to run things. If your converter/charger is dropped back to lower current output then the 1KW Honda would run it ok but in my case I need to draw close to 60AMPs with my battery Bank when it gets hit with the 14.4VDC smart mode charge. It would charge my batteries but "NOT" within the three hour time frame I am allowed to run my generator each day.
I use my DC Meter PANEL to watch this process to make sure the batteries are drawing current when being charged. After you do it a few times you know what to expect during the re-charge process.
My 2KW Honda Generator does just fine running my on-board PD9260C and I also get to make my fresh ground bean coffee for the day when I start this process at 8AM each morning. Alot of places I only get to run my 2KW generator for two hours in the morning and then I have to wait until around 4:30PM to do this all over again to make sure I get a good 90% charge plus before making that evening heavy current draw until lights out and to keep the parasitic drains happy until 8AM the next morning.
I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary just have it all planned and try to follow my plan for each day when camping off the power grid. Really been very successful doing this for the past few years.
I follow another rule not to mess with my truck items for anything except to operate the truck. This includes using the alternator to charge my trailer batteries. My truck is my only way to get home and its non deep cycle batteries will die rather quick if you get them on the down swing of charge.
The truck alternator is indeed a smart mode charging system but it is controlled by the close installed truck start battery and probably doesn't even know the trailer batteries are in the loop to determine the smart mode charging requirements. As soon as the truck start battery get full the alternator will idle back to its float mode charge of around 13.2VDC. If you look up Progressive Dynamics rules for charging deep cycle batteries you will find 13.6VDC will take around 40 hours to recharge a deep cycle battery to its 90% charge state and 78 hours to reach full charge. That would be along time to idle your truck.. If you had large jumper cables directly connected to the truck start battery then the alternator might see your trailer battery bank and stay at 14.4DC Boost mode and perhaps re-charge your trailer batteries in three hours or so. To reach full charge this takes around 12 hours but you really don't need this as your deep cycle batteries will do a good 12-14 50%-90% deep cycle charges without doing damage to the deep cycle batteries.
I am no battery expert here where there are several "real" experts on here that may be able to explain it better than I can. I just made it thru high school and all of my experience is sleeping in Holiday Inn select hotels I reckon...
I do know if I just throw a quick couple of hours charge on my battery bank and when I look at them it shows it might be in pretty good shape but when I really start using the batteries hard they will drop off very quick and the next thing I know I have gone beyond the 50% charge state. You see alot of folks on here saying they just run their generator a hour or so aday and do just fine. That may work with minimal load but it sure does not work with my daily planned out routine of running off my batteries camping off the power grid.
I suspect the same would hold true if I was using solar panels during the day. I would never have enough solar power (14.4VDC at 60AMPS output) to bring my batteries back up to their 90$ charge state in the average 5-hours of high sunlight with just a couple of 120WATT Solar panels. Every panel I read up on only gives you around 5AMPS per panel of usable DC power. I would need four 120WATT solar panel to give me 14.4VDC@20AMPS of DC charge. Thats only good for one deep cycle battery. Now I am not talking about just getting trickle charge from solar panels I want to get my batteries back up to their 90% charge state before I use them again after they have been run down to their 50% charge state over night. Otherwise I end up with bad batteries in the near future. I suspect this would be a hard feat to do with just a couple of 100WATT or 120WATT solar panels. I'm back to running my 2KW generator again but by now I have run out time I am allowed to run my generator. I'm in a pickle haha...
I hope you can follow my thought thinking situation here... I have heard from others I worry about it too much... just do it... maybe so... Again my usual DC power drain is around 1-2AMPS 24/7 for parasitic keep alive drains and I usually see 20AMPs DC being drawn from my Battery Meter Panel between the 8PM to 11PM times running all of the night toys... Check your battery specs and see how long they will produce 12.0VDC@20AMPs and plan from that. Then whatever you take out you have to put back in...
It takes good planning to do what you want to do with your setup.
Roy Ken
My battery bank is the standard issue GP24 85AMP Interstate Batteries that came with my off-road trailer. I started out with four in parallel and lost one rather quick due to my older converter/charger boiling out the fluids before I caught it. Bee running only three of the 85AH batteries since then. They are just now needing replaced as their performance is not what it used to be.
I probably getaway with using these batteries by watching everything real close with my BATTERY METER PANEL I made up of DC VOLTMETERS and DC CURRENT meter. I never let my batteries get below the 50% charge state (approx 12.0VDC) and re-charge back up to their 90% charge state as quick as I can.
My converter/charger is the PD9260C 60AMP smart mode charger and draws right at 1000WATTS from my 2KW Generator when being used to re-charge the battery bank. Being smart mode this will re-charge my three 85AH batteries in around three hours. I don't think the 1KW HOnda will be big enough to run my PD9260C. Its 1KW output will only give you around 800WATT of usable power to run things. If your converter/charger is dropped back to lower current output then the 1KW Honda would run it ok but in my case I need to draw close to 60AMPs with my battery Bank when it gets hit with the 14.4VDC smart mode charge. It would charge my batteries but "NOT" within the three hour time frame I am allowed to run my generator each day.
I use my DC Meter PANEL to watch this process to make sure the batteries are drawing current when being charged. After you do it a few times you know what to expect during the re-charge process.
My 2KW Honda Generator does just fine running my on-board PD9260C and I also get to make my fresh ground bean coffee for the day when I start this process at 8AM each morning. Alot of places I only get to run my 2KW generator for two hours in the morning and then I have to wait until around 4:30PM to do this all over again to make sure I get a good 90% charge plus before making that evening heavy current draw until lights out and to keep the parasitic drains happy until 8AM the next morning.
I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary just have it all planned and try to follow my plan for each day when camping off the power grid. Really been very successful doing this for the past few years.
I follow another rule not to mess with my truck items for anything except to operate the truck. This includes using the alternator to charge my trailer batteries. My truck is my only way to get home and its non deep cycle batteries will die rather quick if you get them on the down swing of charge.
The truck alternator is indeed a smart mode charging system but it is controlled by the close installed truck start battery and probably doesn't even know the trailer batteries are in the loop to determine the smart mode charging requirements. As soon as the truck start battery get full the alternator will idle back to its float mode charge of around 13.2VDC. If you look up Progressive Dynamics rules for charging deep cycle batteries you will find 13.6VDC will take around 40 hours to recharge a deep cycle battery to its 90% charge state and 78 hours to reach full charge. That would be along time to idle your truck.. If you had large jumper cables directly connected to the truck start battery then the alternator might see your trailer battery bank and stay at 14.4DC Boost mode and perhaps re-charge your trailer batteries in three hours or so. To reach full charge this takes around 12 hours but you really don't need this as your deep cycle batteries will do a good 12-14 50%-90% deep cycle charges without doing damage to the deep cycle batteries.
I am no battery expert here where there are several "real" experts on here that may be able to explain it better than I can. I just made it thru high school and all of my experience is sleeping in Holiday Inn select hotels I reckon...
I do know if I just throw a quick couple of hours charge on my battery bank and when I look at them it shows it might be in pretty good shape but when I really start using the batteries hard they will drop off very quick and the next thing I know I have gone beyond the 50% charge state. You see alot of folks on here saying they just run their generator a hour or so aday and do just fine. That may work with minimal load but it sure does not work with my daily planned out routine of running off my batteries camping off the power grid.
I suspect the same would hold true if I was using solar panels during the day. I would never have enough solar power (14.4VDC at 60AMPS output) to bring my batteries back up to their 90$ charge state in the average 5-hours of high sunlight with just a couple of 120WATT Solar panels. Every panel I read up on only gives you around 5AMPS per panel of usable DC power. I would need four 120WATT solar panel to give me 14.4VDC@20AMPS of DC charge. Thats only good for one deep cycle battery. Now I am not talking about just getting trickle charge from solar panels I want to get my batteries back up to their 90% charge state before I use them again after they have been run down to their 50% charge state over night. Otherwise I end up with bad batteries in the near future. I suspect this would be a hard feat to do with just a couple of 100WATT or 120WATT solar panels. I'm back to running my 2KW generator again but by now I have run out time I am allowed to run my generator. I'm in a pickle haha...
I hope you can follow my thought thinking situation here... I have heard from others I worry about it too much... just do it... maybe so... Again my usual DC power drain is around 1-2AMPS 24/7 for parasitic keep alive drains and I usually see 20AMPs DC being drawn from my Battery Meter Panel between the 8PM to 11PM times running all of the night toys... Check your battery specs and see how long they will produce 12.0VDC@20AMPs and plan from that. Then whatever you take out you have to put back in...
It takes good planning to do what you want to do with your setup.
Roy Ken
