Dry camping with furnace on

Articles about RV electrical systems:

BATTERIES--AND OTHER ELECTRIC STUFF

The 12v Side of Life

Intro to Dry Camping

Battery Education

Sam Spade wrote:


Yes and no.

NOT a cheap "trickle charger".
An inexpensive small AUTOMATIC battery maintainer type charger; 1.5 to 2 amp is the most common size.

Can be had at any auto parts store or big box hardware or WalMart for about $20.

And if you have access to power where the "trailer" is stored, you don't need to remove the battery either. Down to about -40 F the cold is actually good for them.

Thanks I will look into this.

ragdogs wrote:
i plan on reading up on what to do during the winter with it (trickle charge?)

Yes and no.

NOT a cheap "trickle charger".
An inexpensive small AUTOMATIC battery maintainer type charger; 1.5 to 2 amp is the most common size.

Can be had at any auto parts store or big box hardware or WalMart for about $20.

And if you have access to power where the "trailer" is stored, you don't need to remove the battery either. Down to about -40 F the cold is actually good for them.

wrybread wrote:
Its a really big job to upgrade your batteries to accommodate that blower. I have 4 Trojan T-105 batteries (the big expensive 6 volt batteries) and 600 watts of solar panels, and I *still* don't have enough power to reliably power my furnace blower over night. The things pulls 80 watts, which is just crazy for an RV. I'm surprised these are used in RVs at all.

My solution was to mount a Buddy heater on the wall....

80 watts is right, but something is definitely not right with your described setup if it isn't lasting through a night. EVen if the blower was on continuously all night, that's 7A * 8hr = 56Ah used. You have 400+ Ah available. BAck when we had a single Group 24 battery and 100 watt solar panel and used furnace every night, we never ran out of battery.

Agreed that catalytic heater basically eliminates electricity consumption for heating.

We dry camp, genny comes on as it gets dark, and runs till we go to bed. Heater is on, but it's being run by the genny because the genny is on. Battery is also being charged so we can run the heater off the battery at night. Works fine. Also with genny running we can use our Dyson hot, cool fan to warm our rig. We use very little fuel this way.

See, easy.

I just came back from 7 days away and i was travelling for 4 of those days, the 3 days that i was 'camped' i was dry camping. I used the generator during the day when needed and used the battery to run the furnace at night. I will add that prior to leaving on this trip i bought a new deep cycle battery (my compartment for the battery is not big at all and it would be a tight fit for two batteries). I had no issue with the house battery handling the furnace at night and was fine in the morning. Granted it was not as cold as when I had issues before but I believe buying the new battery helped/was needed.

I must admit when it comes to batteries i really don't have a clue on what i am doing. I have winterized my RV and it is gone into storage, i have removed the battery and brought it home and i plan on reading up on what to do during the winter with it (trickle charge?)

Thanks for all your responses, i am still reading some of the information provided.

Carol

I think you are making too much of this.
When "OFF", something must be monitoring the position of the controls and switches just to sense when you turn it ON if nothing else.
Then when you turn it ON to propane, a gas valve must be held open thus accounting for the additional load.

navegator wrote:
This is what we do for cold boondocking 2 to 3 days only after that run the generator to recharge the battery and have more time.

1 we have kerosen lamps, the ones that get shot in the western movies, light and heat.
2 we also cook on the stove, spaghetti and use the oven for dinner, x-mass simple dinners pre prepaired.
3 limit the amount of water usage, also have an accumulator for water pump saves battery
4 have a small opening on the window of the galley need ventilation while kerosen lamps are lit, do not use roof vent heat loss is faster
5 do not turn thermostat on heater above 68 during day and 60 for sleeping
6 have an outside and inside thermometer, can see both at the same time
7 limit the opening and closing of door going in and out
8 we have front windshield cover and hanging curtain inside, can feel temp diff from window to cabin on both spaces
9 have warm blankets to wrap arround when sitting
10 we lower thermostat at night to 60
11 we have a minus 40 double sleeping bag
12 snugle up with wife, buddy warmth!
13 only turn heater in morning to brake the chill
14 boughht carpet runners, our floor is wood laminate

I found that the biggest source of heat loss is at the entrance door, not even more foam insulation on the oppening helps, those doors are not that good.

We only have one 12v deep discharge gel cell marine battery for the cabin, the whole idea is in conserving the power to run the heater fan when needed and use alernate sources of light, led lamps were not available when we purchased our unit, latter they were a bit pricy so I only installed four, one in the head, one for wife to read, one in the galley and one out side, I can read with my kerosen lamp, and no tv or radio or music from CDs, some times we do not even see the park rangers at all, we mail the payment to the office, we found out that some people steel the payments from the collection boxes.

navegator

I might add something to that. I'd look at a Big Buddy heater, making sure to follow instructions in the manual (ventilation, keep away from burnables, etc.) Run it on high for a bit to warm the rig up, low from there on out, and it should last 3-4 hours. Then, in the morning, flip on the furnace. That way, the battery gets used far less. Make sure to use the built in fan for air circulation.

hey ragdogs....I have sent you a private message.

Gary Haupt

MacZulu wrote:
the OPs original post is what I did last spring, which kicked off my research. best info I found was

RV battery charging

I also found this interesting

your rv may be killing your battery

Very interesting indeed! Thanks for those links.
My next charge controller will for sure have adjustable voltage.