Electrically Callenged

[kccwoodworks]

I'm planning the build of my van for a 15 months trip around the country beginning May 2015 (mostly boondocking) I plan on 4 100ah agm batteries with 400w solar and pure sine wave inverter. On the days with little or no sun I'll need a gen and charger. The only ac current draw will be from the household fridge about (4 amps) and charging laptop. Everything else will be 12 volt (led lights, stereo, tv, coffee pot) Being "electrically challenged" the info on line just gets confusing. 1) How many amp charger will I need? 2)What size generator? 3) What size inverter? Any recommendations as to what brands to buy? Thanks in advance Kurt

[candlback]

Why not use a 12 volt fridge and use it directly from your batteries? It cuts down on your ac requirements.

[pianotuna]

Hi Kurt,

Do you plan to run an air conditioner? If so the generator needs to be sized for that. If not, size it to run the converter.

12 volt coffee pots are not very suitable.

Will there be a propane system?

It sounds like a marvelous trip.

[time2roll]

I recommend a 1000w Go Power inverter to run the fridge and other small items.

Honda 2000 to provide electric and drive a 55 or 75 amp IOTA converter to charge the batteries.

[gerrym51]

kccwoodworks wrote:
I'm planning the build of my van for a 15 months trip around the country beginning May 2015 (mostly boondocking) I plan on 4 100ah agm batteries with 400w solar and pure sine wave inverter. On the days with little or no sun I'll need a gen and charger. The only ac current draw will be from the household fridge about (4 amps) and charging laptop. Everything else will be 12 volt (led lights, stereo, tv, coffee pot) Being "electrically challenged" the info on line just gets confusing. 1) How many amp charger will I need? 2)What size generator? 3) What size inverter? Any recommendations as to what brands to buy? Thanks in advance Kurt

spend some extra money and buy a high efficiency 12 volt fridge like Engle and some other manufacturers that use the danfross(or smiliar compressor. these are truly 12 volt amps. an alernating current amp of your household fridge will use 40 or more DCamp. 1 AC amp equals about 10.5 DC amps(inverters not 100 percent efficient.