House batteries

[vegasken34]

Are house batteries necessary when plugged in all the time?

[sailor_lou]

Necessary? That depends on the inverter/converter or battery charger, some need a load to function and some do not. However, a battery connected as a load is always good practice for several reasons, here are the three most important:

1) It will take up any sudden surges that exceed the charger's rating.
2) It will stabilize voltage transients when the load changes on the charger, both an increase and decrease in load.
3) Although most charger's have filters (capacitors and choke coils) to remove some of the AC ripple, they are not designed to be true DC power supplies (stable voltage with no ripple). The battery load will act as a filter to provide a better DC voltage, esp. as components in the charger age.

Lou
05 Travel Supreme Envoy

[Dale_Traveling]

Depends. Is the coach permanently parked? Not just staying in one spot for a long time but as in the next time it moves will be connected to a tow truck. If this is the situation then no a battery really isn't needed as long as the AC to DC convertor is correctly sized to supply power to systems the are necessary for stationary coach operation (fridge, HVAC, water heater and such). Not sure what will happen having an invertor in the mix. Adds an unknown into the exercise.

Where you might get into trouble is high load systems such as the jacks, room slides or the generator starting if you even need to use there features. Starting surge of these systems could overload the converter and either shorten it's life or blow high amp fuses that you probably won't have a spare on hand at the time.

Personally I would keep a battery in place even a small 12V starting battery.

[crasster]

vegasken34 wrote:
Are house batteries necessary when plugged in all the time?

I'd keep 1 single battery in it. 12V deep cycle. Don't even matter if it's good or not. Just something for a bit of regulation. You may even get away with a lawn tractor battery.

[2oldman]

Similar query on 12/22

[dougrainer]

LVJ58 wrote:
I would say yes so that you won't place a straight current load on your converter.

Your 12v current load should come from your house batteries with converter keeping batteries charged.

Absolutely incorrect.
The Converter supplies the Load and ALSO keeps the battery charged. Doug

[dougrainer]

There are 2 methods for 12 volts in an RV
1. There is an Inverter/Charger. YOU MUST HAVE A BATTERY CONNECTED OR IT WILL NOT FUNCTION
2. There is a CONVERTER. While a Converter is designed to supply ALL 12 volt loads, it is BEST to have a Battery connected to keep the 12 volt, voltage, "steady" and regulated to put less strain on the converter. Doug

[LVJ58]

I would say yes so that you won't place a straight current load on your converter.

Your 12v current load should come from your house batteries with converter keeping batteries charged.

[Shadow_Catcher]

Reportedly some converters need a battery to function well.