fuel cell????

valhalla360 wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:
didn't say they havent been around for a long time, saying this itteration of them is fairly new. if you average consumption in your rv is 50AH per day, whats wrong with having somthing that is capable of supplying more than that in the same day? and if you looked I said it would be great as an emergency back up for solar. I have never run out of power with my solar but I have come close several times as I don't live where it never rains and the sun always shines, I also don't limit my camping to july and augest when ther is lots of sun. I camped from march to november up north here where the solar footprint is also lower. so if we get threee days of rain the charge your getting is minimal and depending on your battery capacity is how long you can go. an example last october I was camping just outside of edmonton and hit three very overcast and rainy days and I got close to 50% of my capacity on the batteries (asid batteries in the camper still) but the next day the sun came out and I was good. if the rain and such would have carried on I would have had to look for a campsite with power to charge my batteries. having somthing like this could have topped me up again in under a day and I would be good for another three days of rain. this is why I was originaly looking at them a few years ago, but untill the price drops to under 1000 bucks I think they arnt worth it as its cheeper to expand your solar and battery capacity. both thoes companies do make bigger units that can be used like plugging in, but there big and bulky and expensive. not somthing you would have in a camper, where these ones can be used in a rv to offset battery usage and charge batteries when your not using power.

If you are only using 50AH/day, just add an extra battery or two if you are worried about a cloudy day limiting solar output.

If you really want a backup, a 1000w generator is small, cheap and puts out a heck of a lot more power.

Other than to say you have some neato technology, these make zero sense in an RV application.

relaxin wrote:
Anyone seen any set ups utilizing a fuel cell to maintain a battery charge in an RV, a couple places I like to go are heavily shaded (in a forest) so solar is not very efficient, want to avoid using a geny and just maintain a battery with say 100 to 200 watts /hour (24/7) to offset normal usage, excluding any 120 volt appliances.

curious if the technologie is coming along.

I use to use a couple batteries, and then a generator to charge them when we went more than 4 days, but that sucks having to replace them every 5 years or so, for just a week or so of dry camping in a year.

StirCrazy wrote:
didn't say they havent been around for a long time, saying this itteration of them is fairly new. if you average consumption in your rv is 50AH per day, whats wrong with having somthing that is capable of supplying more than that in the same day? and if you looked I said it would be great as an emergency back up for solar. I have never run out of power with my solar but I have come close several times as I don't live where it never rains and the sun always shines, I also don't limit my camping to july and augest when ther is lots of sun. I camped from march to november up north here where the solar footprint is also lower. so if we get threee days of rain the charge your getting is minimal and depending on your battery capacity is how long you can go. an example last october I was camping just outside of edmonton and hit three very overcast and rainy days and I got close to 50% of my capacity on the batteries (asid batteries in the camper still) but the next day the sun came out and I was good. if the rain and such would have carried on I would have had to look for a campsite with power to charge my batteries. having somthing like this could have topped me up again in under a day and I would be good for another three days of rain. this is why I was originaly looking at them a few years ago, but untill the price drops to under 1000 bucks I think they arnt worth it as its cheeper to expand your solar and battery capacity. both thoes companies do make bigger units that can be used like plugging in, but there big and bulky and expensive. not somthing you would have in a camper, where these ones can be used in a rv to offset battery usage and charge batteries when your not using power.

relaxin wrote:
Anyone seen any set ups utilizing a fuel cell to maintain a battery charge in an RV, a couple places I like to go are heavily shaded (in a forest) so solar is not very efficient, want to avoid using a geny and just maintain a battery with say 100 to 200 watts /hour (24/7) to offset normal usage, excluding any 120 volt appliances.

curious if the technologie is coming along.

I use to use a couple batteries, and then a generator to charge them when we went more than 4 days, but that sucks having to replace them every 5 years or so, for just a week or so of dry camping in a year.

Bobbo wrote:

Skibane wrote:
You need a Thermal Electric Generator.

Spec Sheet

480 watts at 12v (40 amps at 12v)
voltage adjustable from 11.4v to 12.6v
fuel consumption 20.1 gallons/day

pianotuna wrote:
Ballard Power Systems started in 1979.

https://www.ballard.com/about-ballard/ballard-in-canada

valhalla360 wrote:

StirCrazy wrote:
The Watt one celabrated there first instalation in a resident in 2018, which was a huge milestone going from lab theory to an actual instalation. 2014 is when they wone the contract for proof of theory, so hardly decades for this tech. yes fuel cells have been around for quite a while, a canadian company called Ballard has been leading the charge since the lait 80's with there hydrogen fuel cells. but for the RV market it is a fairly young concept, this one using propane to act as the catilist, but to me it isnt efficent enough as it uses 20lbs of propane to produce 87 AH of charge. I guess it would be ok to have as an emergency generator to supliment your solar. the other one is kinda cool using methanol for the catilist source and wont the european inovation award in 2021, but also have there roots around 2017. while I think the second version is ideal for the RV. the 2800pro will put out 80AH of charging a day and can go 43 days runing 24/7 with a outut of 125 watts on two fuel jugs. look like a DEF jug so they would be easy to store and don't have to worry about using your propane. only down side is your around 4-5000 bucks for this model in canada.

Steve

The fuel cell was invented in 1838.

They were fairly widely used by NASA back in the 1960's. Of course, cost wasn't a consideration.

So yeah, they have been around for a long time.

As far as putting out significant power:

80AH...at what voltage? At 5000v, that's great (400KWH per day). At 12v, it's silly to even consider (0.96kwh per day). Something around 240w (nominal rating) of solar will generate the same amount and you don't have to muck about finding suitable fuel or dealing with near one off specialty products.

StirCrazy wrote:
The Watt one celabrated there first instalation in a resident in 2018, which was a huge milestone going from lab theory to an actual instalation. 2014 is when they wone the contract for proof of theory, so hardly decades for this tech. yes fuel cells have been around for quite a while, a canadian company called Ballard has been leading the charge since the lait 80's with there hydrogen fuel cells. but for the RV market it is a fairly young concept, this one using propane to act as the catilist, but to me it isnt efficent enough as it uses 20lbs of propane to produce 87 AH of charge. I guess it would be ok to have as an emergency generator to supliment your solar. the other one is kinda cool using methanol for the catilist source and wont the european inovation award in 2021, but also have there roots around 2017. while I think the second version is ideal for the RV. the 2800pro will put out 80AH of charging a day and can go 43 days runing 24/7 with a outut of 125 watts on two fuel jugs. look like a DEF jug so they would be easy to store and don't have to worry about using your propane. only down side is your around 4-5000 bucks for this model in canada.

Steve