Charging batteries: inverter vs charger
Going to RMNP next week. No hook ups there, so need to recharge two 6 volt batteries daily. I will be using a Honda 2000 EUi generator. Couple questions: 1. Can I use external charger hooked to batte...
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I am assuming this is the Rocky Mountain Natl Park in COlo. Depending where you are staying they have generator restriction times. This is from their brochure "Where allowed, generators can run from 7:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. – 8:30 pm."
Not a whole lot of time to charge your batteries so hopefully you have the smart-mode technology charging capabilities.
My on-board converter is a smart-mode PD9160C charger and I connect my 30AMP Trailer Shore Power Cable directly to my 2KW Honda Gnerator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A long adapter (WALMART). This will allow my on-board converter to re-charge my 255AH battery bank back up to its 90% charge state in as little as three hours. This time should fit into the allowed generator run time stated in the above brochure. However it seems there may be other locations at the Natl Park park where generators may not be allowed at all. Probably something to check with the Natl Park folks first...
I like using my generator direct connected to the trailer for this short time as this gives us a chance to make some good fresh ground bean coffee for the day while the generator is running.
I am setup with a 600WATT PSW Inverter connected to my 255AH battery bank and we can draw some 20AMPs from the batteies using the 600WATT PSW Inverter watching HDTV and running some other 120VAC items between the 8PM to 11PM time frame. This drops my 255AH capacity battery bank down to around 12.0VDC each morning at 8AM when I re-charge it all back up to to its 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again from the next day/night run off the batteries... I can do this 50% to 90% charge cycle for about 12-14days before I have to re-charge to a full 100% charge on my batteries without doing harm to them. The problem to doing a full 100% charge state is it takes 12-13 hours of generator run time to do this... Most places we go to here on the East side of the USA does not allow that much generator run time.
Works great for us camping off the power grid but it does take some planning to be successful about it.
Food for thought
Roy Ken
Not a whole lot of time to charge your batteries so hopefully you have the smart-mode technology charging capabilities.
My on-board converter is a smart-mode PD9160C charger and I connect my 30AMP Trailer Shore Power Cable directly to my 2KW Honda Gnerator 120VAC receptacle using a RV30A-15A long adapter (WALMART). This will allow my on-board converter to re-charge my 255AH battery bank back up to its 90% charge state in as little as three hours. This time should fit into the allowed generator run time stated in the above brochure. However it seems there may be other locations at the Natl Park park where generators may not be allowed at all. Probably something to check with the Natl Park folks first...
I like using my generator direct connected to the trailer for this short time as this gives us a chance to make some good fresh ground bean coffee for the day while the generator is running.
I am setup with a 600WATT PSW Inverter connected to my 255AH battery bank and we can draw some 20AMPs from the batteies using the 600WATT PSW Inverter watching HDTV and running some other 120VAC items between the 8PM to 11PM time frame. This drops my 255AH capacity battery bank down to around 12.0VDC each morning at 8AM when I re-charge it all back up to to its 90% charge state so we can do all of this all over again from the next day/night run off the batteries... I can do this 50% to 90% charge cycle for about 12-14days before I have to re-charge to a full 100% charge on my batteries without doing harm to them. The problem to doing a full 100% charge state is it takes 12-13 hours of generator run time to do this... Most places we go to here on the East side of the USA does not allow that much generator run time.
Works great for us camping off the power grid but it does take some planning to be successful about it.
Food for thought
Roy Ken
