Gdetrailer wrote:
LarryDel wrote:
I should have been more specific of what we have and what we plan on doing. Our travel trailer is a 2022 Microlite 21FBRS. It came with a 190 watt solar panel on the roof with a 1000 watt inverter. We plan on spending January and February in Arizona and expect to do dry camping some of the time, especially at Quartzsite. My main concern is to keep my refrig running. It is a residential 12 volt rated at 11 Amps. How many watts of portable solar panels do I need in addition to the 190 Watts panel on my roof? the trailer has a solar panel plug so it it ready for additional solar panels. And I will use the stove to make my coffee so I wont need power for that. Maybe a little TV watching and interior 12 volt lights.
The using those overpriced portable battery packs are the wrong way of going about this.
Jackery 1,000 has about 40Ahr worth of battery, that's it.
You cannot directly hook the jackery (or any other portable battery/inverter) to your existing 12V battery. They have power limited 12V cig ports to max of 8A.
Some back of the napkin figuring..
To get any sort of "value" from those devices you must use the built in inverter.
The downside to this is the inverter eats up 15% of your portable battery capacity bringing that 40Ah down to 34Ahr..
Now you have 120V but you can't plug that 120V directly to your 12V battery..
So, now we must consider the power loss of your converter.. That is another 15%..
So now your 40Ahr portable battery/inverter now becomes a 28Ahr "generator" and 28Ahr isn't going to get you squat for added camping time.
So, $1000 for 28Ahr portable battery or add some extra batteries and solar to your rig?
$1,000 can buy you a lot of 12V battery and solar capacity.
Cheapest option is adding two GC2 6V batteries (wired in series to get 12V) nets you 210Ahr for $180, granted You don't want to 100% drain the GC2s but you can draw as much as 80% and not take much of a cut in battery life giving you 168Ahr of capacity to work with.
More expensive option is Lithium batteries, they are still a bit on the experimental side of life and expensive but they can pack a lot of energy in that package.. $260 can buy you one 100Ahr Lithium battery (gives you 4 times more capacity than the portable device) and the claim to fame is you can use all of the battery capacity..
Solar panels you can get 100W panels for $90 now days..
As far as battery capacity goes, I use a 10 cu ft residential fridge in my TT and one pair of 6V GCs (wired in series for 12V) gives 210 Ahr and that setup easily powers my fridge plus lights plus furnace overnight for 20hrs-24hrs before needing to recharge.. I do not have any solar..
Those portable battery/inverter things simply do not have enough battery capacity to make a meaningful difference and add in an inverter you didn't need since you already have an inverter.
The manufacturers of those portable battery/inverters have done a very good job appealing to the masses using terms like "generator" or "quiet power" "quiet generator" "clean power" Clean generator" while hiding the downsides like the more power you draw, the less time you get power, all the while beating you over the head with severely over inflated prices..
Wish I had though of that a couple of yrs ago, I could have been a billionaire by now by feeding off folks wishful thinking :M
Don't get me wrong, they can be somewhat useful, sort of like if you need some 120V power for a short time and don't wish to run 250ft of extension cords to get it to you..
This is the best answer on this tread - full of useful information.
The most important point to the OP or anyone looking at a portable battery, power source, your trailer already has that portable power source. The battery system, solar system, generator, or whatever you use is the same or better than something like a Jackery - so, why waste the money, invest to make your current system better. I don't care what the neighbors think, I run a generator, just long enough to charge my batteries or watch a movie. With 2 6V GC batteries, if I wanted more power storage, I would add 2 more 6v batteries. LiFePO4 would be better if I was a serious boondocker.
