Question on charging batteries with Gen

Because Quicksilver is "super-size" hopefully the following extremes will suggest proportional importance of how to match load to recharging.

A pair of 21 CF custom Vestfrost 24 volt appliances.
Insulation panels of 2" thickness were preloaded into place then the appliances. The rear was sprayed with closed cell foam beneath the condensors.

The ventilation is floor to ceiling with a pair of manual controlled Pabst fans. 1.4 amperes at 24 volts.

After more than 20 years the 6 solar panels did their best to maintain but all four 380 A/H L16 batteries are shot. A pair of Megawatts can be used for umbilical power post refrigerator and freezer recharging.

Double the wattage to equal 12 volt wattage

The average 24 volt amp hour consumption per day is/was 88 for the refrigerator and 114 for the freezer. The power provided by the panels is nowhere enough.

So when I fire up the Cummins a 400-ampere Niehoff alternator saturation charges the series 6 volt batteries. Starting amperage approx 160, I had for years relied on a Yamaha 5500 diesel generator and an Associated 24 volt commercial battery charger which provided almost 100 amperes. It was a 240vac charger.

I had to recharge every day and a half to 2 days while parked on a remote beach in Quintana Roo.

Diesel in Mexico was .15 a gallon then but the drive to resupply fuel was a deal breaker. The toad was a flat towed 1 ton, with a stake flatbed. Seven plastic 55 gallon drums. 3 for fuel and 4 for water.

Turned out a homemade ice chest kept fruit and vegetables far fresher than the Vest Frost vegetable bin.

But the freezer maintained -05F. Hard as a brick frozen veggies and tropical fruit.

Bottom line for me, after surviving almost three months in 95F and 85% daytimes, and 75F and 98% R/H humidity I spent at least 2 nights per week outside in a hammock.

The answer would have been an aircraft carrier's worth of solar panels but back then Kyocera panels cost > $6.00 per watt. And double the amp hours.

When hurricane Gilbert chased me to 7,000 ft elevation it ended the "Gteat Experiment II" The first episode ended with food poisoning with a new Norcold gas refrigerator freezer.

Benefit/cost ratio: I skin dived, snorkled the deserted Chinchorro reef almost every day, with a Mexican lobster diver.

Nothing I know of is "free".

ajriding wrote:

But, OP only does a few days per year, so his needs are quite different.

Even better. He can get by with just one SiO2 and get at least 620 cycles before he reaches 80% of OEM capacity.

That lowers the cost even more.

pianotuna wrote:
$900 for batteries / 2800 cycles =~ $0.32 cents per cycle. At that point the SiO2 will have 80% of the OEM capacity, about 2000 watt-hours which is enough to run a residential fridge for approximately 2 days.n.

If only the new camper came with a $900 set of batteries and not one or two cheap marine batteries...Marine batts can cycle about 1/10 as a deep cycle batt before they are done.

I do neither fridge. I have a danfoss style unit and solar to supplement.

But, OP only does a few days per year, so his needs are quite different.

$900 for batteries / 2800 cycles =~ $0.32 cents per cycle. At that point the SiO2 will have 80% of the OEM capacity, about 2000 watt-hours which is enough to run a residential fridge for approximately 2 days.

That also translates to about fifteen years of use and a cycle cost of $0.16 cents per day.

I'd say it was a no brainer to shift from a greedy energy hog propane fridge to a residential, if one has the choice.

I certainly will NOT replace the propane unit with another when it fails.

Equally, I won't run out and replace the existing fridge. Don't fix what is not broken.

wopachop wrote:

ajriding wrote:
Almost nobody will boondock with residential electric appliances.

We camp in the dirt 100% of the time. My friends with good jobs are showing up with new trailers that run residential fridges. Trailer comes with an inverter to power it. They are toyhaulers so its expected to not have shore power.

LOL, they will soon find out how expensive batteries are

ajriding wrote:
Almost nobody will boondock with residential electric appliances.

We camp in the dirt 100% of the time. My friends with good jobs are showing up with new trailers that run residential fridges. Trailer comes with an inverter to power it. They are toyhaulers so its expected to not have shore power.

ajriding wrote:
time to roll, 100 is plenty for a propane fridge. Almost nobody will boondock with residential electric appliances. You could probably use a few Duracell C or D batteries to run a propane fridge.
Propane packs more power than a battery ever will. Gasoline packs a lot of power, but is not efficient way to run a propane fridge on 120v. The propane is just a little candle flame, and that is all that is needed to have a fridge.

Of course!

However the OP actually has a residential fridge that is camping off-grid a couple times a year.

BTW my trailer draws 500 milliamps to run the fridge when the gas valve is open, run the propane detector, maintain the radio memory, and anything else.

pianotuna...
I dont have any parasite loads. Things are either on or off, and when off they are off- not on standby. They get turned off with a switch, so there is no power even available.

So, you are right, most RVs probably need power to just sit,

But 100 watts is enough if steps are taken to make RV a true boondocker.

Good point, that RVs will suck up power for no reason. An audit of what is draining batts is a good thing to do if one plans to do some extended boondocking.

ajriding wrote:
time to roll, 100 is plenty for a propane fridge. Almost nobody will boondock with residential electric appliances. You could probably use a few Duracell C or D batteries to run a propane fridge.
Propane packs more power than a battery ever will. Gasoline packs a lot of power, but is not efficient way to run a propane fridge on 120v. The propane is just a little candle flame, and that is all that is needed to have a fridge.

The parasitic loads in my RV amount to 35 amp-hours per day @ 12.6 volts. There is NO way a single 100 watt panel is going to do that sort of output, unless it is May through Oct with a tilt. Even then it would need to be pretty much perfect solar conditions.

Do a proper energy audit when designing a system instead of guesstimating.

Yours Truly, Nemo.

time to roll, 100 is plenty for a propane fridge. Almost nobody will boondock with residential electric appliances. You could probably use a few Duracell C or D batteries to run a propane fridge.
Propane packs more power than a battery ever will. Gasoline packs a lot of power, but is not efficient way to run a propane fridge on 120v. The propane is just a little candle flame, and that is all that is needed to have a fridge.