Dickinson Marine heater
Anybody using a Dickinson (or other) type propane or solid fuel heater? I am thinking of putting one in, but would like to here some real world numbers of how they work.
Forum Discussion
garryK6
Our "home address" is New Mexico but we are full-time RVer's (Baja, Yucatan, Belize, Keys/Everglades, Labrador/Newfoundland, and one trip to Alaska.
We have run the Dometic A/C for 3.5 hours (nothing magic about 3.5 hours, that is just what we have done) on battery bank and solar. We primarily boondock as in dispersed/bush camping as noted so we are generally out hiking/ birding/ photography - or hanging out on the north side of rig on very hot day. However, as full-timers, we are "Goldilockers" as in "not to hot and not to cold, just right!" and so go north or up in elevation in hot months and reverse this in cold. We do have a 34' 5th wheel and a lot more area on the roof.
We generally use an Olympian Wave 8 for heating. The forced air heater is only used in the early morning for half an hour to get the cabin into the low 60's.We sleep in high 40's (when it is cold outside).
Our 235 W panels are 1 m x 1.5 m (39" x 63") and may be to large for your rig. There are 200 W panels that are 88 cm wide (34") that might be of greater utility on a truck camper. You could easily get two of these on the roof and perhaps a third. Just saw on one forum where somebody has two more hinged to the left and right side of rig that he lifts and secures with braces when camping.
The advantage to LFP battery systems is weight and size. You can store about 3 times the energy in the same sized battery box. 180 amp-hrs (2.4 kW-hrs) in a 12" x 13" x 8" box is quite a bit of actual energy since you can utilize 80% of that for a supposed 2000 to 3000 full cycles. Liberty Coaches has apparently cycled their test systems over 3000 times and are still going. Care is required in designing and fabricating a system. The best place to read on this is the Cruising and Sailing forum - where they have a thread that went 4000 posts before they ran out of memory. The primary questions are:
1. Managing the voltage level and whether you do this with a battery management system or limiting voltage. A lot of folks are using a limiter which allows no more than 3.4 V per cell.
2. Worries about charging below freezing. There is a problem with high current levels in charging at low temperature as do electric vehicle folks. Others ayd that with the charging levels generally found in solar/wind systems which are below 0.1 C (10% of maximum charge in watts), there should be little problem.
We left our rig at son's place at 8000' in mountains of northern NM and it got down to -20 F (-29 C) and it cycled for the three months we spent in Guatemala and Honduras with no apparent ill effects. Temperatures where you live are far more extreme but I doubt you do much RV'ing about in extreme times of the year.
Reed and Elaine
Our "home address" is New Mexico but we are full-time RVer's (Baja, Yucatan, Belize, Keys/Everglades, Labrador/Newfoundland, and one trip to Alaska.
We have run the Dometic A/C for 3.5 hours (nothing magic about 3.5 hours, that is just what we have done) on battery bank and solar. We primarily boondock as in dispersed/bush camping as noted so we are generally out hiking/ birding/ photography - or hanging out on the north side of rig on very hot day. However, as full-timers, we are "Goldilockers" as in "not to hot and not to cold, just right!" and so go north or up in elevation in hot months and reverse this in cold. We do have a 34' 5th wheel and a lot more area on the roof.
We generally use an Olympian Wave 8 for heating. The forced air heater is only used in the early morning for half an hour to get the cabin into the low 60's.We sleep in high 40's (when it is cold outside).
Our 235 W panels are 1 m x 1.5 m (39" x 63") and may be to large for your rig. There are 200 W panels that are 88 cm wide (34") that might be of greater utility on a truck camper. You could easily get two of these on the roof and perhaps a third. Just saw on one forum where somebody has two more hinged to the left and right side of rig that he lifts and secures with braces when camping.
The advantage to LFP battery systems is weight and size. You can store about 3 times the energy in the same sized battery box. 180 amp-hrs (2.4 kW-hrs) in a 12" x 13" x 8" box is quite a bit of actual energy since you can utilize 80% of that for a supposed 2000 to 3000 full cycles. Liberty Coaches has apparently cycled their test systems over 3000 times and are still going. Care is required in designing and fabricating a system. The best place to read on this is the Cruising and Sailing forum - where they have a thread that went 4000 posts before they ran out of memory. The primary questions are:
1. Managing the voltage level and whether you do this with a battery management system or limiting voltage. A lot of folks are using a limiter which allows no more than 3.4 V per cell.
2. Worries about charging below freezing. There is a problem with high current levels in charging at low temperature as do electric vehicle folks. Others ayd that with the charging levels generally found in solar/wind systems which are below 0.1 C (10% of maximum charge in watts), there should be little problem.
We left our rig at son's place at 8000' in mountains of northern NM and it got down to -20 F (-29 C) and it cycled for the three months we spent in Guatemala and Honduras with no apparent ill effects. Temperatures where you live are far more extreme but I doubt you do much RV'ing about in extreme times of the year.
Reed and Elaine
