Electric Mattress Pad - Electricity Help

We have two electric blankets in our setup. One king size is on the bed an the other one twin size is used by wife sitting around the wrap around seating watch HDTV. I order most all of my toys from AMAZON - two day delivery here with free shipping

The King Size has two heat zones an the twin has only one. They don't draw over 2amps from the on-board INVERTER setup we have. This relates to around 50WATTs at 12VDC. About the same as your HDTV monitor. My duty INVERTER shown in the earlier drawing is a PURE SINE WAVE 600WATT INVERTER. The electronic controller of most manf electric blankets DO NOT live well with the MSW TYPE Inverters. They go up in blue smoke as soon as you plug them in. I always use a PURE SINE WAVE Inverter as the price is not that much different now unlike the earlier ones. With the PURE SINE models you don't have to worry about what MAY go up in blue smoke using them. Any Electronics should be plugged into a PURE SINE MODEL Inverter.

Alot of folks however use the MSW models and works just fine but sooner or later someone will plug something in that will go up in blue smoke. My layout has two INVERTER powered 120VAC receptacles in two locations in my trailer setup so I don't have much control on what the family or friends in going to plug into one.

We lived in the Phoenix area back in the 70's but it was mostly Jeeps and Tent camping back in those days. My favorite close by get away was up the Apache Trail... I had a Jeep and trailer setup much like this photo. Love to go in small groups of friend on our Jeep trail drives. - Even down the dry SAlt River beds haha... The Sedona red rocks blew you away everytime you was there. Long trips up into the high rim canyons and areas around Flagstaff was great as well..


Photo from Google Search

Miss my Jeep days in the high country of north central Arizona.

Roy Ken

Hi,

Assuming 1/2 gallon of gas @ $3.20 is a cost of $1.80 per day.

1.80 per day x 365 = $657

A contractor generator (which will annoy everyone for miles) is $300.00

Add the cost of a rack to transport the genny $100.00

We are now at over $1000.00

Solar costs about $2.00 per watt on a DIY basis.

500 watts will keep the battery bank in tip top condition, and is a one time cost. Under poor to fair solar conditions it will provide enough energy to make that coffee.

Solar is the nearest thing to a free lunch you will ever find. It is a one time cost.

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
Run the generator in the morning to re-charge the battery as it will be low, from powering the blower motor all night. You'll be wanting to run the generator in the morning anyways, to power the coffee pot and microwave, so it's a good time to recharge the battery too.

This is the least expensive way I have found to operate a camper- propane, battery, standard converter/charger, and a standard gas generator. Complex electrical systems involving inverters, smart chargers, solar charging systems, multi unit banks of AGM batteries, inverter generators, and the like are all very nice, but are also very, very expensive! It is very easy to spend $5000 and up on a custom RV electrical system!

I have used an electric blanket plugged into the camper's 110v inside outlet, being powered by a 4KW gas generator, connected to camper via shore power cord. It worked fine, as did the A/C and microwave, powered the same way.

It is more efficient, however, to use the propane fired, thermostat controlled RV furnace for warmth, provided you have enough battery power to run the furnace's 12vdc blower motor. This way, your whole RV inside is warm, instead of just your bed, and you don't have to run a generator all night.

Run the generator in the morning to re-charge the battery as it will be low, from powering the blower motor all night. You'll be wanting to run the generator in the morning anyways, to power the coffee pot and microwave, so it's a good time to recharge the battery too.

This is the least expensive way I have found to operate a camper- propane, battery, standard converter/charger, and a standard gas generator. Complex electrical systems involving inverters, smart chargers, solar charging systems, multi unit banks of AGM batteries, inverter generators, and the like are all very nice, but are also very, very expensive! It is very easy to spend $5000 and up on a custom RV electrical system!

The issue with "don't use in an RV" has to do with many (most?) RVs have MSW (modified sine wave) inverters that may damage the mattress controller. A sine wave inverter or a Honda 2000 sine wave inverter generator will power the mattress heater just fine. Of course if you are plugged into utility power that is also sine wave.

The standard utility grid power in the USA is 120 volts. Not 110, not 115. It is 120 volts. Voltage variation of +- 10% is considered normal and will not harm standard items such as your mattress heater.

Hi,

None of the 120 volt outlets will work unless there is shore power, or the shore power cord is plugged into a generator.

Wow, thanks RoyB! That helps a lot. Guess I have a new hobby so that I can enjoy my other hobbies.

I'm learning a lot as the minutes go by. I should have mentioned that we'll be boondocking. I have a couple of 6 volt batteries (just installed) and a Honda 2000 generator (which has been sole power source until now). Plan is to use heated mattress pad through night instead of listening to noisy furnace.

So if I understand better now....when I'm on battery power only, the outlets in the camper will not even have power to them? Or are the outlets only powered with 12 volts so I can only plug in items that run on 12 volt?

Your Starcraft 14RT converter only puts out 13.6VDC not 120VAC...
The converter is there to use when you are connected to SHORE POWER and this will provide 12VDC to operate all of the 12VDC appliances etc. It also charges up your battery. You will want to replace your current single mode converter with a smart mode converter.

To get 120VAC when not connected to SHORE POWER you will need to install an INVERTER...

This is my 14RT floorplan showing where all of my extra items are installed...




If you are going to be camping alot off the power grid you will have to alot of changes to your 14RT to be successful about running things off your battery. My camping off the power grid concept is having enough battery capacity to run 120VAC Items from a INVERTER and all of the 12VDC items we want to have on direct connected to the battery bank. Then we will recharge the batteries at 8AM the next morning by connecting the shore power cable directly to my 2KW Honda Generator and with smart mode charging technology I can recharge my battery back to its 90% charge state in as little as three hours of generator run time.

My current battery bank is three 85AH Interstate batteries in parallel but am planning on doing what you see in the above diagram with two additional 150AH batteries in the bed of my truck.


It will take some planning on your part to be successful camping off the power grid for extended times...


goto to google search and type in 'K9PHT 14RT' and when it loads up select 'IMAGES' to see many pages of a bunch of my photos including the 2008 Starcraft 14RT... 90% of the photos you find here are mine...

Here is another helpful chart showing a typical 30AMP Elwectrical system that may help you determine how things work in your 14RT trailer.


Enjoy your 14RT Off-Road POPUP Trailer...

Roy Ken

It's not the "volts", everything (household) is 110 volt. It's the amperage draw you got to watch. Me-thinks if you're cold weather camping and your plugged into a normal 20 or 30 amp receptacle, you'll have no problems with your camper. The converter changes 110 volts AC to 12 volts DC for your lights. The rest passes the 110 volts to your normal house hold style plugs. If you run your air conditioner, electric water heater, microwave, blow dryer, toaster, electric coffee pot, then maybe you'll max out the 30 amp.

Here's a thought, something which is much easier to do with a PUP than a hard-sided trailer, you can always run an extension cord (utility style) from the campground electric pedestal, under the canvas side of your camper, and plug your pad into that, by-passing the camper completely. We use an electric flat griddle and an electric frying pan outside for about 99% of our cooking, and I always plug it with an utility extension cord directly into the electric post, never through the camper. Never had a problem either way though.