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Input/help needed to increase charging to my camper battery


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#21 popRoid

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Posted 01 September 2021 - 01:59 AM

radman:

 

I'd start with figuring out what your camper is pulling/using amp hours on any given normal day....add up the fridge...led lights...fan...etc.  For my purposes on a 2018 10' Alaskan cabover I had Brian install (2) 170 watt Zamp panels with controller and 2 Lifeline GPL-4DL 12 Volt 210Ah Batteries.   Both batteries are installed under the seats...one under each side and are then wired together using 8 or 10 gauge wire.  On any given sunny day the panels together generate 50-70 amp hours of power....less sun and there's less power generated.  Basically, I do not depend on driving the truck using the charge line to power things up and thus can stay stationary quite a long time if wanted without shore power.  If you use the theory that you don't want to use up more than 50% of your battery storage on a given day then I have 210 amp hours available per day + whatever the panels generate on recharging the batteries.  

 

The Novacool refrigerator (no freezer on this one and DC only with no propane) burns thru roughly 2.2 amps per hour ...maybe a bit less if not opened much and is by far the biggest use of DC power per day.  The Maxx fan uses around 1 amp per hour on a setting of 4 or 5 and we generally only turn it on when sleeping for 7 to 8 hours.  LED light usage is very small so lets call it maybe 1.5 amps per hour for what would only be at night for 6-8 hours.  On the heater question you referenced we have both the Surburban forced air heat and a catalytic heater (www.ventedcatheater.com).  On colder nights we only use the forced air for maybe 5 minutes to bring the temperature up then shutting it down and turning on the platinum catalytic (Plat Cat) heater which uses minimal propane and 0.5 amps per hour of power.  The Suburban forced air unit is a propane and DC hog using far too much of both.  The Plat Cat heater on cold 25 degree windy Montana nights has no problem keeping things in the low to mid 60's.  You could install a BluSea battery isolator switch to isolate the camper from your truck batteries (https://www.bluesea....attery_Switches).  I have never had my Alaskan drain my truck batteries and thus far have not installed a battery isolator switch.  I'll let you do the math on calculating the amp hours we are using on any given day but you will find that we have far more power than necessary....using maybe 70-75 amps per day and have never had a power issue on any trip we have done but the equipment to generate POWER is not cheap either....the lifeline batteries are in the neighborhood of $700 or so each.  The 2 170 watt Zamp panels come close to generating most of our power needs on a given SUNNY day without drawing the batteries down or forcing us to drive to charge the batteries.  The only real problem comes with a week that is overcast or rainy for more than 3-4 days straight.  

 

Hope this helps you....Cheers and congrats on that Alaskan camper.

 

BTW....what did you do before retirement ?   

 

 


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2018 10' Alaskan Cabover/2017 Ford  F350 Dually Diesel


#22 Keith in Co

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Posted 14 October 2021 - 04:05 AM

A solar controller with a DC/DC charger will charge both your house battery and your truck batteries using energy from your solar panels. I installed a Renogy DCC50S, 50A, DC-DC battery charger with MPPT. 

https://www.renogy.c...rger-with-mppt/

It tops off my lithium house battery and then automatically switches to charging my lead acid truck batteries. I also installed three volt gauges which show incoming from the panels, as well as house battery and truck battery voltage levels.  With three 100 watt panels, I have no problem running my Novakool refer/freezer, ceiling vent fan, water pump, USB charging ports, and LED lights.
I ran 4-gauge cables from my truck batteries to the controller in my Alaskan. It’s nice to know when I’m boondocking that my truck batteries are always 100% charged. 


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