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Old 10-22-2018, 02:54 PM   #1
deanrd
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Will furnace kill battery overnight?

I have a 2008 Montana 3585SA that I'm finally taking to Florida this winter from NH. I'll be leaving in mid January. I might have to stop overnight at a rest area, Cracker Barrel or Walmart. Most of my floor vents are clear so running the furnace isn't a problem with slides in. I just wonder how long the battery will last. With spring or fall camping at our seasonal site we often get temps in 20-30 degree range. I can keep the trailer at 67 degrees, but the furnace will run for 10 min and shutoff for 10 all night. Will the blower kill the battery in short order? Will it run it down so much you cant fully recharge it the next day? I was going to run a test and you can see how I failed with that I'd just like to get 5-6 hours of nap time if needed.


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Old 10-22-2018, 03:03 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by deanrd View Post
I have a 2008 Montana 3585SA that I'm finally taking to Florida this winter from NH. I'll be leaving in mid January. I might have to stop overnight at a rest area, Cracker Barrel or Walmart. Most of my floor vents are clear so running the furnace isn't a problem with slides in. I just wonder how long the battery will last. With spring or fall camping at our seasonal site we often get temps in 20-30 degree range. I can keep the trailer at 67 degrees, but the furnace will run for 10 min and shutoff for 10 all night. Will the blower kill the battery in short order? Will it run it down so much you cant fully recharge it the next day? I was going to run a test and you can see how I failed with that I'd just like to get 5-6 hours of nap time if needed.


Thanx - Dean
I haven't checked it yet, but I thought you had to have 120VAC to run the furnace fan. But I may be wrong. If it will run off of the inverter, then I have learned something new today. This is my first camper with an inverter.
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Old 10-22-2018, 04:37 PM   #3
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We have run our furnace in the past on the way to Florida with our previous (SOB) trailer. The battery held up. We now only run the furnace to warm it up at the end of the day, and then in the morning. We tend not to run it all night. Since we head south in early December, we are dealing with temperatures around the freezing point. We are fine at those temperatures with just extra blankets. Any colder than that and we would likely run it all night. We just find the constant on and off annoying.

Our battery was not lasting lately and we had it looked at while at the rally. They found the charging system was fine. We had the battery replaced before going to the rally, so it was not the battery. DH thinks it was because he left the TV booster on. We had two batteries set up in tandem at the dealership, so we should be fine now.

So long story short, if your battery drain is normal, then it should last no problem.
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Old 10-22-2018, 06:08 PM   #4
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The furnace draws around 8 AMPS DC when it is running. Just remember the colder it is outside the more it will run.
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Old 10-22-2018, 06:22 PM   #5
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I haven't checked it yet, but I thought you had to have 120VAC to run the furnace fan. But I may be wrong. If it will run off of the inverter, then I have learned something new today. This is my first camper with an inverter.
Reply to myself, I did learn something new today. I thought the inverter only powered the refrigerator. I will have to kill the shore power and see what else is powered by the inverter.
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Old 10-22-2018, 06:23 PM   #6
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We've done that before with no problems, but now days we have two batteries and no worries.
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Old 10-22-2018, 06:36 PM   #7
mhs4771
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Baldicon, just an FYI: The inverter does not run the Furnace, the furnace is powered by your 12 VDC system, thus "Battery Power".
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Old 10-22-2018, 06:43 PM   #8
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Baldicon, just an FYI: The inverter does not run the Furnace, the furnace is powered by your 12 VDC system, thus "Battery Power".
Yes I meant 12VDC, senior moment (getting more of these lately). Kind of foolish for an electrical engineer. My point was I always thought the fan was powered by AC, not DC. Thanks for keeping me straight.
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Old 10-22-2018, 07:29 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by deanrd View Post
I have a 2008 Montana 3585SA that I'm finally taking to Florida this winter from NH. I'll be leaving in mid January. I might have to stop overnight at a rest area, Cracker Barrel or Walmart. Most of my floor vents are clear so running the furnace isn't a problem with slides in. I just wonder how long the battery will last. With spring or fall camping at our seasonal site we often get temps in 20-30 degree range. I can keep the trailer at 67 degrees, but the furnace will run for 10 min and shutoff for 10 all night. Will the blower kill the battery in short order? Will it run it down so much you cant fully recharge it the next day? I was going to run a test and you can see how I failed with that I'd just like to get 5-6 hours of nap time if needed.


Thanx - Dean
Dean,

If your rig has a single battery I recommend adding a second. If you are running a single battery, keep your temp set down about 50 deg. I have 4 golf cart 6 volt batteries and keep my thermostat set around 55 at night and then turn it up after we get up.
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Old 10-22-2018, 08:15 PM   #10
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You should be OK if it doesn't run all night. We have done lots of times traveling but we also have 4 6 volt gulf cart battery's
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Old 10-22-2018, 09:22 PM   #11
twindman
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If you start with a fully charge battery and turn on the furnace around 8 pm, it should last until 6 or 8 am. That is in 30 degree temps. I know because I used the lights from 4 to 8 and the battery was down a bit. My inverter started beeping at 5 am because the voltage was getting low. So had to go plug in the truck and run it in my pj's for 30 minutes or so to make it until light.
Oh, and I think the comment about 8amp per hour when running is about right. You can kind of calculate it out by figuring it will run about 50-75% of the time all night and multiplying things out to see how many amp hours you would use.
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Old 10-22-2018, 09:55 PM   #12
kencare
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Just remember to unplug from TV or you could drain the TV battery too. Don't need to ask I know.
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Old 10-23-2018, 04:53 AM   #13
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I never run the heater at night. I just grab another blanket. I do however turn it on in the morning just to warm up a bit.
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Old 10-23-2018, 05:06 AM   #14
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Just remember to unplug from TV or you could drain the TV battery too. Don't need to ask I know.

We have been led to believe that the trailer will not drain the TV battery after it drains its own battery. Having said that, we never truly believed that and always unplug the truck, leaving a note on the steering wheel to plug it back in before moving.
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Old 10-23-2018, 05:49 AM   #15
Dave W
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In the distant past we used just the single good deep cycle battery to operate the furnace overnight - which it did just fine. On another 5er we had two batteries plus a 200 watt solar setup but that is a bit overboard for our current needs. Now we rely on a small generator in the truck bed whuch will operate the furnace and fridge, saving a bit of propane plus allow us a few other creature comforts such as lights.
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Old 10-23-2018, 06:19 AM   #16
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We installed a second battery many years ago after the heat went off while dry camping at Bryce--temp in the mid 20's and lots of wind. Solved the problem for us!
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Old 10-23-2018, 04:27 PM   #17
rohrmann
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Quote:
Originally Posted by deanrd View Post
I have a 2008 Montana 3585SA that I'm finally taking to Florida this winter from NH. I'll be leaving in mid January. I might have to stop overnight at a rest area, Cracker Barrel or Walmart. Most of my floor vents are clear so running the furnace isn't a problem with slides in. I just wonder how long the battery will last. With spring or fall camping at our seasonal site we often get temps in 20-30 degree range. I can keep the trailer at 67 degrees, but the furnace will run for 10 min and shutoff for 10 all night. Will the blower kill the battery in short order? Will it run it down so much you cant fully recharge it the next day? I was going to run a test and you can see how I failed with that I'd just like to get 5-6 hours of nap time if needed.


Thanx - Dean

If you don't already have two batteries or more, and decide to convert to two batteries, you would be better off buying two matching batteries, and possibly go up a size, such as from group 24 to group 27. Adding a new battery paralleled to an old one will cause an imbalanced load between the two of them which will shorten the life of the newer one. Going up in size will add additional amp hours, which will give you longer run time without being plugged in to a generator or pedestal.
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Old 10-23-2018, 05:15 PM   #18
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Capacity is everything, of course, but you should be fine for one night. Just keep in mind that lights, television, stereo, bathroom fan use DC also, and act accordingly.
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Old 10-23-2018, 09:15 PM   #19
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baldicon
i read a post the other day, the inverter runs the refig, outlet next to it and one outlet in the bedroom by the tv. haven't verified it yet
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Old 10-28-2018, 01:34 PM   #20
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Just remember to unplug from TV or you could drain the TV battery too. Don't need to ask I know.
Unless you have a Ford. It can stay plugged in and only connects to the battery with the ignition on ~ that is how it works on my SD.
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