How many amp/hrs?

[Creeker]

For those who dry camp or boondock with LiFeP04 batteries.
How many amp/hrs or watt/hrs do you have installed?

I know it varies greatly by individual need/usage. Just wondering what the average of our members would be.

I just installed 460 amp/hrs and am thinking of an additional 230 for 690 amp/hrs @12v total. An hour or two of Air conditioning would be nice for those lunch break and rest stops while traveling without the Genny.

[Daryles]

Install a SoftStartRV on the AC unit you want to run. It will help a lot.

[Creeker]

Originally Posted by Daryles

Install a SoftStartRV on the AC unit you want to run. It will help a lot.

They were one of the first and best Mods. Been running them on both units for several years.

[RoamingRetirees]

Creeker,
We have 300ah of lithium on our rig and will run one A/C for an hour as we're approaching a campground. Battery will drop from 100% to about 40% within that hour, so we make sure we get back on shore power ASAP.

[Daryles]

RoamingRetirees
Install a DC-DC charger and it will help support running the AC while you are driving.

https://www.montanaowners.com/forums...hlight=charger

[Creeker]

Scott - Thanks for the info and another good idea of running the AC an hour or two before arriving at campsite. We've had interior temps of upper 90's many times upon arrival.

Daryl - Excellent use for the dc to dc chargers. I actually purchased one a couple years back. I ended up giving it and installing it to/for my Dad and his Travel Trailer. He and Mom are both 80 and still getting out there camping. He needed it more than me at the time as he had Lithium batteries that wasn't working well with his trucks charging system. He was blowing truck charging circuit fuse.

I may just purchase another and install for myself now with the Lithium batteries.

[Todd & Mary]

I have 12kw of batteries, 1700 Watts of solar panels. 2 soft start for my AC's and a 30amp to 30amp DC/DC charger to the truck. We boondock in the desert in AZ during the winter without any issues. Of course we do not need to run the AC's. Only 2 times did I need to run my generator when we had multiple cloudy days in a row.

[Creeker]

Originally Posted by Todd & Mary

I have 12kw of batteries, 1700 Watts of solar panels. 2 soft start for my AC's and a 30amp to 30amp DC/DC charger to the truck. We boondock in the desert in AZ during the winter without any issues. Of course we do not need to run the AC's. Only 2 times did I need to run my generator when we had multiple cloudy days in a row.

Nice hefty system Todd. Did you keep it at 12 volt or step up to 24 or 48 volt?


Edit - After re reading your using a 30 amp DC to DC charger, I'm assuming you kept it at 12 volt.

[Todd & Mary]

Originally Posted by Creeker

Nice hefty system Todd. Did you keep it at 12 volt or step up to 24 or 48 volt?


Edit - After re reading your using a 30 amp DC to DC charger, I'm assuming you kept it at 12 volt.

For ease of obtaining replacement parts in desolate areas I kept the system at 12v And I didn't have to install a 24/12v converter in the rig. It works well for us. I got a 50% discount on the 12v batteries, that made my decision easy!
so instead of over 9k they cos me about 5k.

[Robev]

We only boondock and have 400ah lithium. Just increased solar from 1200watts to 2400 and that’s about it on our 35’ Montana. We consume about 65-70ah a day during summer and are full by lunchtime. During winter, we only travel during better weather and use about 80-95ah in winter. Before we doubled our solar, 3-4 days was our limit boondocking, before we returned to home base. Ideally, I’d now like to increase our lithium, but it’s not an urgent need. Appreciate everyone’s comment here.

[Creeker]

Todd - 50% off will always sway my decisions. Price was the main reason I waited until now to switch to lithium. No way was I paying $1000.00 for a 100amp/hr 12 volt battery. Competition has brought the prices way down in addition to much larger single batteries now available.

Robev - Thats a bunch of solar! I would imagine your battery bank stays 100% when the sun is shining. If we were in the open areas of the west more often I would do the same. Nearly all of our dry camping is in national forests or heavily shaded state parks here in the east. We use ground deployed portable solar panels with long extension cables when we can. Bulk of our charging comes from our Honda Genny's though. I've added an additional charger so we can easily get 100+ amps of charge to speed things up.

[Robev]

Originally Posted by Creeker

Todd - 50% off will always sway my decisions. Price was the main reason I waited until now to switch to lithium. No way was I paying $1000.00 for a 100amp/hr 12 volt battery. Competition has brought the prices way down in addition to much larger single batteries now available.

Robev - Thats a bunch of solar! I would imagine your battery bank stays 100% when the sun is shining. If we were in the open areas of the west more often I would do the same. Nearly all of our dry camping is in national forests or heavily shaded state parks here in the east. We use ground deployed portable solar panels with long extension cables when we can. Bulk of our charging comes from our Honda Genny's though. I've added an additional charger so we can easily get 100+ amps of charge to speed things up.

We live in the southern hemisphere, in New Zealand, and right now it’s the middle of winter, about the shortest day, and one of our new 200watt panels, during the installation process, as an experiment… I laid flat on the ground and it was pulling about 3.66 amps and they are rated at just under 10amps. (9.97). I then tilted it to capture the most I could from the sun and the current increased to 6.68amps. I have spoken to people that use portable panels before but didn’t quite appreciate just how much moving them, and following the sun nearly doubled the solar capture such a diligent process would produce. So you are on the right track if you boondock in forested areas.

[Creeker]

Originally Posted by Robev

We live in the southern hemisphere, in New Zealand, and right now it’s the middle of winter, about the shortest day, and one of our new 200watt panels, during the installation process, as an experiment… I laid flat on the ground and it was pulling about 3.66 amps and they are rated at just under 10amps. (9.97). I then tilted it to capture the most I could from the sun and the current increased to 6.68amps. I have spoken to people that use portable panels before but didn’t quite appreciate just how much moving them, and following the sun nearly doubled the solar capture such a diligent process would produce. So you are on the right track if you boondock in forested areas.

We have friends with 800 watts on their roof. Our 400 watts on the ground nearly always does better than theirs. Often double through an entire day.
Some sites in heavy tree cover they get nothing. Of course the roof mounted panels are much, much more convenient and charges while driving. I'm convinced having both roof mount and portable ground panels is the way to go. We plan to do just that after retirement when we can spend more time in the western US where the skies are open. But even then, we will never be without a Generator.

[Creeker]

I decided to go ahead and order another 230 amp/hr battery. This will give us a total of 690 amp/hrs @12.8 Volt or 8.8kw . I'm trying get to where we can run our bedroom AC at night for several hours if needed.

My thinking is closing the bedroom door and opening the dump vent on the AC where all the air dumps straight into the bedroom. Set the thermostat to low where the fan will run constantly. The compressor shouldn't run more than 20 minutes out of an hour. Hopefully less as the outside temps drop during the night. Fridge will be on propane with nothing else running on 120 volt. Lots of variables I know. Looking forward to giving it a try. I can always go one more 230 amp battery.

[Creeker]

Originally Posted by Creeker

My thinking is closing the bedroom door and opening the dump vent on the AC where all the air dumps straight into the bedroom. Set the thermostat to low where the fan will run constantly. The compressor shouldn't run more than 20 minutes out of an hour. Hopefully less as the outside temps drop during the night. Fridge will be on propane with nothing else running on 120 volt. Lots of variables I know. Looking forward to giving it a try. I can always go one more 230 amp battery.

Received, charged and installed the third battery for 690 amp/hrs or 8.83kw. I'll be giving my theory above the test tomorrow night. Its going to be a harsh test with this major heat wave hitting today. High in the 90's tomorrow with a low of 74 tomorrow night. We will be dry camping for the next 5 nights. I'm going to get it cold as a meat locker in the bedroom before turning off the Genny around 10:00PM. I'll set the thermostat to 70 and let her rip.

[Daryles]

I would cool the whole rig while you have the gen running. More cold mass will help maintain the temperature.
I tested our batteries (552Ahs lithium) on a 2000w inverter running the bedroom AC unit (SoftstartRV installed).
It pulls a LOT of current. As the battery voltage went down the current draw went up to maintain the load. I only ran the system for 13 minutes.
Closing off the other vents and dumping into the bedroom (door closed) is a good idea. It won't take too much effort to maintain that area.