How Many RV Batteries Do I Need?
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2023
- How Many RV Batteries Do I Need? Todd tackles the common question that many RV owners face when it comes to their electrical power setup and power requirements. Remember, a properly sized battery bank can make a significant difference in your RV's power capabilities.
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WOW! The first time I've actually understood amp hours! Thank you SO much!
Great content. Thanks for that. Let's remember we also need our water pump when were out boondocking. I can do without AC, not in Texas, but water, 2 way fridge, a few lights, and sometime on ceiling fans definitely.
Thank you for explaining to us in simple terms.
Great knowledge and help .. Thanks ..
Thank you for that!
Thank you for your information it was very informative especially running the AC in Texas weather but in the future could you run some information on what wattage of solar power to charge those batteries within conjunction of a generator
Great info thanks you
Well done
Good info.
Great info, thank you, I need help bad, my rv is stationary at my home, I just want to plug in my tv, very small air fryer and run the fridge. Can I just use my battery and propane?
2400 Ah in your rig...you rock, Todd!
… at 12v thats 28,800 Wh. The cheapest off the shelf i could find is $.22/Wh. Thats $6400 In batteries alone kids. Help me jebus
I wish you would have mentioned running and stereo which most campers have and 6 volt batteries.
Even if i didnt own a camp trailer id still watch, informative and entertaining. Thanks!
Thank you
Todd - Thank you for the great content you ant the NRVTA put out week after week! I Don't want to read too much into a simple Tech Tip, since it is free advice, but you suggested that "...a lithium..." would get you "...a weekend..." (assuming proper converter) running lights, fan and fridge. However, when I run the math (I may not be doing it correctly) for each appliance/item over 24 hours (lights wont run all 24 hours nor will the fans and a 12v fridge wont run for an hour, every hour). so even on conservative estimates, I still get 211 amps in a 24 hour cycle. The 12v fridge consuming a whooping 96 am hours (assuming it runs only for 30 mins in an hour, every hour). Lights and fan come out to 55 amp hours for a 24 hour period. Conversely, an absorption fridge appears to only use 24 amp hours assuming it runs all the time. Nonetheless, even with an absorption fridge, I'm not getting two days unless you meant to imply a 12-14 hour solar charge during the day to replenish the energy in a lithium. Thanks for your great work! .
or 1 280amp hour Big Beard Battery. ;)
Question, what if you are constantly hitched up to shore power? Can you use just 1 battery?
I got this little 1000w Sportsman inverter generator that keeps my single wet cell charged, fridge on propane, lights, furnace, charge phones, cpap through the night, etc. No AC of course. This little generator will run 11 hours on one 1/2 gal tank and can barely be heard. Got two of these gens on clearance $170ea. A great cheap system. My lead acid is 5yrs old still going strong.
I moved into my rv 4 months ago, off grid. Ibwpuld Saybrook setup is ideal and most displined.for budget. I had 5 solar panels n 4 small solar generators and decided I could use a generator. Sold it in 2 weeks as ibwas too cheap to pay for gas. I'm the only one in campground without a generator blasting all day and night. The fans take up 95% of myvpower. Once oct is here I will have plenty of power with my set up
Right now, we use two 6V batteries in series when we have no shore power. With lights and furnace (Canada winter kamping) they'll last at least 24 hours. We do use a genny for backup/charging.
I'd like to hear or find something somewhere about using two 12v batteries wired in parallel. I've seen it done on commercial trucks, but of course we don't need a high-amp kick for starting engines. Would any matched 12v recreational batteries work okay?
Like kind 12v deep cycle batteries properly wired in parallel will run your 12v needs.
Look at the capacity (amp hours) of the 12v batteries vs the 6v. 12v batteries gage more cells which limits how much capacity.
When I purchased my 2021 Hideout 28RKS, the dealer installed 2 batteries in parallel. We are park campers with no more than occasional drive day lunch lights used off grid. Is there any reason to replace both batteries when the time comes? To my understanding, the second battery is superfluous to how we use our trailer.
If you aren’t driving more than 2-3 hours when traveling then 1 is ok
I have a 1982 Chevy mini weiner Winnebago frigerators 12-volt through the converter my lights are not working I have the old type glass fuse but I don't see any any that defective what would be going on it said my frigerator is working not light
thank you friend for this info. If I wanted to instal 2 lithium 200ah batteries do we need to do anything special to balance them before we plug and play?
If you are buying ready made batteries, then no. You just connect them up, charge them, and you're good to go.
Don't forget to check out this week's Q&A part2 tech tip, where Todd answers your question!
so, 6 Lead Acid batteries for one day at 10 amps per hour...bring a generator, and upgrade the alternator
I'm thinking to become a tech
I just purchased my 2018 coachman clipper. I travel a lot.
What solar set up do you recommend? I only have one battery and a generator 3200 Honda. I’m interested in the solar panel but I’m very confused or so much stuff out there. Please help.
Reach out to me at info@bigbeardbatteries.com
when do your batteries come out with a listed price? We are either getting a Vacationer or Bounder next spring... I want to immediate swap out the 6V deep cycles with at least one 280Ah if not two just to start out... then slowly build out the system to match Todd's 2400Ah setup so we can go overnight with the AC...
Pricing is now listed on the site. Watch out for offers.
@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy thanks! Great price too...
I see the mention of cold charging protection but are they heated?
i have 2 100 amp hour batteries. Will i need to invest in a new invertor/converter to take full advantage of the new Big Bear Battery? Like run A/C.. i am on a 10 amp service at my son's house. Need help. Oh, the price was not indicated on your video or Big Bear Battery. what is your est price?
Check your converter/charger to see if it has the capability (button, switch, auto detect) to change the charging mode from lead acid to lithium. If not, you will need one that does.
How do you check that?
Would I be able to run my one A/C 13,500btu with a 2000 watt inverter and 100ah lithium battery?
Unfortunately no
Is my 12v refrigerator only going to draw from my battery even when I am on shore power?
The simple answer is no. Shore power, depending on the type of converter you have in your rig, will charge your "coach" battery over time, and act as a 12V power supply.
@@s.mendez7160 thank so much for explaining that. Happy Camping!!
I hate to have to ask but what is the warranty on your batteries ? I looked on your website and i can not find any warranty information.
11 years
@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy thank you
There are so many permutations of what can occur when camping and how long a battery will last without recharging. But in real life, charging can be happening as you drive to a campsite and at the campsite while at the same time you are using power from your battery.
I'm interested in this situation: you have a 100ah lithium battery that is fully charged that is powering your small (Casita) trailer (3 way refrigerator, furnace, 2 maxxfans but no air conditioner, 6 gallon water heater, LED lights). You set out on the road and nothing inside the trailer is on except you put the refrigerator on 12 volt because of the dangers of using propane while driving (gotta keep the food cold). When you get to your destination 6 hours later, you set up but you don't have shore power, or city water, or city sewer. You change the refrigerator to propane. You turn on the propane water heater. You use one of the fans all the time to keep air moving. You don't have to use the propane furnace much more than an hour total daily. You set up your 100 watt solar panel when you arrive but it doesn't get much sun until the next day, when it gets about 5 hours of sun. You use the water pump for just the usual things (washing dishes, toilet, quick shower). You stay at this site for 7 days, or maybe even 14 days.
Are there any concerns when traveling so the trailer battery and truck battery aren't discharged and damaged by running the refrigerator on 12 volt?
What can be done while traveling to prevent battery problems?
Do you think the solar panel will be able to maintain the battery to last the 7 to 14 days and then travel back home?
Do you have any other ideas?
What if it was a regular lead acid battery and not a lithium?
I'm trying to work with the items that are included with my trailer without buying inverters or more batteries or mounting solar panels. I've been looking for a video that addresses the real life situations like this. I've seen a lot of videos that say don't drive with propane on for the refrigerator but they never address the solution of how to run the refrigerator on 12 volt while driving. They only say that the refrigerator draws a lot of 12 volt power. I'd love to know the solution to that problem. Thanks so much.
I love all your videos. Please make one on traveling 6+ hours with your 12 volt refrigerator on and the issues and solutions to the problems that can occur.
So this is all about supply and demand.
Your specific fridge will provide the watt consumption or amp consumption / hour avg once fridge reaches operating temp. Typically 300-500watts/hour.
I don’t need to cover anything else to answer your question about the 100watt panel being able to keep you for 7 days. No.
Your 100ah battery has max 1200 watts total. If it were even possible for your 109watt panel to hit 100% for 6 hours that’s a total of 600watts supply daily (again impossible) with the 1200watts supply from the battery.
Demand is 300-500watts per hour. You are in a deficit under the current scenario.
So if you used propane when you get to your site for the fridge and water heater then it’s just the lights and fan.
Lights pull ~2-3amps /hour if all are on. The fan will pull the same ~2-3amps/hour so total about 50-60watts/hour.
You can go a couple days but the 100watt panel and only 6 hours of useful sunstrike per day will not be sufficient to recharge the battery. Possibly a portable genny a few hours a day to recharge the battery.
thank you@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy
So it sounds like the best way to travel is to turn off the refrigerator while driving (and pack it with frozen foods or frozen water bottles to keep it cold) ??@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy
👍👍👍👍👍
2400Ah 😮
Thank you. I always hear 50 percent on led acid batteries. That's fine. So when do I know when my 2 batteries are at 50 percent. I do have a meter in the rv for the batteries.
So FLA batteries lose their voltage when discharging. When the batteries get to 12.0volts resting then they are ~50%. Any voltage less than 12volts is bad for the battery and the equipment running.
@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy thank you so much for this information 👍
your AC consumption of 20 amps running it for 14 hours = 280 amps. From what you said, each battery is 300 amps. So your AC can run just on 1 battery. Some math issue here. So I am not sure why you have eight 300 amp batteries. You should be able to run your AC for 14 days on that many batteries. Am I missing something here?
There is no way that’s right. You have to convert that over. The a/c is 20 amps at 120 volts, not 12 volts. I can not remember how you do that but I’m sure someone here could do that. That is my understanding
how are you charging 2400Ah of storage capacity? That's 28.8kWh.
Even with all the solar from time to time the genny must be on to recharge the batteries.
We need two 300ah batteries. Would like to know the price on your batteries before we start giving out our personal information.
So the price is listed on the site. Here is a link
www.bigbeardbatteries.com/online-store/Batteries-c151797450
20 amps AC load is not 20 amps DC load on your batteries from your inverter.
200 on DC plus power factor and efficiency
While I think your presentation is okay, the presenter seems to wave his arms like an amateur. One thing producers or directors are supposed to teach ya is keep your hands below your face (in your case your beard?).
Pointing at stuff is just weird because we know you can’t see the green screen behind you.
Keep up the good work, you can always learn.
Like I said last time: good content - but AMPS per hour and WATTS per hour makes no sense!! AMPS is current flow. It's like saying 50 litres/hour per hour.
Amps = flow but you feel that adding time to how long you record the flow doesn’t make sense.
“How fast were you driving? 60
60 what?
60 miles.
Oh 60 miles per hour
Water pump= flow
How much does your water pump?
3 gallons
Just 3 gallons then it turns off?
Oh 3 gallons per minute
Flow ALWAYS includes time when measuring it.
@@NationalRVTrainingAcademy Are you 100% sure about that? Let me put it another way. Amperage is the "rate" that current is flowing through the circuit. 1Amp = 1 Coulomb per second. Speed is a measure of rate-of distance. Miles is distance, and you have to add "per hour" to make it a "rate". But Amps is already a "rate". It's all semantics. I know what you mean. But trust me on this - it's NEVER amps/hour.
Yes I’m very sure that I am right. Your not even splitting hairs. You simply aren’t accepting a generally accepted term.
Hit the googles and type in amp hours definition. Link after link after link will define it.
energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Ampere_
Ampere hour
An ampere hour (abbreviated A
⋅
⋅
h or amp hr) is a unit of electric charge, usually used for batteries. This unit combines the amount of current with how long that current can be sustained until the battery completely discharges.[1] Large batteries have several ampere hours but cell phones and other small devices have batteries with a total charge measured in milliampere hours. This measured quantity is called battery capacity.[1]
The number of amp-hours in a battery is found by multiplying the amount of current (in amperes) by the time (in hours) a given current could flow before the battery runs out. This calculation gives the total amount of charge transferred. This unit is useful since a battery will be able to supply current for a longer period of time, than say a capacitor. Chemical reactions inside the battery are limited by the amount of material that can be eaten away, and how quickly, this means that to test the ampere hours of a battery one should use a low current relative to the battery's peak current capability.
1 Ah = 3,600 Coulombs
Often the amp hour is written on the side of a battery, which has a voltage (often 1.5 V). An ampere hour at 1 volt is a unit of energy, specifically the watt-hour (1/1000th of a kWh).
Dictionary.com
ampere-hour
[ am-peer-ouuhr, -ou-er, am-peer- ]SHOW IPA
nounElectricity.
1. a unit of electric charge noting the amount of electricity transferred by a current of one ampere in one hour, equal to 3600 coulombs.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampere-hour
An ampere-hour or amp-hour (symbol: A⋅h or A h; often simplified as Ah) is a unit of electric charge, having dimensions of electric current multiplied by time, equal to the charge transferred by a steady current of one ampere flowing for one hour, or 3,600 coulombs.[1][2]
*
*
What is an ampere hour (Ah or amp hour)?
Ampere hours -- sometimes abbreviated as Ah or amp hours -- is the amount of energy charge in a battery that enables 1 ampere of current to flow for one hour. Another way of saying it is that 1 Ah is the rating indicating how much amperage a battery can provide for one hour. The unit is a useful metric to determine the capacity of an energy storage device, such as a rechargeable battery or deep-cycle battery.
Hang on, mate - now you're referring to Amp.hours, and that is indeed a very useful number. Amp.hours is current multiplied by time, but in your video you clearly refer to "amps per hour"' - which would be current divided by time, and is of no use to anyone.
I don't want appear pig-headed in this, but I have a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and have worked in this field for 35 years. Amp.hours - yes. Amp/hour - nope.
Lol still dont know how many i need. To many side topics.
You're clearly very knowledgeable on this topic, and I think you're probably a very good teacher, but you're really missing the mark on this topic because while your brain automatically does the mental gymnastics to leap easily between amps, volts, and watts...those of us without your knowledge base can't. After watching this video, I'm MORE confused, not less. I wish someone would make a video where THEY convert EVERYTHING to watts ahead of time and just leave words like "amp" and "volt" completely out of the conversation until the very end where they explain the conversions so THAT'S the only thing you're talking about. ie: an amp= this many volts. A volt=this many watts. Etc... That way, if they say the battery holds this many watts and all these things like lights, fridge, AC etc...each use many watts per hour, I have a fighting chance of knowing what the hell you're talking about during the main part of the video, and THEN at the very end of the video I can learn the conversions separately. I would NOT teach the conversions first at the beginning and then use all the terminology in the main video, because then you're asking people who only just learned them thirty seconds ago, to do the mental gymnastics while you're explaining the correlations between the batteries and appliances. There needs to be some separation for beginners. Just sayin'.... (speaking as a former teacher of over twenty years...)
Hi from Australia. It’s actually very easy. Volts x Amps = watts. Regardless of the voltage. ie.. 110 volts x 2 amps = 220 watts. Any electrical device can be rated in watts consumed. In all likelihood the device will also rate volts and amps. Batteries on the other hand are only rated in volts and amps, not watts because that is load dependent. So a 12VDC 100 amp battery can supply a maximum of . . . 12 x 100 = 1,200 watts for one hour only. When a battery is rated, 100 amps it is actually telling you 100 amps for one hour. This is important to understand! In electronics we always talk “amp hours”. So the same battery can deliver 12VDC x 10 amps (12 x 10 = 120 watts) for 10 hours. Or 12VDC x 1 amp (12 x 1 =12 watts) for 100 hours. Batteries are always rated in amp/hours. I hope this helps.
@@DiHandley It does! I still don't quite "have it" but my brain almost grabbed onto it as I was reading. I've copied what you wrote into a word doc so I can study on it until it clicks. THANK YOU!!!
We can make that video.
can i add lithium bat to an agm bat using both ?
We do not recommend combining lithium batteries and lead-acid batteries. The load characteristics and capabilities of these batteries are drastically different which can lead to safety issues.
so you added $17,800 worth of batteries to your coach ?
The man wants his air conditioning
I do have a question.
Could I email you guys somewhere ?
What size is the inverter in your build