Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeC
My $.02. Simply put, you don't have just a battery capacity issue, you have a charge capacity issue too. You could put in 500 ah of battery, but how will you charge them? Both of your issues can be alleviated by changing to lithium batteries. You can use more of their total capacity (80% vs 50%) and charge them 5 times faster and more efficiently than lead acid batteries. You may also be a little short on solar power, depending on your daily load requirement.
Your system needs to be engineered around your daily electrical needs, where batteries must be able to easily supply it and your charging system must be able to return your batteries to full or near full power each day. Note: not fully charging lead acid batteries is detrimental to their health, not so with lithium. Occasionally, you can supplement your charging with driving the RV, running the generator or plugging back in to shore power. So use try to use less power or add more solar or do a little of both. If you are serious about boondocking, you need to be seriously considering quality, name brand, well engineered lithium batteries.
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I agree with you concerning the need for more power to supply a larger battery pack. We currently have 300 watts of solar and that is enough to charge our 2 65AH batteries to full in the summer Arizona sun but not in the Winter and not if it is cloudy.
As part of my battery search I have also been asking about adding solar panels. I thought I might replace 2 of the flexible panels with 2 higher capacity rigid panels giving me 450 watts of solar and perhaps that might be enough.
The one saving grace is that we don't usually dry camp or boondock for longer than 2 days at any one place and thus I generally get to charge the batteries driving. In most places I can also run the generator but there is one campground that we go to regularly where there is little to no sunlight that reaches the RV due to the heavy foliage and where I am not allowed to use the generator, and that is what has been driving me to consider much higher capacity batteries.
I am having a battery monitor installed next week and then I should have a better idea about what the state of our batteries are after dry camping. Perhaps that will help me figure this out. Thank you for your help.
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