My boondocking electric plan

[Old_Stevenick]

After a lot of research here's what my plan is.

I bought a 100 amp hour Lithium Phosphate battery for $509 from Amazon. It only weighs 25 lbs, so bringing it in and out of the house off-season is going to be a lot easier than having two 65 lbs golf cart batteries.

I bought a 2,250 dual fuel generator, will run it off propane primarily to charge the battery. It only weights 39 lbs.

I bought a bluetooth Battery Monitor so I can keep tabs on what I'm drawing off the battery and how much it has.

In our pop-up with a standard Lead Acid 500 amp hour battery we could get through 5-7 days, but all we used were the lights and charging our phones pretty much.

As the hybrid has a water pump, electric awnings, radio and other things, I figure we would only get a couple of days without the upgraded battery.

So what remains to be seen is how many days between charging the battery. My guess is we can go a week if we're super conservative with usage, and if we're using more power we should only have to run the generator to charge the battery every few days.

Time will tell!

[Camping family]

Time will tell like you said. Good luck and enjoy

[Lee]

On my TT,... Then radio always has power and the front panel glows blue 24/7.... So... I installed a push button on/off switch to itt. Every electron counts ��

[skids]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

After a lot of research here's what my plan is.

I bought a 100 amp hour Lithium Phosphate battery for $509 from Amazon. It only weighs 25 lbs, so bringing it in and out of the house off-season is going to be a lot easier than having two 65 lbs golf cart batteries.

I bought a 2,250 dual fuel generator, will run it off propane primarily to charge the battery. It only weights 39 lbs.

I am always amazed how light lithium batteries are. Plan on electricity conservation for sure. The furnace uses a lot, the radio uses a bunch too. Plan on a good charge to bring in the slide as it is primarily battery power. The AC may not run on the genny depending on startup amps (aka “locked rotor amps”) and what elevation you run it at. Also, the outside temperature makes a big difference because the compressor has to work harder.

[Old_Stevenick]

It seems that the refrigerator uses close to 30 Amp Hours a day, running at around 16 watts of draw. This is without opening it and using the lights inside. Running off propane.

Is there any way to reduce Fridge power usage? It seems that even being really conservative with energy use, the battery isn't ever giving us more than 2 days this way.

Looking at my battery monitor and with the fridge off the trailer is drawing about 3 Watts, presumably propane detector, radio face, etc. With the fridge on it shows 16-19 Watts.

After running just the closed fridge for 24 hours and the battery usage was over 30 amps!

This is still the original lead acid battery. I'm putting the LFP battery in later today.

[Lee]

Hi,

As all I ever do is Dry camp... I can feel your pain concerning battery consumption.

I replaced all lights with LED.

Installed an ON/OFF switch to 12v supply to the radio... no more front panel blue glow.

Installed an ON/OFF switch to the 12v heat strip on the Refrigerator... This is the heated strip between the freezer compartment and the refer. The strip will ice up in humid conditions though.

I use a Mr Buddy heater for heat, not the furnace, = no power usage.

Run two 6volt golf cart batteries.

[Old_Stevenick]

Hey Lee. I don't see a way to get into my fridge, how did you install that switch?

[Lee]

Depending on your model Fridg..... some already come with the switch... It would be labeled "Climate Control" and be located on the eye brow control panel.

My Dometic made fridge doesn't have this switch but,..... I found the electrical diagram and see that the 12v for the inside lamp also powers the heat strip. I removed the lens and lamp assembly to access the wires and installed the switch there.

[Old_Stevenick]

So as I mentioned in another thread, my fridge was taking more power than it needed to. I took the bulb out and it dropped to about 8 watts. I think the switch that was turning the bulb off is defective, or something else is wrong, but without the bulb my ability to get 2 or even 3 days off this battery are looking more likely. 11 watts parasitic (fridge cold, not used, detectors, etc.) call it it 1 AH. So <24 AH per day plus lights, water pump, etc. Much better than the > 30 AH I was drawing before.

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

So as I mentioned in another thread, my fridge was taking more power than it needed to. I took the bulb out and it dropped to about 8 watts. I think the switch that was turning the bulb off is defective, or something else is wrong, but without the bulb my ability to get 2 or even 3 days off this battery are looking more likely. 11 watts parasitic (fridge cold, not used, detectors, etc.) call it it 1 AH. So <24 AH per day plus lights, water pump, etc. Much better than the > 30 AH I was drawing before.

Would it help to get a nice yeti cooler and a block of ice or two and keep drinks and water bottles in that so you don’t have to open the refrigerator constantly all day and cause it to run excessively ?

[Old_Stevenick]

It’s running off propane. Besides the LED light it may not use more electricity if opened a lot. It could just be the static watts for the control board.

[Old_Stevenick]

Heading out tomorrow for our first trip. Just a short 3 day boondocking. I'll let you all know how it goes and how the LIFEpo4 battery does.

[Old_Stevenick]

Good idea on the Yetti though.

[MotoDad293]

A couple of notes...

In your existing comments using the generator to recharge the lithium battery. How? DC connection from generator to battery or.... hooking up your shore power cord to the generator and having the on-board converter charge the battery? If the latter, make sure your converter can go into lithium mode, if not replace the converter with one that does lithium mode. Lithium batteries need a constant 13.8v + to charge. Standard converters will only charge lithium batteries to 80%....

Having said that, why not install 2 lithium batteries and double your usage time. Then add a 200-300watt 20amp-ish solar panel and solar controller. Even a cheap portable system should be able to do that.

If your usage is as low as you say it is, then the solar over 8 hours will replenish about 80-160 aH of the battery capacity.

We boondock 99% of our trips and our trips range from 3-5 days usually. I run 3 Lion Energy 105aH batteries. The first thing after the batteries was to replace the converter with a Progressive Dynamic PD9180ALV 80amp converter. So if I run my gennie, I charge back at 80amps/hour. My coach also had a 265watt Jaboni solar panel/converter that I have seen charge up to 20amps/hour.

We have super light day power usage and moderate power usage after dark. TV/AppleTV on inverter. I am sure my fridge sucks down a lot 12v amps as it is a big inefficient monster.

We recently did a 4 day trip, 100% boondock, and the solar maintained the batteries to where I never had to turn either the Honda Eu2000 gennie I carry or the big built-in. I was at 100% SOC by the time the sun went down every day.

Keep in mind this is a 40foot 5th wheel, not a more conservative travel trailer.

[Old_Stevenick]

I do have a Progressive Dynamics 45 Amp Lithium Charger that I'm using, so all good in that area.

I would love to have 2 batteries, but just can't find a place to put the second one, I'd have to put it inside the storage compartment, no way to get it on the tongue.

I definitely will be thinking about solar though.

[Old_Stevenick]

The refrigerator seems to draw power off the battery even when plugged into shore power. I charged the battery yesterday got up this morning and the battery is down 15 amp hours. Fridge drawing power even while plugged into shore power.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

The refrigerator seems to draw power off the battery even when plugged into shore power. I charged the battery yesterday got up this morning and the battery is down 15 amp hours. Fridge drawing power even while plugged into shore power.

The fridge will always draw power when in use. That's like saying the headlights on your truck are drawing amperage even when the truck is running. The issue is, if the battery drains down while connected to shore power then the converter is not keeping up with the load on the battery opr the battery is defective..

[Old_Stevenick]

I thought it would draw from the AC when plugged in.

So the Bullet's convertor is probably not lithium compatible.

Will it damage the battery as some articles say?

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by Old_Stevenick

I thought it would draw from the AC when plugged in. Does the Bullet 1650ex charge the battery while plugged in? It’s not a lithium converter if it does.

The fridge f it's a "standard" RV fridge will heat with LP or an electric 120 v element when available and if the controls are in automatic. The fridge interior light and 12 vdc control board remain energized any time the fridge is on.

Every camper that has shore power has a converter that charges the battery and provides 12v dc to the systems. No it will not be a lithium compatible charger as the vast majority of campers have flooded wet cell batteries. If you install a lithium battery then you should change out the charger on the converter to a lithium compatible one to get the battery to properly anmd fully charge.

[Old_Stevenick]

The only time we’ll be using shore power is to run the fridge in our driveway a day before going camping. All boondocking for us.

I will look into replacing that converter anyway. However strange that it can’t at least keep up with the 9watt hours that the refrigerator and detectors are drawing.