Charging house batteries without plugging in!

System

Hello ALL! I have a grave task,How can I charge a house battery bank without plugging into ac? I own a 1997 Dodge 3.9liter full size van with 140 amp alternator and little more than a prayer to aid me! I want to dry camp as I always do.But with all the toys,Laptop,22"dvd screen(dc powered)hanging from the ceiling,NAV,Radar dector,cell charger,sound(600watt amps ect)lighting (Fluorescent!) It tends to kill my ONE 12 volt optima deepcycle battery in a hurry! I want to go with a bank of t105's doing battle for me but am holding off till I have a battle plan!What charger/converter will aid my little 140 watt alternator to do battle against the urge to plug in?Generator? altinator?solar?Wind? I have a clean slate to start with so where can I go to beat the ac plug demon!
Thanks in advance
Myles
PS I have to plan for heat in the winter as I love to camp in winter but hate freezing as I found out this past Feb!:confused?

westbranch

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

your first step is o document the consumption in Watts for all those toys,

that is your starting point and

will determine the course of action , CC, batteries, FEASIBILITY, PV needed, etc...

HTH
Eric

Cariboocoot

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

A small, fuel efficient generator like the Honda 1000 is your best bet for Watts/$ spent. You'll also need a good battery charger like the Iota series or similar.
This comes up more often than you might think. Repeated go-'rounds come to the same conclusion; and automotive alternator is not the best choice for recharging deep cycle batteries. The 'charging profile' of them isn't right; they don't put out the Voltage needed for deep cycles. Basically, an alternator tries to maintain a system Voltage of 13.8 or so. Deep cycles want to be pushed up to about 14.4 and held there for a couple of hours (+/-). Just bringing them up to 13.8 results in rapid decrease in battery capacity due to sulphation.
You're also right to get a firm handle on your loads before spending any money. This is difficult to do with the random use normally found in camping.

But a small gen & good charger could bring up a bank of deep cycles to supply fairly good power for over-night use. Costs less than the equivalent solar panel install and is not weather/angle dependent.

It's blinking hailing on me here! (Not related to the post. )

mike95490

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

I switch off the radar when camped, unless you are expecting incoming

BB.

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

A Honda eu1000i or eu2000i (900 watt / 1,600 watt) inverter/generator is going to be your friend. There is no way you will want (or probably even be able) to carry enough solar panels and ground mounts to keep your loads operating... Plus you would need 10x as much battery (size, weight) for realistic expectations of good battery life.

The Honda would probably be able to power all of those loads for 8-15 hours on a gallon of gasoline. And they are pretty quiet (easily talk when standing right next to one running--in a city setting, you cannot even hear them running--but of course, that is not a camp site in the middle of no-where--unless you include your TV/Stereo--which will swamp the genset noise).

Measure your power needs using a Kill-a-Watt meter.

Then look at your options to supply the power.

-Bill

Cariboocoot

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

The OP doesn't mention an inverter. Sort of sounds like everything he's got is 12VDC to begin with. Kill-A-Watt won't help there!

BB.

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

Including "Laptop,22"dvd screen"... But you are correct, it sounds like a mix of DC and AC devices...

Besides the kill-a-watt--there are DC Amp*Hour/Watt*Hour meters. And/or you can install a shunt and measure your average current draw * Hours to figure out how much DC power you are using.

Deltec 100 amp, 100 millivolt current shunt
AC or DC - common item for use with many battery monitors and amp meters.

There are also DC Clamp On Amp Meters for quick/easy DC current measurements.


-Bill

niel

Re: Charging house batteries without plugging in!

mylestone,
with all of that for loads it sounds like you just moved your electronic home habits to the great outdoors and there is no doubt you need a generator for all of that if you don't want to run the van all of the time. get a 12v power supply if you need more for the 12v items. mike picked on you a bit for the radar, but i'm picking on you for this, "600watt amps". that's plural and no wonder why your battery went dead, duh. i'm surprised you didn't mention a refrigerator, microwave, and coffee pot too.