I think this is good but with enough feedback from other users I can confirm my initial thoughts.
177 amp hours used overnight and my link 2000 showed the battery voltage at 12.35.
Three fresh deka gel 8D's
Charger off on purpose but all 110 stuff off of a 50amp pedestal.
Any thoughts or comments?
Bob
With the inverter off and running 110 volt devices on shore power, sounds like a lot of DC usage to me. You might want to turn various DC stuff on & off watching the amps and understand your usage. Re amp-hours used and battery voltage: plotting these numbers for various situations would be interesting.
This is a subject that someone like Wyatt should jump in on , but as Harvey said I agree that this is a lot of battery use.
I can run all night the fridge (residential on its own PSine inverter)and till bedtime the lights and pump etc and wake up before solar kicks in and use around 100 amph from the 3 8d AGMs. Some very low use of Micro on main inverter too.
Plus not be connected to shore.
John H
My coach had pantom loads on the 12 volt crcuits of 6.5 amps when I first bought it so about 100 amphours was used overnight when solar power was not available (4pm - 9am).
I have reduced the phantom load to less then half an amp, so when I am not using the coach about 8 amphours is used overnight. When I am boondocking, 20 - 60 amphours is used overnight. I have 1200 watts of solar which will provide 40 amps for 6 hours, so about 240 amphours on a sunny day.
It is not possible to tell what that 12.35 volt reading means without information about how many amps were being drawn for how long when the reading was taken. I assume that you used some of those 177 amphours after dark before going to bed. I would guess that your phantom load is 8 or more amps. This 177 amphours is a little high. If you decide to boondock, it would be better for you if you turned off some of that phantom load. For example, maybe there is a closet light or cargo bay light which has been left on.
Ok, so my 1200 watts on the roof has delivered 500 watts to the FT so far today here in sunny El Centro, CA (back from Cancun). For 12v systems that's 500/12= ~42amps
But now I'm not sure how to go the rest of the way to get from watts to amp-hrs. 10hrs at 4.2amps is tempting but I have no reason to do the calc that-a-way.
What is the correct answer?
best, paul
Amp-hours is that simple, amps times hours so long as the amps are constant.
So a constant 4.2 Amps for 10 hours is 42 Amp-hours.
You guys are as good as I thought. I was using the 110 volt aqua hot heating element only overnight. Temp went down to 49. Front and rear zones set to low 70's. Zone three bath heater set similarly. Extended run times on the fans because of the btu shortage. Front living room fans probably ran all night. Bedroom was slightly chilly as my DW snuggled closer. Turned on the diesel at 7am to add to the electric element and in 30 minutes the whole coach warmed up and adding the charger to bring the voltage up
Increased the fan speed noticeably. Normal overnight was around 120 amp hours so the extended pump and fan run times added that much more draw it seems.
Will report the resting voltage at dark tonight.
Bob,
Please clarify. Not sure I understand. Are you dry camping or on shore power. Running the electric heating element from an inverter while dry camping will run the battery bank down VERY quickly. That is what diesel is for.
And if plugged into shore power, the 120 VAC electric element is just fine, and our inverter/charger should keep the batteries fully charged.
Sorry for the mystery. Intentionally not charging the batteries plugged in. Testing everything as we do dry camp.
Watt, which is amps*volts, is a measurement of power and so is horse power. Watts and horsepower do have conversion ratios but do not involve time.
An amphour is a measure of amps over time and is not a measure of power. It is not possible to convert watts (a measure of power) to amphours. If you measure watts over time so watt hours, then it can be converted to amphours.
Your 1200 watts can provide up to 72 amps, on a sunny day when your panels are focused on the sun, which requires moving them every 5 minutes. You can get this amperage for about 5 hours in a day which provides 360 amphours or about 4300 watt hours.
Wyatt
Thanks, Wyatt.
best, paul
104 amp hours consumed overnight. Aqua hot Diesel burner was on versus the previous night.
Two new Winnebago owners I know both consumed 240 hours overnight. They both had 6 group 31 gel batteries I think rated at 100 amp hours each.
They both had non led lighting and household refers.
I mentioned to both they might need another six batteries. "But where?" Separate problem I said.
Seems like I am using about 15% of capacity overnight depending on the actual battery ratings where they are using 40%. Aqua hot system seems fairly good on power consumption.
The three MK deka's 8D's I am running seem to have more capacity than the rated 225 amp hours each?
Bob