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Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: Dakota Slim on October 17, 2022, 10:47:34 pm

Title: Wintertime & Heat: How many batteries are in a tank of propane?
Post by: Dakota Slim on October 17, 2022, 10:47:34 pm
Thought this was interesting. When boondocking, I have always used a portable Mr. Heater for my heat.

"a single 20 lb. tank of propane has as much energy equivalent as one hundred 100Ah batteries."

https://www.rvtravel.com/rv-electricity-jam-batteries-compared-to-tank-of-propane-rvdt-1971/
Title: Re: Wintertime & Heat: How many batteries are in a tank of propane?
Post by: FourTravelers on October 18, 2022, 09:38:42 am
Thought this was interesting. When boondocking, I have always used a portable Mr. Heater for my heat.

"a single 20 lb. tank of propane has as much energy equivalent as one hundred 100Ah batteries."

https://www.rvtravel.com/rv-electricity-jam-batteries-compared-to-tank-of-propane-rvdt-1971/

I'm an electrician by trade, I understand and appreciate the advantages of electric appliances. However I would never convert our coach to all electric, we like to boondock and seldom stay at RV parks with hookups. Propane allows us to do that without expensive battery, solar and inverter upgrades.

To each his own and I glad it works out for some RV'ers. Just not for us.

Thanks for posting this comparison, interesting........
Title: Re: Wintertime & Heat: How many batteries are in a tank of propane?
Post by: Pierce & Gaylie Stewart on October 18, 2022, 11:35:36 am
Electricity and propane are both needed for our camping style. We would also fit a wood stove but not enough room. Diesel water and space heater are onboard but not connected yet.

I had a small stainless diesel heater on my boat with a hand pump pressure tank. 10 seconds of pumping every few hours. No electricity, just heat. Sure wish I had that now.

Pierce
Title: Re: Wintertime & Heat: How many batteries are in a tank of propane?
Post by: Zach on October 18, 2022, 12:31:53 pm
Those with a 320 and a 194 gallon fuel tank = 7900 kwh (40.7kwh/gallon x 194 gallons)

I use 6-8 kwh of electricity a day which comes from solar. That's almost 1000 days of power from the generator if the generator were 100% efficient.

Solar is quiet and I don't have to do anything to turn it on or off. The sun does that for me. 194 gallons of fuel is currently about $1000. Solar setup and batteries were around $9000.  Is it worth it? I don't know, but it is nice to have solar energy available.
Title: Re: Wintertime & Heat: How many batteries are in a tank of propane?
Post by: FourTravelers on October 18, 2022, 12:39:30 pm


I use 6-8 kwh of electricity a day which comes from solar. That's almost 1000 days of power from the generator if the generator were 100% efficient.


Sorry but I don't understand where you got these figures for your generator hours. 

That would be less than one hour a day of genset use at 10KW.
Title: Re: Wintertime & Heat: How many batteries are in a tank of propane?
Post by: Zach on October 18, 2022, 02:09:22 pm
Sorry but I don't understand where you got these figures for your generator hours. 

That would be less than one hour a day of genset use at 10KW.

If I'm only using 6-8 kwh of power per day, I only need to run the generator long enough to achieve 6-8 kwh. My batteries only have so much capacity and running it any longer would be pointless. So, one hour per day for 1000 days, though the generator would only provide 3000 watts-ish to the inverter to charge the batteries at peak power.