How many amp-hours?

[maria_bettina]

Hi! I would like your opinions. I have an ATC Panther (pop-up TC) that we are building out. The TC came with a 79 amp-hr battery, which we found to be insufficient. So what does our rig warrant in terms of amp-hrs?

We run ...
-- Dometic electric fridge (0.81 Ah)
-- Fantastic Fan 1.8Ah (but only on a few hours)
-- DIY swamp cooler (unknown, but will be on all night)
-- Recharging electronics, like phone, watch, Kindle, camera battery using an inverter (unknown)
-- 2 indoor LED and one outdoor porch lights
-- And we may want to add some other electronics like a Mr Heater Boss Shower, but not sure exactly what or when, so I want to over-estimate my need at this point.

Before we had solar panels and only had the fridge and lights, we would get down to a 60% charge after a day and charge by driving the truck (alternator).

So we added three 100 watt solar panels, thinking if we were camped under some trees, we might still generate enough to make a dent. And we camp (no hookups) in the winter. And there are some days we get little sunshine.

So with all that, I was thinking a 200Ah deep cycle battery. Too much? What are your thoughts?

[maria_bettina]

jaycocreek wrote:
You might want to watch this if your interested, about a couple living full time in a popup truck camper..He talks about solar/battery banks etc later in the video..I watch alot of Down2Mob video's.He makes me laugh and has some good informative stuff for overlanding in a 4X4..Power stations/solar/portable solar etc as well as getting stuck alot..LOL

Couple living fulltime in a popup TC.

Thank you again! Yours sounda like a nice setup. I will definitely look at the fulltime TCer video 🙂

[Camper_Jeff___K]

maria_bettina wrote:

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:
Just to keep it simple. Over the years with two of us and all our toys, laptops running till midnight and furnace till morning. We currently have 210 AH of AGM and 240 watts solar which gets me by for half of the needs I have. To do it right, we need a minimum of 300 AH AGM and 400 watts solar, I also connected 4AWG wire via a constant duty solenoid for no voltage drop, from the alternator to the TC batteries. I also have an AGM vehicle battery so all batteries have similar load, charge characteristics. We do not have a generator. The solar and truck engine alternator handle the charging nicely.

That sounds similar to where we are headed. The factory unfortunately ran a 12AWG wire (maybe it was 10AWG) from the alternator to the TC battery 😕 It seems to be the minimum gauge used for the truck battery we have and from what I read online. We won't rerun the wire now though, so we got what we got.

We ran the swamp cooler over the weekend in the TC; nope, it makes it way too humid and it feels warmer than it actually is. Ugh. Back to the drawing board on how to cool down the TC. (We camp in places where they don't allow generators or only allow them at certain times, and never overnight; so even if we brought a gennie we wouldn't be able to use it overnight, to plug in an air conditioner for example, which is really what we'd need it for - to cool or heat the TC while sleeping.)

What electric stuff do you run in your TC (for comparison's sake)?

So we have right now:
--Electric fridge (about 1-1.5Ah or about 30-35Ah per day we think)
--Lights
--Fantastic Fan
--Misc chargeable items (phone, camera, etc)

I am also curious what other gadgets we can buy to make camping nicer (like a DC-powered coffee maker or stuff like that). It would be great if there were a low-power-consumption electric heater 🙂 As it is, we use a Little Buddy heater (LP) to take the bite off the cold, turn off the heater, and then try to go to sleep really fast. :Z

We have two fantastic fans which do a great job of moving air in the TC on windless days/nights. We swapped all lighting for LED bulbs. 600 watt pure sine inverter for laptops and 120 volt appliances like coffee grinder, chargers, Box fan for outdoor bug and campfire smoke control, also to take the edge off on hot days. We do rely on propane a lot for cooking, water heating, fridge, furnace at 60 degrees for night.
I watched the video of the couple in the popup TC. They are in agreement with me, their 160 watts solar isn't enough. One thing I consider my best modification is the 4 gauge wire off the alternator to the TC batteries for charging. The existing 12 gauge wire will never fully charge due to line loss from length and size of the wire. For a long term situation, alternator charging is a must have. I would recommend a minimum of three biggest batteries like group 31 or 27 you can fit and deep cycle. 3 - 12_volt parallel or 4 - 6_Volt series parallel, whichever you can best fit. I would also have 20 percent more watts solar than amp hours battery the reason being cloudy days and winter summer seasons. You will need more solar in winter with tilting of panels if feasible.
There are lots of things you can do to extend your limited resources of power, water, waste. Instant coffee, baby wipes, disinfecting wipes, towel baths, Flannel sheets in winter are wonderful. Keep an eye on gray and black tank levels. You can dump sink water on ground if dispersed camping or into black tank if it has more room.
Use your imagination to figure out ways of doing things that make your experience better. It adds to the fun and adventure.

[Grit_dog]

jaycocreek wrote:

What electric stuff do you run in your TC (for comparison's sake)?

O2Cool fans/1-10"-12v and two small 5" battery operated.
12V TV
DVD player off of inverter
Engel 40qt Refer/Freezer
Coffee is perked in a glass percolator or single drip

Then a host of things like an Ice Maker etc when we run the generator to charge the batteries..

I have a one year old group 27 to run the TC and a 4 year old group 27 in a wheel well and a 4 year old group 24 in another wheel well with a new AGM 90AH in a smart battery box W-Volt meter for the Engel refrigerator/cell phones/tablets and temperamental stuff..

No solar whatsoever..It works for us and has for years..

So you have 4 batteries and a generator. OP is talking about how to minimize her power needs and expenditure. Hardly relevant
Is the ice maker for ice to cool the swamp cooler water??

[Grit_dog]

jaycocreek wrote:
The secret to a swamp cooler is water temp..Put ice jugs in it and it cools fairly well..when we lived temporarily in Boise the place we had already had a swamp cooler and it didn't really do anything other that move warm air around..So on a 100 degree day I started putting frozen milk jugs full of water in it and it kept the house below 80..

ROFL!

[Grit_dog]

maria_bettina wrote:
I was thinking of removing the connection between the alternator and the TC battery, but now I am not so sure (at least til we have a generator).

Why on earth would you do that? Just to make sure your batteries aren't getting ANY charging while driving? Counter intuitive move, IMO.

[jaycocreek]

You might want to watch this if your interested, about a couple living full time in a popup truck camper..He talks about solar/battery banks etc later in the video..I watch alot of Down2Mob video's.He makes me laugh and has some good informative stuff for overlanding in a 4X4..Power stations/solar/portable solar etc as well as getting stuck alot..LOL

Couple living fulltime in a popup TC.

[jaycocreek]

What electric stuff do you run in your TC (for comparison's sake)?

O2Cool fans/1-10"-12v and two small 5" battery operated.
12V TV
DVD player off of inverter
Engel 40qt Refer/Freezer
Coffee is perked in a glass percolator or single drip

Then a host of things like an Ice Maker etc when we run the generator to charge the batteries..

I have a one year old group 27 to run the TC and a 4 year old group 27 in a wheel well and a 4 year old group 24 in another wheel well with a new AGM 90AH in a smart battery box W-Volt meter for the Engel refrigerator/cell phones/tablets and temperamental stuff..

No solar whatsoever..It works for us and has for years..

[jimh406]

You can buy a dc powered coffee maker, but you can also boil water and use a French press or cup size drip maker too. I use the cup size drip maker with gold permanent filter.

[jaycocreek]

The secret to a swamp cooler is water temp..Put ice jugs in it and it cools fairly well..when we lived temporarily in Boise the place we had already had a swamp cooler and it didn't really do anything other that move warm air around..So on a 100 degree day I started putting frozen milk jugs full of water in it and it kept the house below 80..

[Kayteg1]

For swamp cooler start with getting reliable humidity gauge.
Those coolers works the best at single digit humidity.
With 100-115F 12% outside, we keep our Las Vegas house at 76F, what on average day keeps interior humidity at 50%. But when storm front will bring >20% of humidity, the cooler efficiency drops and >30% it barely gives any relief.
Than my roof coolers have 12" thick pads for heat exchange. What you have in your cooler?

[maria_bettina]

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:
Just to keep it simple. Over the years with two of us and all our toys, laptops running till midnight and furnace till morning. We currently have 210 AH of AGM and 240 watts solar which gets me by for half of the needs I have. To do it right, we need a minimum of 300 AH AGM and 400 watts solar, I also connected 4AWG wire via a constant duty solenoid for no voltage drop, from the alternator to the TC batteries. I also have an AGM vehicle battery so all batteries have similar load, charge characteristics. We do not have a generator. The solar and truck engine alternator handle the charging nicely.

That sounds similar to where we are headed. The factory unfortunately ran a 12AWG wire (maybe it was 10AWG) from the alternator to the TC battery 😕 It seems to be the minimum gauge used for the truck battery we have and from what I read online. We won't rerun the wire now though, so we got what we got.

We ran the swamp cooler over the weekend in the TC; nope, it makes it way too humid and it feels warmer than it actually is. Ugh. Back to the drawing board on how to cool down the TC. (We camp in places where they don't allow generators or only allow them at certain times, and never overnight; so even if we brought a gennie we wouldn't be able to use it overnight, to plug in an air conditioner for example, which is really what we'd need it for - to cool or heat the TC while sleeping.)

What electric stuff do you run in your TC (for comparison's sake)?

So we have right now:
--Electric fridge (about 1-1.5Ah or about 30-35Ah per day we think)
--Lights
--Fantastic Fan
--Misc chargeable items (phone, camera, etc)

I am also curious what other gadgets we can buy to make camping nicer (like a DC-powered coffee maker or stuff like that). It would be great if there were a low-power-consumption electric heater 🙂 As it is, we use a Little Buddy heater (LP) to take the bite off the cold, turn off the heater, and then try to go to sleep really fast. :Z

[Freep]

jaycocreek wrote:
My favorite quote reading about agm batteries and venting.

It always amuses me to tell young whippersnappers how the VW Beetle had their battery inside the cabin, under the back seat. And these were the old style batteries, with caps you could unscrew to check/add water!

Lol

🙂

You have to keep in mind that the person who said that probably suffered brain damage from leaded gasoline.

[Kayteg1]

This is 2000's Mercedes E class

[jaycocreek]

My favorite quote reading about agm batteries and venting.

It always amuses me to tell young whippersnappers how the VW Beetle had their battery inside the cabin, under the back seat. And these were the old style batteries, with caps you could unscrew to check/add water!

Lol