RV Update Planning

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Evan came over this morning so we could do some battery bank planning.  We turned on the furnace to warm up the motorhome and it would not stay on.  So, we were side tracked immediately.

Evan pulled out the igniter unit and moved the two igniter prongs closer together and put it back in.  The heating unit looked brand new as if the furnace had never been used.  Since it is a southern Texas motorhome, probably didn’t get much use.

Started it up and it worked fine.  Hopefully, that was the problem.  Time will tell.  Now back to planning!

The current set up allows the AC power to only work when plugged into shore power or the generator is running.  When neither of these are used, all the 120 volt (AC) outlets and appliances such as the TV have no power.

The plan is to add a Whistler Pro 3,000W Power Inverter (converts DC current to AC) near the battery bay and to replace the two house batteries.  I purchased 5 Duracell® AGM Deep Cycle Marine and RV Battery - Group Size 31DTMAGM from Sam’s Club that will supply the inverter with 12 volt power.  Total cost of $985.  Five 12 volt batteries should give us approximately 520 amp hours when connected in parallel.  That equates to approximately 50 hours at 10 amps.  Not much but hopefully enough for our needs. 

The motorhome already has a 65 watt converter (battery charger) installed and we cannot run the converter and inverter at the same time.  The shore power and generator automatically run the converter to charge the batteries so we will need to bypass the converter when using the inverter. 

The plan is to run an output electric cord from the inverter to a 30 amp plug in receptacle and place it in the same bay as the converter next to the plug in for the converter.  To keep the converter and inverter from being used at the same time it will work this way:

1. Shore power available – Plug 30 amp shore line cable into shore power and plug in the converter.
2. Shore power not available – Plug 30 amp shore line cable into the inverter output plug in and unplug the converter.

I ordered the inverter today from Walmart.com and hopefully soon we will start wiring it up.  Total cost $245.

Ended the day by ordering a Trimetric TM-2025-RV 12-48 Volt Battery Monitor System and a Deltec MKB-500-50, 500 Amp 50 mv Current Shunt from Northern Arizona Wind & Sun .  Total cost $194.  The monitor measures voltage, amperage used percentage of battery used.  The shunt collects the information used by the monitor.

Saturday, December 7, 2013 Update

We have finished the above updates and things seem to be working well.  It is so cold out (6 degrees) that I have not had the opportunity to test the new boon docking set up in a real environment  Evan did an excellent job of putting all the parts together. 

I hope to test the system before our venture starts at the end of the month, but may have to do it on the road.  My hope is to be able to spend a couple days without hook ups and have access to TV and heat along with keeping all our computer equipment plugged in and charged.