Motorhome DC System Question

[evil_henchman]

I have a 30 amp charger/converter in my rig with one measly house battery and no inverter. Since boondocking will likely be 90+% of my use, I need to do something about that. I already have solar panels (150w Siemens), and an inverter (2.5 Kw Trace Engineering U2512 w/o charger option).

Would there be much advantage to upgrading to a higher rated charger/converter?

I plan on installing up to 3 pairs of 6V batteries and I have an 4 Kw generator. I'm looking hard at the PD9280 (80 amp) but I've heard that the converter makes noise (the electrical type, RF in particular).

I would appreciate any opinions on various models. Thanks!

 

[dcarver]

I have a 30 amp charger/converter in my rig with one measly house battery and no inverter. Since boondocking will likely be 90+% of my use, I need to do something about that. I already have solar panels (150w Siemens), and an inverter (2.5 Kw Trace Engineering U2512 w/o charger option).
Would there be much advantage to upgrading to a higher rated charger/converter?

I plan on installing up to 3 pairs of 6V batteries and I have an 4 Kw generator. I'm looking hard at the PD9280 (80 amp) but I've heard that the converter makes noise (the electrical type, RF in particular).

I would appreciate any opinions on various models. Thanks!

1 wimpy house battery won't work. 3 pairs of 6 volt batteries should do the trick. My camper runs 2 deep cycle 12vdc batteries in addition to the two 12vdc truck batteries. That I plan to change; don't want to drain the truck batteries from running the inverter too long.My question to you is around the inverter.. I've always thought that an inverter took 12vdc and make 110vac. A converter takes 110vac and makes 12vdc? If you have 4kw ginnie, that should power a converter that would charge your house batteries and run the 12vdc systems (fridge, radio, etc) as well as power the AC stuff (tv, blender, wifes hair dryer).

I will say this; my inverter (12vdc --> 110vac) is large enough to power the satellite receiver and flat screen, but not enough to power the gfriends hair dryer. Should have bought bigger, but $$ count. I have a true sine-wave inverter; no lines on the tv or hum noise.

I wish I had your 4kw ginnie. I'm running a 2.5kw Onan Lite and it's underpowered to run the AC unit when batteries need charging and the fridge needs cooling.

Did this diatribe help?

 

[evil_henchman]

Did this diatribe help?

Well it didn't hurt

You're correct that an inverter is 12V DC to 120V AC. A converter does the opposite. Most inverters installed in RV's have the converter/charger built in and are oversized (up to 150 amps) to handle the inrush when charging battery banks. RV's that don't have the inverter factory installed (like mine) have stand alone converter/chargers and are sized for one house battery. I'm sure my generator would charge a battery bank but with 30 amps max it would take all day and then some. I'm trying to get an idea how much quicker a bigger charger would do the job.

My inverter isn't true sine wave but it's about as clean as a modified sine can get and since the TV and everything feeding it is 12V straight from the batteries, it's not an issue. It was on a commercial solar system which is why the converter/charger option wasn't installed but the price was right (free). :good: