TrailManor Owner's Forum - View Single Post

**Bill** · 06-30-2003, 01:41 PM

Well, clearly it works, as you discovered. And when you have an emergency situation, and need it - well, you need it. And there is nothing dangerous or damaging about the hookup. But you stumbled across the least efficient way to use your tow vehicle's battery power, and you shouldn't plan to make this your default method of operation.

To summarize your post, you had a source of 12-volt power (your tow vehicle's battery), and you used that power to operate some 12-volt appliances (your water pump and the toilet pump). But in between the two, the setup converted 12-volts DC to 115-volts AC (in the inverter), and then converted 115-volts AC back to 12-volts DC (in the converter). Both of these conversions are very inefficient, in the sense that they waste power. For every watt that came out of the battery, probably only half a watt was delivered to the appliances. You handled it well since you hooked it up only when you needed power, and then disconnected it. As a result, not a lot of battery capacity was wasted. Good instincts!

Inverters are horrible - but that is a personal rant of mine, and some people disagree. Using propane in a dry campground is an excellent idea, and everyone will agree with that. So overall, you done good in an uncomfortable situation! Good for you.

The furnace fan is a true power hog - you can't run it long (a few hours) unless you have a good way to recharge your battery. If you had tried to use it with the dual conversion setup you describe, the low-battery cutout would have tripped out pretty quickly. There have been several threads here discussing the furnace fan, as well as threads discussing various ways of recharging the battery - including a good thread on solar power.

The real question is, why did your rig arrive at the campsite with a dead battery? You need to fix that, and we (the group) will be glad to help if you need it.

Bill

06-30-2003, 01:41 PM	#2
Bill Site Team Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine Posts: 10,111	Re: Inverter use while boon docking?? Well, clearly it works, as you discovered. And when you have an emergency situation, and need it - well, you need it. And there is nothing dangerous or damaging about the hookup. But you stumbled across the least efficient way to use your tow vehicle's battery power, and you shouldn't plan to make this your default method of operation. To summarize your post, you had a source of 12-volt power (your tow vehicle's battery), and you used that power to operate some 12-volt appliances (your water pump and the toilet pump). But in between the two, the setup converted 12-volts DC to 115-volts AC (in the inverter), and then converted 115-volts AC back to 12-volts DC (in the converter). Both of these conversions are very inefficient, in the sense that they waste power. For every watt that came out of the battery, probably only half a watt was delivered to the appliances. You handled it well since you hooked it up only when you needed power, and then disconnected it. As a result, not a lot of battery capacity was wasted. Good instincts! Inverters are horrible - but that is a personal rant of mine, and some people disagree. Using propane in a dry campground is an excellent idea, and everyone will agree with that. So overall, you done good in an uncomfortable situation! Good for you. The furnace fan is a true power hog - you can't run it long (a few hours) unless you have a good way to recharge your battery. If you had tried to use it with the dual conversion setup you describe, the low-battery cutout would have tripped out pretty quickly. There have been several threads here discussing the furnace fan, as well as threads discussing various ways of recharging the battery - including a good thread on solar power. The real question is, why did your rig arrive at the campsite with a dead battery? You need to fix that, and we (the group) will be glad to help if you need it. Bill