This is my first post here and I just wanted to give you all an idea that I have been using now for almost 4 months.
What I did was I bought 36 marine deep cycle batteries, I bought them all from tractor supply because they had the best deal and the highest amp hour for the money. I paid 86.00 a piece for them. I put them into a custom box and ran them all in parallel. I have 2 inverters, a cheap piece of junk harbor freight 2000-4000 watt ( I don't recommend these as they are not efficient 60% ?? whatsoever) and a high quality one I bought on ebay for 129.00. This one is a 3000-6000 and its fantastic. Its efficiency is 90%. Anyways what I done was I added these 36 batteries and run them into my 3000 watt inverter and I have a commercial grade charger that puts out 45 amps. I put the negative at one end of the bank of batts and the positive at the other end and the inverter and charger see them as one big battery. I run a 10,500 btu a/c unit, a 10' chest freezer, 2 full sized refridgerators and a 55" plasma screen tv off of them 24/7. By doing this it costs me 130 watts of electric being pulled from the grid but in turn getting back from my bank a full 2960 watts powering my appliances. Its been really nice and I have a very small whisper quiet generator I bought from Northern Tool for 130.00. Its a four cycle honda cloned genset that is rated for 2000 watts. I can run for up to 9 hours on just a gallon of gas and still be able to charge my bank of batteries using the 45 amp charger. I basicly get 2960 watts of power for the cost of 130 watts either by way of grid or genset. Just thought you all might wanna try this as it is up and working fantastic for me.
Also my electric bill has dropped like a rock from this whole deal and should continue for at least the next 5 years. I went from 380.00-400 a month to under 100.00 a month for the past 4 months.
-- Edited by kingtut210 on Saturday 5th of February 2011 04:57:19 PM
Terry and Jo said
09:42 PM Feb 5, 2011
If this is in your RV, I guess I have a couple of questions. Where did you put all the appliances and TV that you are running and how much does all of that stuff weigh? I would think that you have more than exceeded the weight limitations of your RV.
If this is NOT in your RV, how could it possibly be relevant to those of us who have RV's and live in them full time? Just counting the batteries, 36 batteries would take up more space than most RV basements would even have.
Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 5th of February 2011 09:44:57 PM
Paul and Jo said
10:42 PM Feb 5, 2011
kingtut210 wrote:
What I did was I bought 36 marine deep cycle batteries, I bought them all from tractor supply because they had the best deal and the highest amp hour for the money.
I agree with Terry. Where the heck would you put those?
Besides, if you are RVing, you must be boondocking because, electricity at campgrounds never costs the amounts you are quoting.
And, if you are boondocking, you must have a 5 bedroom triple-wide RV because, even when I lived in a five bedroom sticks and bricks in Orlando, my electricity bill was never more than $200 a month, even in the Summer!
Just wondering where you are coming from!
Racerguy said
11:31 PM Feb 5, 2011
Was wondering the same thing but didn't want to seem rude to a new poster.That's approximately 2000lbs alone just for batteries.
LifeBeganInaWinnebago said
09:56 AM Feb 6, 2011
Sounds a little too good to be true. I would like to see some pictures of that set-up. I'm not sure how 2960 watts runs all those appliances 24-7.
kingtut210 said
10:05 AM Feb 6, 2011
Im sorry I guess I should have posted its in my home and not really in a camper. I have 20 acres here in Kissimmee and I have 2 campers on the property that are lived in full time. I also have a double wide mobile home here as well. I have them powering my appliances and If I knew how to place a photo of the whole deal on here I would. I was posting it here just as a way to get feedback on anyways I could improve on the setup and just provide some inside thoughts on how it could be implamented into an rv.
If there is a way to ost a photo on here I would be willing to do it. I have photos of it on my facebook page.
BruceandTrisha said
06:01 PM Feb 6, 2011
On a much, much, much smaller scale, this is how we had electricity for our tent one summer. We needed to run our laptops and fill up our mattress - so we used a deep cell battery and inverter. We recharged it by hooking it up to our car battery when we ran errands. It was a great answer for us - and it worked beautifully.
What I did was I bought 36 marine deep cycle batteries, I bought them all from tractor supply because they had the best deal and the highest amp hour for the money. I paid 86.00 a piece for them. I put them into a custom box and ran them all in parallel. I have 2 inverters, a cheap piece of junk harbor freight 2000-4000 watt ( I don't recommend these as they are not efficient 60% ?? whatsoever) and a high quality one I bought on ebay for 129.00. This one is a 3000-6000 and its fantastic. Its efficiency is 90%. Anyways what I done was I added these 36 batteries and run them into my 3000 watt inverter and I have a commercial grade charger that puts out 45 amps. I put the negative at one end of the bank of batts and the positive at the other end and the inverter and charger see them as one big battery. I run a 10,500 btu a/c unit, a 10' chest freezer, 2 full sized refridgerators and a 55" plasma screen tv off of them 24/7. By doing this it costs me 130 watts of electric being pulled from the grid but in turn getting back from my bank a full 2960 watts powering my appliances. Its been really nice and I have a very small whisper quiet generator I bought from Northern Tool for 130.00. Its a four cycle honda cloned genset that is rated for 2000 watts. I can run for up to 9 hours on just a gallon of gas and still be able to charge my bank of batteries using the 45 amp charger. I basicly get 2960 watts of power for the cost of 130 watts either by way of grid or genset. Just thought you all might wanna try this as it is up and working fantastic for me.
Also my electric bill has dropped like a rock from this whole deal and should continue for at least the next 5 years. I went from 380.00-400 a month to under 100.00 a month for the past 4 months.
-- Edited by kingtut210 on Saturday 5th of February 2011 04:57:19 PM
If this is NOT in your RV, how could it possibly be relevant to those of us who have RV's and live in them full time? Just counting the batteries, 36 batteries would take up more space than most RV basements would even have.
Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Saturday 5th of February 2011 09:44:57 PM
Besides, if you are RVing, you must be boondocking because, electricity at campgrounds never costs the amounts you are quoting.
And, if you are boondocking, you must have a 5 bedroom triple-wide RV because, even when I lived in a five bedroom sticks and bricks in Orlando, my electricity bill was never more than $200 a month, even in the Summer!
Just wondering where you are coming from!