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Just purchased new waeco and even though all went well camping over the weekend (3 Days ) i am thinking i will need a back up plan for when we go away for a week. We don't keep it in the back of the car it stays in the tent. After some idea's on methods and sources of power.
Run a 2nd battery in the boot for when out day trips so it recharges. Or if 1 battery lasted 3 days another good one charged at home would last the other 3 and you are nearly covered?
Run this while you do lunch on a lead acid or AGM battery. - will cook a proper deep cycle but will charge others fast and allow fridge to pull down to a low temp fast. http://www.christieengineering.com.a...ery%20chargers
depends if someone is at the tent but solar is expensive and easy to steal and bulky to store.
Normal genset and stage charger but it will need to run for hours but you can have fridge on very low temp at same time and it will use very little power from batteries afterwards if you keep it closed.
Can't wait till fuel cells get cheaper - hot water and power without noise. That will be great.
Remember that you don't need to have the battery at full charge when you finish your camping.
So if you have a 120AH batt that can be safely run down to 40AH that's 80AH you can use up. If you're staying 4 days that's 20AH/day you can take from the batt. If you need 60AH/day to run your fridge that means you need an extra 40AH/day from another source - eg. a 150W solar panel.
If you're going for a week you'll need a bigger solar panel or more batteries (or a generator).
when we go away for more than a week we have a 40 lt engel that stays in the car and is used for keeping drinks cold and food for day trips , this is powered buy the second battery in the car and gets opened often during the day
each night it is topped up with refreshments and i turn the fridge down so it uses less power
the second fridge is a 70lt evakool that is half fridgeand half freezer, this runs off a 120ah deep cycle battery ,this is coneccted to the car on the trip there so it is fully charged when we arrive
this fridge sits on a table under the annex of the camper trailer with the battery under the table
the battery is hooked up to a 120 w solar panel that i move a few times a day to follow the sun, we dont try and freeze things in the freezer and only open it a few times a day , this is also turned down each night
everything in the freezer is vacpacked and frozen hard in the big freezer at work
i do take a small generator and charger but have not had to use it and only use the genny for the ice machine for the rums and the ice crucher for the mageritas at night
the only long term power options in a remote camp are solar or a generator. i personally hate the noise of generators when camping (although if i'm remote enough i couldn't give a rats) and when used for 12VDC applications they are usually very inefficient. solar is your best bet to just keep topping up batteries, but you're really only delaying the inevitable as you'll never be able to charge batteries up properly without a heap of panels/power.
have you considered minimising your power draw by simply not freezing stuff and cryovaccing your meat so you just have to keep it cold?
another option is as simple as maybe taking an extra fully charged battery or upping the ante and buying a couple of bigger batteries, say 150Ah. 300Ah at 20Ah/day dropping to 80% capacity (assuming you've looked after your batteries/charging and still get the 300Ah) gives you 12 days worth. economically speaking, if you can get away with it, an extra battery may be cheaper, and is obviously way simpler, than buying some very stealable solar equipment.
btw mr honda, awesome data, you're the first person i know that has actually measured it all properly in the real world.
I still agree with you, a small gennie is required, and probably less weight. BTW, the 80ltr under testing at its coldest freezing was around 30ah per day, however that was in the garage and not with a full load of frozen items. Might run another test when I get some time and put up more accurate figures..
Paddles, no probs, I gathered and posted the info as I had the same issue, I could not find any decent true to life accurate records.
I have been through the whole gig, solar, genie etc, the way I do it these days is I have a BCDC40 ($300 off fleebay)off my alternator to a battery in the back of the cruiser 230 amp agm, it plugs 40 amps if required direct in the battery no matter what the alternator voltage is.
Off that run an 80lt engel combo fridge freezer. Freezer constant -18deg. When the inside cabin gets to 60 deg, it gets down to -11deg at worst, never have a problem with it, runs 24x7
Wherever I go is always in the cruiser anyway so have food drinks on me all the time so gets a charge. Also car runs cool when you are driving rather than leaving it under a hot tarp/ tent etc, always had problems with that on fraser , can be 60 deg in tent or under tarp. Can kick in aircon for quick cool down, draws less power then.
cheers
I have tried to make people aware of 12v to 12v staged chargers before as they are used on campertrailers and vans where there can be long cable runs and a Deep cycle battery on the end . The fact you can put a solar input on some makes them very useful. They aren't cheap and never seem to get much feedback and a enquiry years ago said it was not suitable for marine mounting for a couple of reasons as a bowmount Kota and bowmount battery is often used.
Does it put out much heat? Any fan? .Does it use a battery tem sender? Thanks
Does get warm if on full charge, it runs like a ctek, has variable float modes depending on the amount of power in the battery, does have a fan, I built a battery box and wired it on top
Don't understand what you mean by battery tem sender
I would use it on a boat environment, cannot see a problem as long as it is in a cab or protected area and ventilated
Can take voltage drop input at 9.8 volts and still boost to 14.6 v 40 amp
Thanks everyone for your input, as this is all new to me you all have given me some very good ideas, i suppose it is up to me now to decide which way to go. Won't be doing a 7 day trip until sept hol's so plenty of time to shop around.
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