How long can I boondock without solar or genny?

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mdprowash

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Jul 14, 2015
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Hi! Can someone give me a rough idea of how long my two 6 volts would last in the cool nights of fall? Where you would need heat at night for example.. 45-55 degrees. Fridge running, hot water and maybe a light on from time to time?

Also... how long can two 30# propane tanks last under the same conditions?

Thanks a million!!
 
A lot depends on what else is running (like an inverter) but if you have enough solar they should last to sun up if you are careful.  4 6V's in Series/Parallel would be better  But it depends on how much solar you have.  Others are better at "how much do you need"
 
If running the fan on the onboard furnace, but running the refrigerator, and water heater on propane, the batteries may last one or two nights depending on how warm you kept it in the camper.  The two 30 lb propane cylinders would run the propane furnace, the water heater, and the refrigerator maybe a week or two, again depending on how much you run the furnace, and how often you have the water heater on.
 
Okay... thanks. Yes... everything runs on propane but fan/blower for heat. So.. if conservative.. maybe two days.

I guess more blankets and/or a little buddy heater will buy me another day or two.........
 
mdprowash said:
Okay... thanks. Yes... everything runs on propane but fan/blower for heat. So.. if conservative.. maybe two days.

I guess more blankets and/or a little buddy heater will buy me another day or two.........
Click to expand...

With a Buddy Heater, or similar propane heater, and the frig and water heater on propane  and only some lights, you may get a week or more from the batteries.
 
If you have an oven use it to prepare your evening meal. You could even run the oven in the evening to keep the rv warm. When you go to bed your place will be toasty without any use of 12 volt.  Turn off the oven upon retiring and empty your bladder before retiring. A solar night light may be in order as well. The less you run the furnace the better
 
You might want to look into getting catalytic heater. Compared to typical RV furnaces, they only sip propane, and they consume no RV battery power. Ours is an 18,000 BTU unit, but you can get smaller units. They can run off those little disposable propane bottles, and many can be plumbed to run off the propane in your RV's tank. Ours runs off our propane tank and it's so effective that the only time we need to fire up our Aquahot system is when it's really cold. They're indoor safe - just leave a window or vent cracked.

Kev
 
Top off the propane tanks and get some solar battery lanterns and use the propane "buddy" heaters and you will find you don't need batteries... but add a little hundred watt solar kit from harbor freight (150 on sale) and you can keep a battery running quite a bit longer.
 
darsben said:
If you have an oven use it to prepare your evening meal. You could even run the oven in the evening to keep the rv warm. When you go to bed your place will be toasty without any use of 12 volt.  Turn off the oven upon retiring and empty your bladder before retiring. A solar night light may be in order as well. The less you run the furnace the better
Click to expand...

Using cooking appliances for heat is very poor advice, due to the Carbon Monoxide produced. These appliances should only be used for their intended purpose, with adequate ventilation.
 
emjaybee77 said:
Top off the propane tanks and get some solar battery lanterns and use the propane "buddy" heaters and you will find you don't need batteries... but add a little hundred watt solar kit from harbor freight (150 on sale) and you can keep a battery running quite a bit longer.
Click to expand...

Harbor Freight is the last place to purchase solar. Their 100 watt ?kit? is four heavy 25-watt panels. For the same price, you can buy a real 100-watt panel and charge controller.
 
Why not try it in your yard or rv park without hooking.up to give you a better idea. Not all things are equal and I know our batteries at 3 years old are not performing as well as they used to.

Just an idea....
 
For about $100,  you can get a HF 1000watt generator and run that during the day to recharge your batteries.
 
mdprowash said:
I guess more blankets and/or a little buddy heater will buy me another day or two.........
Click to expand...
Beware that even "ventless" heaters emit a small amount of CO. If you use a buddy heater, leave a window cracked. Actually, unless it has an exhaust duct, leave a window cracked with any heater and make sure your CO detector works.

On a slightly different note, has anybody looked into those low PPM CO monitors? Supposedly 5 PPM of CO, which is too low for the average monitor to recognize,  can start to effect brain activity, but it takes something like 20 hours of exposure.
 
Mr. Buddy heaters don?t work above 7000? or so. The lesser amount of oxygen at the higher elevations triggers the oxygen depletion sensor. There is some variation in the elevation though with individual units. When we had a 17? Casita trailer, we could go two days on a battery with LED lights, control of a propane refrigerator, control of a water heater, and heat in the morning. At night we just used heavier blankets. Note that amount of time was to 50% of battery capacity, not battery exhaustion. Going below 50% will kill batteries.

And I second the recommendation to try it in your driveway first.
 
SeilerBird said:
The batteries would last about two hours, if  you were lucky.
Click to expand...

I've got 2 GC-2's in my coach.  I only run the rear furnace at night(why heat the front of the coach, right?), run the fridge on propane and leave the water heater running and still have enough juice to crank the generator in the morning when it's time for coffee without using the jump start switch.  Maybe you needed new batteries?
 
Lowell said:
For about $100,  you can get a HF 1000watt generator and run that during the day to recharge your batteries.
Click to expand...

Only if you don't have any neighbors, please!  And if you don't mind listening to the sound of a two cycle chainsaw engine running flat out.

You can get a quiet inverter generator for not much more.  I'd buy one but my 20 year old Honda EU1000i still runs fine.

Sportsman 1000 watt inverter generator

 
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