All electric coach

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

THEWBJE

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2007
Posts
15
Location
High Desert, CA
I am considering a 2013 all electric Tour.  Residential fridge and induction stove top and 100 watt solar panel.  I boondock often.  The salesmen tell me I can go for a couple days without using the generator to top off the batteries.  Does anyone have any real world experience with this system?  How much electricity will the induction stove use?    Thanks
 
A couple of days????  I don't think so!!! A 100 watt panel (8 amp max output at 12V) is not much, especially if the Sun is not co-operating or you park somewhat in the shade. Most panels have to (and do) put out more than 12 V though as you cannot charge a battery with 12V, needs at least 13.5 or so  which means less amps!!

You know what they say about these salesmen: If their lips are moving they are lying. Ask him what personal experience he has with this!!
 
We have a semi-electric 2012 Tuscany with six house batteries and I was a little disappointed in the battery draw with the residential refrigerator over just one night.

That being said, a salesman is not who you want to listen to.

Lots of people on this forum have far more experience with just what you are talking about and will probably advise you that you just have a math problem. How much electricity do you use across how many hours and what are your batteries capable of producing? It's going to vary widely, but you should be able to ballpark it with their information and your own research on what your equipment draws.

It's a balancing act but certainly doable with some data and experience. Enjoy the learning experience!

 
I have merged your duplicate topics so the replies will be in one location.  There is no need to ask the same question in more than one section of the forum.
 
Ask the salesperson to put that in writing with a stiff penalty attached. No how, no way.

Ken
 
The Tour will have four AGM house batteries.  Having boondocked many times with a propane cook top (but no solar) I would have to run the gen set about four hours a day minimum.  With an all electric coach and a 100 watt solar panel, I'll guess you will need to run the gen set four to six hours a day.  The determining factor is the wattage of your solar array. 

If you had maybe 400 watts of solar (I now have 290 watts of solar and a residential fridge), you might get by running the gen set for a couple of hours first thing every morning to give the house bank a large current bump.

In summary, your salesman is off his nut, stop listening to him.
 
Our coach still has a propane cooktop, but residential frig. Our frig is much more efficient than the side by side that most RV manufacturers are using. We have 550 watts of solar and a 765 amp battery bank. When boondocking we do not run the gen the first day,  but run it an average of 2hrs on subsequent days. Our inverter charges at 130 amps. We only charge to about 90% because after that the charge rate drops and it takes too much time to "top off" the batteries and with the 765 amp battery capacity it really isn't necessary.

We plan on getting rid of the propane and going with electric induction cooktop, but I don't think that will change the charging time as we will probably only use the cooktop while running the gen.

BTW, ask this salesman how well the True Induction cooktop that Winnebago uses actually cooks. I ask because it is a 120 volt model and has two 900 watt burners. Most stand along (portable) Induction cooktop you see at RV shows are 1800 for a single burner. Tiffin uses a Summit model SIN2220, which per Summit is 220 volt only, but it has high output burners (only issue I have here is what happens when you are on 30amp service?).

ken
 
Tiffin uses a Summit model SIN2220, which per Summit is 220 volt only, but it has high output burners (only issue I have here is what happens when you are on 30amp service?).

You run the generator if you want to cook.  I have an acquaintance that has a residential 220v electric range/over in his coach (it's a Prevost) and that's what he does. Ditto when he needs to run the 220v clothes dryer. The diesel generator made barely a hum, so hardly anyone knew when he did it anyway.
 
I talked to Summit and their advice was to use two 120 volt single burner units (1500watts). I need to check the space to see if I can fit two, if so I probably wire one to the main panel and one to the Inverter sub-panel - just in case we want to use the inverter for some reason. On 30 amp we will be limited to using just one, but that's OK.

 
If you are planning to boondock with a total electric RV, plan to listen to your generator often.

I used to boondock often and nothing beats SILENT propane for cooking, fridge, and hot water when needed.  Then your solar panel just has to keep up the battery so you can have some lights at night and the propane fridge will draw some 12volt too.

If you switch to the LED light bulbs in your coach, then they will draw a lot less than the regular 12 volt bulbs.
 
Aw, come on - have some pity on that poor salesman.  He was probably thinking about getting your meals from the corner burger joint or waiting for the taco truck to swing by while you're boondocking - just like he does when he's on the job.

If all you're running are some lights and the refrigerator, then yes indeed, you can go a couple of days on just the charge in 4 batteries.  ;)
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
131,753
Posts
1,384,359
Members
137,524
Latest member
freetoroam
Back
Top Bottom