Mashurst
Adventurer
Mostly I just wanted to share what I am doing with the community. Most systems seem to be a good bit more complicated. I’m open to any feedback on how I could have set it up better if you see anything.
This system lives in the bed of my truck under a shell and is more or less permanently installed, but it can be removed if needed. The main job is to keep the fridge running when we are camped. The battery is quite large for the application. I might have gone with a smaller battery but 100Ah seems like where you need to go to get decent features… Bluetooth and heaters in this case.
100Ah will run the fridge for at least two days under worst-case conditions. So far, it has lasted more like five days in the testing I have done at home. We rarely spend two nights in one place on a trip, so driving keeps the batteries charged without needing the extra complexity and weight of solar.
The water system is my next project, so I don’t have good data on the draw pump yet but I expect the 1.2 GPM 35 PSI Diaphragm Pump will empty the 15G tank without having a measurable impact on the available battery… Napkin math says with 15 gallons at 1.2 GPM it will run for only twelve and half minutes per camp site before needing to drive to refill. If the flow is reduced due to restrictions to say 1gpm, I’m still only seeing fifteen minutes of run time per camp. So estimating the pump will pull around 1 amp, we are only talking about a quarter of an Ah per camp site.
I suppose I may add some LED camp lights or something like that in the future. Again, I don’t see them ever being much of a problem from a current draw stand point.
I also use an HF ham radio from this system sometimes, and while it could potentially be a significant draw on paper, the way I use it, I don’t do a lot of transmitting. The radio uses 20.5A when transmitting and 2A while listening. So again, a little napkin math shows that maybe being 4Ah/h and I don’t see being on the radio for more than an hour-ish per campsite.
This system lives in the bed of my truck under a shell and is more or less permanently installed, but it can be removed if needed. The main job is to keep the fridge running when we are camped. The battery is quite large for the application. I might have gone with a smaller battery but 100Ah seems like where you need to go to get decent features… Bluetooth and heaters in this case.
100Ah will run the fridge for at least two days under worst-case conditions. So far, it has lasted more like five days in the testing I have done at home. We rarely spend two nights in one place on a trip, so driving keeps the batteries charged without needing the extra complexity and weight of solar.
The water system is my next project, so I don’t have good data on the draw pump yet but I expect the 1.2 GPM 35 PSI Diaphragm Pump will empty the 15G tank without having a measurable impact on the available battery… Napkin math says with 15 gallons at 1.2 GPM it will run for only twelve and half minutes per camp site before needing to drive to refill. If the flow is reduced due to restrictions to say 1gpm, I’m still only seeing fifteen minutes of run time per camp. So estimating the pump will pull around 1 amp, we are only talking about a quarter of an Ah per camp site.
I suppose I may add some LED camp lights or something like that in the future. Again, I don’t see them ever being much of a problem from a current draw stand point.
I also use an HF ham radio from this system sometimes, and while it could potentially be a significant draw on paper, the way I use it, I don’t do a lot of transmitting. The radio uses 20.5A when transmitting and 2A while listening. So again, a little napkin math shows that maybe being 4Ah/h and I don’t see being on the radio for more than an hour-ish per campsite.
